Really high Hotwire taxes and fees, a mistake?

[WillTravel]

I just tried a search for Victoria April 30 - May 2.

I saw 3* with the amenity of Spa and a rate of $45.

I was considering buying this, so I looked at the total cost.

Much to my surprise, the taxes and fees is $66.95! (I checked on Priceline and taxes/fees for an equivalent bid would be $16.72)

Anyway, since I have never actually bought from Hotwire, I don't know if this is typical. Is it?

I guess the thing to do is look at total cost - which I would consider too much with this little to go on anyway.

[thereuare]

The difference amounts to about $5 which is high on a percentage basis, but probably considered negligible by most travels who feel it's 'ok' because they are saving enough on the hotel room.

[WillTravel]

I think you meant $50 :).

I guess having such variable fees allows Hotwire a lot of room to move the prices around and keep things more opaque, but it does mean one has to be careful when comparing the prices to Priceline. This $45 room on Hotwire is equivalent to about a $70 bid on Priceline (for total cost).

[thereuare]

Wow... i thought that the $66.95 was total for the $45 room (making taxes and fees $21.95) vs. $16.72.

Now that you've clarified it that is a bid difference.

[hotwirecsr]

We have had people call and ask if the high tax's and fee was a mistake. For example car rental's in PHX. Every time we have researched this we have found that it is just a very highly taxed area.

[thereuare]

Hotwire CSR i think you may want to look into this one though!

I just ran a 3 nite search in the following cities:

Las Vegas: $45/nite yields Taxes and Fees of $28.05

Toronto: $44/nite yields Taxes and Fees of $25.95

Victoria: $53/nite yields Taxes and Fees of $114.95

Unless taxes in Victoria are quadruple what they are in the other cities, then there is some type of a mistake. Also, WT knows the area pretty well and i think would know if taxes in the area were unusually high.

...and if i choose the Victoria hotel at $194/nite the Taxes and Fees are less at only $103.95. So apparently there isn't a mistake with Victoria as a whole, but something in the algorithm is amiss.

How much business has Hotwire lost due to this error? Hard to say, but a good example of why they should form some sort of communication with BetterBidding! (and i have other ideas too!)

[WillTravel]

For example, if you enter Vancouver as the city (which has the same taxes as Victoria) and select the Richmond - Vancouver Intl Airport YVR zone for the same dates I had for Victoria (April 30 - May 2, so two nights), then I get a $44 3* option.

I looked at the taxes and fees for this purchase and they are $19.95, which is much more reasonable.

[thereuare]

But look at my example above:

Two hotes, both in Victoria, and the one that is 4x more expensive has lower taxes and fees!

[hotwirecsr]

I have put in a reasearch request to the powers that be and will keep you "posted" as to the results.

[thereuare]

Thanks Batman, uhhh... i mean HotwireCSR!

[Tiki]

Wow, that's food for thought-compare TOTAL price including tax and service fee of Hotwire to Priceline. I know PL's per room/night rates are cheaper but they might have higher fees. Thanks, you guys!

[hotwirecsr]

Well I tried but I was cut off at the first level. The response I got was taxes and fee's very from area to area.

[WillTravel]

Thanks for trying.

[thereuare]

HotwireCSR, i know that this is out of your hands, but it's a good example of why so many people get frustrated with Priceline and Hotwire customer service (but in Hotwire's defense, Hotwire is much better than priceline in this regard).

The fact that one hotel costing $195/nite can have lower taxes and fees as another hotel in the same exact zone costing $45/nite is evidence of a problem... but the 'powers that be' simply give a canned reply of 'taxes and fees vary from area to area'.

Sometimes the people in the corner offices need to get on the phone and deal with real customers to really understand what is going on.

[WillTravel]

Whether it's fair or not, my impression from this is that Hotwire is trying to disguise a $70 room as being a $45 room and hoping no one will notice. I know this isn't the case most of the time, but it just happened to be the case for the market I was interested in.

[hotwirecsr]

WT I happend to "find out" the hotel in question and I search our competitors and it is not listed as a $70 dollor room and the taxes and fees are not that high on thoses sites so I do belive that in this case as thereuare stated that this is indeed an error in our pricing script.

[hotwirecsr]

I just couldn't leave this alone. There are three people that could read the reserch requests before they go to the research department. So one turns me down and I just happend to say something to another person on that team about doing a search. He did and found the results just as strange as we all did. So he put the request right through so... I wil keep you posted as to the final results of this.

[WillTravel]

Thanks again for your efforts!

To be fair, there have been instances where Priceline taxes and fees have been way out of line also.

I recognize every software program has bugs. I guess the bottom line is to look carefully at the total cost.

[hotwirecsr]

Well no official answer but the issue does apper to be fixed. I just did the search and the taxes and fees seem to be more inline with what they should be. Thanks for your help guys.

Just a thought but you could start a fourm with suggestions to improve the site.

[thereuare]

So for bringing this to Hotwire's attention, how about some Hotwire Bonus money available only to BetterBidding members? :)

Thanks for the board suggestion, but this already exists in the second forum on the board:

QUESTIONS and SUGGESTIONS

(-general questions and board suggestions... )

[hotwirecsr]

I was thinking more of something hotwire specific. Things that people could suggest to improve the Hotwire site.