itraveler Posted April 7, 2004 Report Share Posted April 7, 2004 Hello board - I've been a lurker and fan for about a year - my first post and its a query - has anyone ever filed a claim for a refund based on Priceline's or Hotwire's guarantee after finding a lower priced hotel room elsewhere ? If so, what was the result? Thanks. Link to comment
bbbb Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Welcome,A lot of people have had good results with hotwires double your money back guarantee.Its best if you can make sure with the hotel what kind of room they give to hotwire customers,there was a few issues in Vegas where people were turned down because the hotwire room was in a better tower then the one on the hotels website. Link to comment
thereuare Posted April 8, 2004 Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Welcome to BetterBidding!Plenty of examples throughout the board with the majority being in Las Vegas, although here is a recent one i remember: HOTWIRE FT. LAUDERDALE You can also do a SEARCH of the board for words like 'guarantee' or 'double the difference' (just make sure you search 'all forums' from the drop down menu and change the bottom right corner to 'any date')We dont' see many with Priceline since most here are either experienced bidders or if new, ask for help to avoid overbidding.Are you looking at a particular situation or 'just curious'? Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
hotwirecsr Posted April 10, 2004 Report Share Posted April 10, 2004 At Hotwire they always honor the "DTD" just make sure that it is within 48 hours of the reservation. Link to comment
DeltaPurser Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 I've only had reason to make a claim agains PL's Best Rate Guarantee one time... It took 3 or 4 rounds of e-mails to get them to "find" my better rate. It went so far as to me guiding one of their reps thru the process over the phone! The difference was somewhere in the neighborhood of $14... not much to brag about, but I figured I needed the money more than PL did.Once I filed a claim against Starwood's program... Had booked a room at one of their properties and later that day found a better rate on Expedia.com. Same deal... Took 3-4 rounds of e-mails to get them to finally fork it over. My claim was denied the first couple of times because the room I had booked and the room available on Expedia were not identical... Well, here's the kicker... The one on Expedia was actually BETTER!Seems to me they look for ANY reason to deny your claim... And if you're not persistent, you'll get nothing. But then again, there are some great examples of people who have made out good with Hotwire's DD... Go figure!DeltaPurser :) Link to comment
thereuare Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Haven't dealt with either directly thus far and i think most people are skeptical due to experienceing the runaround that you mention above, but i must say that i have been impressed with what i have read on the board about Hotwire honoring their guarantee. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
bbbb Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Yep we get really good feed back from happy Hotwire customers that have had few problems getting their $$$$ Link to comment
BEAV Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 In my first Hotwire DtheD claim, the lower rate I had found was no longer available by the time Hotwire got around to checking it out for themself. If it weren't for the fact that I had printed the lower rate at the time I discovered it, I would have been out of luck. When they rejected my claim due to the rate no longer being available, my response was to let me fax them my proof. They immediately emailed back a fax number, and that was that. Can't stress enough the importance of printing out the rates you find. Link to comment
badbadleroybrown Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 BEAV,Great advice. The same thing actually happened to a friend of mine. Howtire sent the fax number over, and luckally, my friend had also printed out the hotel rate page. It was a 2.5 hotel. Hotwire got back to him in less than 24 hours. Here are the e-mails my friend received. I will remove the hotel name, because my friend has jumped on this a couple of times, and don't want to risk not being able to do this again. If someone wants more info, just e-mail me. These numbers are not mistyped.Initial e-mail:***** HOTEL ITINERARY *****Hotel/CRS Confirmation Number: XXXXXXXXHotwire Itinerary Number:XXXXXXXXXXLocation: XXXXXXXXCity Area: XXXXXXXXXHotel Quality: 2.5-star ValueXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXCheck-in Date: Wed, Nov 24, 2004Check-out Date: Thu, Nov 25, 2004Number Of Rooms: 1Number of Nights: 1***** Billing Details *****HotelPrice per night: $492.00Hotel Subtotal: $492.00Total Taxes and Booking Fees: $77.95Total: $569.95E-Mail after the DTD claim:Thank you for your message regarding the Hotwire Hotel Double the DifferencePrice Guarantee. Hotwire works hard to get you the best hotel deals. Wehope you'll continue to check Hotwire when planning future trips.You are entitled to a refund of $812.00. We will issue a credit to the cardused for your Hotwire purchase within 10 business days.For your review, I have pasted below the portion of the Double theDifference Guarantee Terms and Conditions that explains how we compare ratesand calculate the refund amount.All comparisons will be made between Hotwire's aggregate rate for thecustomer's entire stay before taxes and booking fees on the one hand and thehotel's aggregate published pre-tax rates for each night of the customer'sstay on the other. For Hotwire hotel rates, the rate that will be used forcomparison will be the first rate displayed to the customer after thecustomer chooses his or her preferences multiplied by the number of roomnights the customer has purchased. For other hotel rates, the rate that willbe used for comparison will be the lowest qualifying published pre-tax rateavailable for each night of the customer's stay. Link to comment
