Hotwire Hotel: 3* London (Bloomsbury-Marble Arch) Holiday Inn Regents Park

[dunyao]

For our London trip, i decided to use Hotwire. Oh God, what a lame, terrible service. I am very surprised that this website is active and making money.

-I spend 48 hours to make a reservation, because at the last step (paymen), the system shows an error with a code and you have to start again. I reported this to the customer service several times, but they could not help, they only said sorry many times.

-Then, i had the idea to make the payment via paypal, i did it. However, after the payment is done, the paypal system redirected me to hotwire. I was happy, finally i got to see the hotel name and details, but wait, there was another error code in the system. My reservation is lost and my money is gone.

-I reported the case to hotwire and paypal. No answers yet. Maybe i have been robbed, i really do not know.

-I already paid over 500 dollars, and i have no reservations, no confirmation, no hotel name, no information.

-Probably this situation will last a few days more, and this service is a loss of time and money. I would seriously think twice before i even visit their website.

[thereuare]

So should we assume you never used HOTWIRE for your New York City Vacation... please follow-up your thread with whatever you ended up doing for that stay. Then bump this thread and we'll comment regarding your situation above.

[dunyao]

Because of their no refund policy, i did not use hotwire for NYC vacation. As soon as i have some info, i will post. If they correct things, i will inform you about the hotel name-location to help others at least to identify. thanks...

So should we assume you never used HOTWIRE for your New York City Vacation... please follow-up your thread with whatever you ended up doing for that stay. Then bump this thread and we'll comment regarding your situation above.

[dunyao]

Finally, a funny email from Hotwire, they say "sorry" again, and they claim that i should contact paypal, because they have no payment.

I already have confirmation from paypal and i called directly my bank, the money is gone. I am really helpless, the customer service of hotwire does not have a clue. I believe they are hired workers probably from another country. They really do not understand. I do not know what to do.

[dunyao]

As of now,

PAYPAL confirms that the money is paid to HOTWIRE, so i should contact HOTWIRE, they can not send any money back until HOTWIRE says so.

HOTWIRE says, they are sorry they dont have any payment, so i should contact PAYPAL, they cannot tell anything to PAYPAL.

This is really a shame......

[dunyao]

This is my final post on this topic.

-Paypal informed me that they will investigate the situation, the transaction was non-refundable, so they can not send the money back, but they will try to solve the case in 30 days. In short, i have been charged and i have to pay this money to the bank and i will wait and see what will happen.

-I opened a new account no hotwire and used a different card this time, directly credit card payment no paypal. Please see my other post with info on identified hotel.

[dunyao]

I made a reservation after i got the info that this hotel might be Holiday Inn. (see the hotel list)

Bingo!! Congratulations on the accurate guess, thank you betterbidding.com

3-star hotel in Bloomsbury - Marble Arch-------------> is in fact Holiday Inn-Regents Park

I booked it for 4 nights @99 usd/night +taxes

normally the rate is around 200-220 usd/night. That's a good saving, thanks again.

[thereuare]

Thanks for sharing your results with the board. (guess you didn't give up on them totally)

Few comments/questions:

Can you please include the amenities shown before your purchase... you can still view these by going to HOTWIRE and clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

What are the dates of this stay. Please add them in a reply to this thread so that we can add this information to the topic title and enable this thread to appear in the Priceline and Hotwire Calendar of Wins.

When you try paying via PayPal and recieved the error message, did you read that page in its entirety... did it say something about the funds being put back into your account in 48 hours?

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Thanks.

[dunyao]

AMENITIES SHOWN BEFORE--- FOR HOLIDAY INN-REGENT'S PARK: RESTAURANT(s)----BUSINESS CENTER----HIGH-SPEED INTERNET ACCESS

DATES OF MY STAY---------14 AUGUST 2008-18 AUGUST 2008

"When you try paying via PayPal and recieved the error message, did you read that page in its entirety... did it say something about the funds being put back into your account in 48 hours?"

-I received the error after my credit card has been charged. First paypal redirected me to hotwire website to reveal the hotel identity and when the website changed automatically to hotwire, there was a short message like "we are sorry, there was an error 23424, please try again to seach....hotwire" So basically, the credit card is charged, but reservation not made.

-It did not say anything about 48 hours.