Why "Retail Price" for a Hotel Is Meaningless - and what to

[dc3]

I reserved a Hotwire property where the price was $179 and the "Retail Price" is listed as "$320 - save 42%!". Except when I paid and was told where it was, I went to the hotel's site and the rack rate was $220. So I called 1-800-hotwire and asked about it. He told me that they get a lot of complaints about this and he agreed with me. The "retail price" is not - wait for this - the actual retail price but the estimated price for a property with the star rating of a place in that area. However, this is the only place with that star rating (3.5*) in the area (small district). So the retail price is not the retail price. He offered me 25 hot Dollars and said it was really not enough, did I want to speak to a supervisor. But of course. Same story - "the retail price" is not the retail price but an average of prices of places which only the computer knows about. But this got better. I was given a choice of cancelling at no charge or $150 hot Dollars. So the lesson:

1) Be guided by the amenities and star rating, not "retail price". But write down the retail price for comparison later

2) If you do buy it, check the retail price on the hotel web site immediately against what you wrote down as their claimed retail price.

3) If the actual retail price is higher than the Hotwire claim, call Hotwire and complain to a supervisor.

4) Collect your dollars for the next trip or cancel it and go to Priceline. Where they also lie about retail prices.

5) Campaign for accurate price claims.

[AaronJB]

I'll agree with you. There have been some occasions where the "retail price" has been accurate, but many times I've seen it use a retail price for a similar property in the area. I don't really see all that great a need for it (I know I'm getting a deal through Hotwire or Priceline, I don't need an inaccurate retail price), but if they're going to have it, it may as well be accurate. I think a better motivator for first time users to take a chance on the service would be a coupon than the retail price thing, but oh well.

[dc3]

So I used the $150 HW dollars to book a hotel for $139 + taxes and fees in Kona (Royal Kona) on Hotwire where any fool can deduce the hotel and see the retail price is $121 on the hotel's web site. Why did I do this you ask? I wanted to use those hot dollars on this trip and not for a rental car since I need to pay by credit card to get insurance. And then knowing that Hotwire guarantees to beat the best posted price I then pointed out the rack rate and was therefore able to ask them to make good on their double the difference guarantee. Which they did. So I got $36 credited to my Visa and used up the hot dollars. Nice.