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Hotwire Refunded Stay Due to Storm


retropia
By retropia,
in

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I had planned a trip to Austin 3/7-10, but the snow storms in the midwest caused my Friday flight to be cancelled. I was re-booked on a Saturday flight, and that one was cancelled, too. I phoned the Staybridge Suites Friday to say I wasn't coming that night, and then Saturday to say that I wouldn't be arriving at all. I asked if there was anything they could do regarding my pre-paid lodging, and they said no. I didn't think they would, but I asked anyway.

Then I sent a general inquiry e-mail to HOTWIRE, explaining my dilemma. Specifically, I was asking about travel insurance. From reading posts here, it seems that Access America will only pay on a claim where the airport is closed for 24 hours; mine wasn't, even though 90% of the flights were cancelled. So, I asked Hotwire if there were any other trip cancellation insurers they could recommend, other than Access America, for future trips.

They replied that I should phone HOTWIRE customer service about my aborted trip. I did. The CSR wanted to know my flight number, so that she could confirm it was cancelled. She checked on it, and then gave me a full refund for $239.35. I was pleasantly surprised, as I thought that Hotwire never gave a refund under any circumstances.

It is probably extremely unusual that I received a refund. Perhaps it helped due to the severity of the storm and how well-publicized it was in the media.

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Both Priceline and Hotwire are very good about canceling/refunding nonrefundable hotel purchases. I've received hotel refunds on two different occasions when weather-related airline cancellations were the culprit. So while I'm glad your situation worked out to your benefit, it's pretty much standard policy. It's just too bad more people don't know that although rules are rules, so are there exceptions to rules. And weather-related travel conditions are a very different animal in the world of non-refundable purchases, as you experienced.

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Perhaps I just got them on a good day, but I received a refund last year for none of the above reasons.

I called them out on their shoddy rating system and also informed them that the hotel I ended up with was nowhere near the location they said it was, and it also did not include free wirless internet (at the time they listed it as free, they've changed it since).. I pretty much refused to stay in the hotel because of the nasty area it was in, and the false advertising. I whined about it for an hour on the phone before the girl finally agreed to refund me.

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Your story reminds me of a time when I purchased from Hotwire an airport-area hotel. Hotwire advertised the hotel had an airport shuttle. Once the identity of the hotel was revealed, I went to the hotel's website. It made no mention of an airport shuttle, so I called the hotel to inquire. Sure enough, they did not offer an airport shuttle. I called Hotwire, who put me on hold while they called direct to the hotel to verify there was no airport shuttle. Hotwire quickly refunded my booking, in addition to depositing into my account $50 "hot dollars" for future use.

Situations like this are pretty clear, cut and dry in my opinion, which is why I believed Hotwire rectified the situation so easily & quickly. In your situation it should have been the same with regard to the advertised free wireless internet that didn't exist. This is a no brainer! While I'm glad Priceline refunded you in the end, the fact it took an hour of pleading points to their lack of acceptable customer service with regard to resolving conflicts. Again, a no brainer IMO!

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