Hotwire Hotel: Need advice please - 4* Asheville (Central) 6/6-6/8

[hopeland]

I thnk I have a pretty good handle on the hotel situation here but I just wanted to seek advice also.

 

Here's the deal.  Staying in Asheville 6/6-6/8.  Looking at the 4 star level in Asheville (Central) and here's what I find.

 

Note:  All searches conducted with BiddingHelper as always.

 

Searching for 6/6 for 1 night only - $214-$218

Hotel amenities listed are:

1. Free Internet
2. Resort
3. Pet friendly
4. Suite
5. Boutique Hotel
6. Indoor pool(s)
7. Smoke Free Rooms
8. Fitness Center
9. Pool(s)
10. Business Center
11. Internet access
12. Golf Nearby
13. Tennis Nearby
14. Spa Services
15. In-room accessibility
16. Wheelchair accessible

This is I think is an exact match for the Grove Park and the comments back that up.

 

Searching for 6/7 for 1 night only - $245-$250 or so with Amenity List:

1. Free Parking
2. Free Internet
3. Pet friendly
4. Boutique Hotel
5. Smoke Free Rooms
6. Fitness Center
7. Restaurant(s)
8. Business Center
9. Internet access
10. Golf Nearby
11. Tennis Nearby
12. Accessible for the blind
13. Accessible for the deaf
14. Accessible path of travel
15. In-room accessibility
16. Accessible bathroom
17. Handicapped parking
18. Roll-in shower

Match for Hotel Indigo.

 

Searching for 6/6 for 2 nights becomes $254-257 or so with amenities:

1. Free Internet       
2. Pet friendly        
3. Boutique Hotel      
4. Smoke Free Rooms    
5. Fitness Center      
6. Business Center     
7. Internet access     
8. Golf Nearby         
9. Tennis Nearby       
10. In-room accessibility

Probably the Grove Park also, though strange that the amenity list is different.  The reviews sound like they're from the Grove Park too.

 

I guess my first question is "Does Hotwire ever enforce minimum stay requirements?  The Grove Park seems to be enforcing a 2 night stay for Saturday on the GDSs and retail sites and The Grove Park is not available on Hotwire for a Sat night stay.

 

The reason that I'm asking is that I'm thinking of purchasing the Friday night first and then seeing about using the Extend Your Stay option after purchase.

 

I guess there is a risk that that might not work, but the backup would be to pick up the Hotel Indigo for the following night, which isn't terrible.

 

 

[yellowdog]

The reason that I'm asking is that I'm thinking of purchasing the Friday night first and then seeing about using the Extend Your Stay option after purchase.

This is usually not a good idea. In most cases you need to get the most expensive night first to get the cheaper one. The reason for the difference in price is that the hotel has more bookings for Saturday night.

 

HOTWIRE doesn't have any 2 night minimum, but hotels could always load rates requiring a minimum nite purchase.

 

Let us know how you want to play this and we'll go from there.

 

Thanx for using boards HOTWIRE and PRICELINE links

 

Yellowdog.

[thereuare]

Probably the Grove Park also, though strange that the amenity list is different.

Sometimes the same hotel can appear with different amenities from one search to the next, but in your example above when i ran each search for your dates, i'm fairly certain that the hotels i'm seeing are different.

HOWEVER, i am able to get the 4* hotel with 16 amenities showing to appear for 6/6-6/8 when changing the search criteria to 2adults/1child.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board.

Let us know what you decide and how it goes or if we can be of further help.

[hopeland]

This is usually not a good idea. In most cases you need to get the most expensive night first to get the cheaper one. The reason for the difference in price is that the hotel has more bookings for Saturday night.

 

HOTWIRE doesn't have any 2 night minimum, but hotels could always load rates requiring a minimum nite purchase.

 

Yellowdog.

Thanks Yellowdog-  I have split Hotwire bookings before when I've seen that the sum of the individual nights are cheaper than both nights booked together.  I haven't figured out a pattern to how Hotwire prices nights loaded with different rates, i.e. whether it takes the most expensive night or  if it averages out the nights. 

 

Of course that's a moot point since the hotel is not available on Sat. night via Hotwire.  Therefore I can't really make separate bookings, I would have to rely on Extend Your Stay.  I have definitely seen Extend Your Stay offered where the price of the additional night(s) is higher than the original booking.  But my biggest concern was the possibility of not getting an Extend Your Stay option at all due to the fact that the hotel imposed a min. night stay requirement.

 

But I have a fallback plan in that I could pick up the other hotel if the Extend Your Stay doesn't work.

 

Sometimes the same hotel can appear with different amenities from one search to the next, but in your example above when i ran each search for your dates, i'm fairly certain that the hotels i'm seeing are different.

HOWEVER, i am able to get the 4* hotel with 16 amenities showing to appear for 6/6-6/8 when changing the search criteria to 2adults/1child.

Thanks for using the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board.

Let us know what you decide and how it goes or if we can be of further help.

 

Thanks thereuare.  I swear that when I searched last night, the reviews of the 10 amenity hotel matched those of the 16 amenity hotel.  Some of them were the exact same.  But when I just searched this AM, the reviews matched the 18 amenity hotel instead.  So I was thoroughly confused.  But ... I just figured something out...

 

Important Observation:  The list of 10 amenities are exactly the common amenities between the list of 16 and the list of 18.  So I don't think that there is a 3rd hotel involved.  That would be way too big of a coincidence.  Maybe it's randomly picking one or the other when you search?  Maybe this is the latest Hotwire experiment?

 

Also thanks for the suggestion for searching by 2 adults/1 child.  That works but it does drive the price up.  I already have backup res at the Grove Park.  After the Hotwire fees and taxes are added, that deal wouldn't yield significant savings over my current res.

 

I'll keep you posted with what I decide.

[AaronJB]

Thank you for keeping us updated with what you decide and let us know if you have additional questions.

 

You can also see the hotels reported to the board here: Hotwire Hotel List North Carolina.

 

Thank you for using the board's HOTWIRE or PRICELINE links to start your purchases and searches.

[hopeland]

After doing the math, it doesn't look like the savings will be significant enough to justify the risk in the approach I was leaning towards.  This is mostly due to the Hotwire fees, which for some reason for the "Grove Park" listing are pretty exorbitant, totaling $72/night without the resort fees.   The fees for the "Hotel Indigo" listing are lower even though the base rate is higher. 

 

Also my backup reservation includes a couple of meais, diminishing the savings via Hotwire even further.

 

So I'm probably giving this up for now.  If the price drops considerably then I will reconsider and report at that time.  But I'm not expecting that to happen due to the fact that this appears to be a high occupancy weekend.

 

If nothing else, the discovery about the "common amenities" listing that I described earlier may prove to be useful.  We'll have to see if that crops up anywhere else.

 

Thanks for the help!

[yellowdog]

Thanx for the follow-up and closing this thread.

If you decide to go with HOTWIRE or PRICELINE so just update this thread.

Thanx for using boards HOTWIRE links

Yellowdog.