Hotwire Hotel: Areas on maps not showing as before

[John and Tami]

(FYI)

Hi, I've used this site and Hotwire many times for Chicagoland hotels. Though I generally stay downtown, I always check out what is available in Naperville/Lisle since I used to live there and Oak Brook because parking is so easy & it's a simple drive into the city. I am searching for April 3 (which I already reported to the board) and April 4 or 4/5. I noticed that Naperville/Lisle area comes up "dark" on the hotwire map, meaning there are no hotels in my star rating (4 or 5). But just last night I saw 3 nice hotels in that zone. So I typed in Naperville as the city, and voila there were all the choices again with Naperville/Lisle showing as "green", as well as the 4.5 for Naperville (probably Arista). Check it out...

[thereuare]

It looks like HOTWIRE is considering Naperville to be too far outside of 'Dowtnown' Chicago to show hotel offers in this area when searching for 'Chicago'.

 

Likewise, when searching for 'Naperville' you won't see any offers for 'downtown' chicago (ie- no NMA, Water Tower, Loop, etc)

 

Until HOTWIRE changes their algorithm to include Lisle-Naperville in the 'core' Chicago area you'll have to do two separate searches.

 

Please remember to return to BetterBidding and use the PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links on the board to begin your travel purchases... or thru our sister site MAPSandHOTELS.com for your regular rate purchases.

[John and Tami]

I understand. I wanted to report the change to the board. Previously, as recently as my last search there in December, I think, Naperville was considered Chicago.

[thereuare]

Thanks for the info... likely somewhere down the road it may be included once again within Chicago.  It's difficult to create algorithms to know a user's intention when they search... if you expand a 10 mile search radius from the location entered, it may be much too much information in an urban area such as NYC where zones are small... and not nearly enough information for a more rural area like Tulsa where zones are geographically much larger.  It becomes an art form of  trying to determine the user's intention and showing them just the right amount of information.