Hotwire Hotel: 2.5* Houston (Clear Lake-NASA-Kema) Quality Inn

[grram1]

Had multiple failed Priceline bids for a 2.5* in the same area ranging from $35-$48. We "won" the Quality Inn NASA through Hotwire for $52/night... problem is you can book the same room directly through choicehotels.com for $49.50/night... for a flexible, fully refundable rate nonetheless!?!?!?! :)

I have already sent Hotwire an e-mail requesting a cancellation (which I KNOW they won't grant... I just want them to know just how upset I am at this "win"... honestly, had this been my first Hotwire experience I would definitely NEVER have used them again). I also asked for the "double the difference" guarantee if they won't cancel for me. Bottom line is the total price I paid was $28.63 MORE THAN THE DIRECT RATE ($284.63, including taxes)... even assuming everything goes well with the "double the difference" guarantee I'll still only get a refund of $25 (since Hotwire doesn

[grram1]

type-o correction... I paid $23.68 more than the direct rate... not "$28.63"... doesn't really change the story, just wanted to be accurate.

[grram1]

As expected all we were able to swing was to enforce the "double the difference" guarantee (which, after fees netted us a whopping 25 cents/night savings). To make things worse this was, by far, the nastiest hotel we'd ever managed to "win"... it deserves a 1 star... not even close to the advertised 2.5* rating hotwire assigned it. The room was relatively clean... but the odor of musk/mold was overwhelming... not only in our room, but even in the lobby! The shower curtain had lots of mold on it and it took several requests to finally get it replaced. It was so bad that we actually attempted to book another room at a better place and simply forfeit our room at the Quality Inn... unfortunately the hotels we wanted to book only had single-bed rooms (and we have children traveling with us). Anyhow, if this had been one of my first opaque booking experiences it would also have been my last... fortunately the rest of the trip yielded much nicer properties.