Hotwire Hotel: 3* St. Louis (Downtown) Radisson

[zbenye]

Amenity icons: Restaurant, Pool, Fitness

According to the amenities, I was expecting to get the Mayfair hotel (as per the amenities shown for this hotel in Packages). The Hotwire results page showed both what was supposedly the Mayfair, and what was supposedly the Radisson (in Packages: Restaurant, Pool, Fitness, Hi-Speed Internet, Laundry), so imagine my surprise (and disappointment). Sadly, this shows that the amenity icons, and comparison with Packages, cannot be trusted.

Just a short moment after booking this for $37, I repeated the same search. This time the supossed Radisson did not show up, and the one I had booked for $37, became $38. Nuts.

In any event, this beat Priceline, who rejected bids up to $37.

Radisson Hotel & Suites St Louis Downtown (Midscale)

200 North Fourth St.

Saint Louis, MO 63102

No. Rooms: 1

No. Nights: 3

Price Per Night: $37.00

Subtotal: $111.00

Taxes / Booking Fees: $22.95

Total Price: $133.95

[thereuare]

Zbenye,

Sorry this one didn't work out for you.

We have seen before where the Vacation Product amenities don't match the Hotel Product amenities, but i would guess that they're the same better than 90% of the time... so there is some value in keeping the lists (and why we've kept them separate, moving properties from the Vacation list to the Hotel list once they've been confirmed with a purchase).

But as my statistics professor would say, "Take all the odds and probabilities you want.... on any give event it will be 0 or 1" (meaing that if you guess the hotel correctly it's "1", if you guess incorrectly it's "0", and even though you had a 90% chance going into it, unfortunately 90% of your stay won't be at the Mayfair and 10% of your stay at the Radisson)

I have said in similar instances when this has occured that Hotwire really cheapens their product when they change the amenities from one prodcut to the next. What consumers want in just about everything they buy is consistency, and this is especially important when buying an opaque product. Offering the same product with different descriptions deteriorates their reputation. They should take a lesson from a little hamburger chain called McDonalds that became a global powerhouse by focusing on one thing... consistantcy. When McDonald's was just starting out they had a reputation that no matter where you were, a McDonalds would have a clean bathroom and a hamburger that tasted just like the one at your local McDonalds.

[zbenye]

Remember to place the Radisson on the confirmed hotwire STL list.

[thereuare]

Thanks for staying on me.

I'm actually on a little visiting-family-vacation (an oxymoron? :) ) and it's hard to take care of all of the board follow-up on this old laptop with a dial-up connection; so i'm just making sure titles are correct and all of the information is supplied, i'll then update the lists when i return this weekend.

PS- my family we're visiting are actually great, they're great hosts, and we all get along :)