DeltaPurser Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Wow! Hotwire charged $492 for one night in a 2.5* hotel??????? I guess they were just aking for it in this case then...DeltaPurser :) Link to comment
badbadleroybrown Posted April 11, 2004 Report Share Posted April 11, 2004 Yeah, thats what I thought. I have never this before, because I'm afraid my claim would be rejected. I guess people do this all the time though. You have to be careful because there is a $1000 limit. Link to comment
gleff Posted May 2, 2004 Report Share Posted May 2, 2004 I tell ya, I came across a silly rate on Hotwire the week before last (a 2.5* for > $400) and didn't even think of doing this. D'oh! Link to comment
bbbb Posted May 2, 2004 Report Share Posted May 2, 2004 A lot of the times when they have a rate that high,the hotel is sold out. Link to comment
DeltaPurser Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 Which means I'd get stuck with a 2.5* hotel for $400? Guess I'm not enough of a gambler to get involved with something like that... Using Priceline is enough of a gamble for me sometimes!DeltaPurser Link to comment
BEAV Posted May 3, 2004 Report Share Posted May 3, 2004 I got in on the same Hotwire deal badleroybrown mentioned. I've cruised Hotwire quite a bit and have often found grossly inflated rates. I've seen some in excess of $1000 a night. In the case of the $492 room, it was legit, however....the hotel had plenty of space. That hotel is going to have lots of no shows on that particular date! If it weren't for Hotwire's annual $1000 ceiling, I'd quit my real job and file claims all day!! Link to comment
ZZyzx000 Posted May 13, 2004 Report Share Posted May 13, 2004 See my other post about the Surbaban Lodge I was assigned by Hotwire as a 2 star hotel . Lol. It was for 6 nights and they charged me $24 more than what the weekly rate was if you booked that place by yourself.I wanted a refund but after getting turned down several times I tried to get double the difference back ($48) and was turned down because my reservation was for 6 nights, not a week.I tried to argue that anybody who thought they were reserving an extended stay weekly (mostly) property whould simply take the cheaper weekly rate and check out early. In fact if you walked in the door, I'm quite sure the clerk would give you the weekly rate automatically for a 6 night stay. That's because they know we're not complete morons and would figure it out before checking out and cause a stinko.Which is of course what happened with me and Hotwire and I need someone to tell me if they are worth the agrevation. I hate the bait and switch they pulled on me. What's the solution? Never bid on a 2 star on Hotwire? What about 3 stars? Any turkey hotels in that category? Link to comment
thereuare Posted May 13, 2004 Report Share Posted May 13, 2004 Plenty of successful claims on Hotwire for "Double the Difference". Do a SEARCH on the board and you'll find many of them. The area with the most DD's seem to occur in Vegas and you can just scan that forum for examples, some of which are for the maximum amount of $1000!I think your best bet is to stick with the higher rates properties and use the hotel lists here to determine if their are less desirable properties at each star level within each category. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
phx Posted May 20, 2004 Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 I just did one for a hotel in Phoenix. The board was very helpful with this. Hotwire did not give me any trouble. I had an email on the second day in the early morning and that was that. Link to comment
ufauxreal Posted May 20, 2004 Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 What are good sites to search for a lower price than Hotwire's?? Orbitz? Expedia? The hotel I just booked, I checked their website and the price is much higher than the hotwire price I got.Thanks!JB Link to comment
bturner13 Posted May 20, 2004 Report Share Posted May 20, 2004 I like to compare prices with TravelAxe and SideStep too! :) Link to comment
DDSeeker Posted July 24, 2004 Report Share Posted July 24, 2004 Hold it!The live example posted on this thread indicates that Hotwire will refund an amount greater than actually paid on the purchase. In effect, one can make money staying at a Hotwire hotel.I guess I would have expected that Hotwire would rebate only the amount charged on the credit card. But apparently this is not the case. If I understand this correctly, Hotwire will refund whatever the arithmetic suggests -- even if this is greater than the cost of the hotel room.Am I right? Link to comment
thereuare Posted July 25, 2004 Report Share Posted July 25, 2004 Welcome to BetterBidding!There have been a few reports where users have been paid to stay at a hotel. However, many of the reports where the refund is 'just over' a full refund still involve some out of payment amount to cover Hotwire's fee. BTW, Hotwire's fee is not included in the rate comparison. Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases Link to comment
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