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Avoid Hotwire at all cost


travel1236
By travel1236,
in

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Please avoid HOTWIRE. I ordered a 2.5 star hotel and received a two star hotel according to their website. Since it was a lower level hotel I did find it priced lower at another site and notifed them. They responded that they could not prove and that they requested a snapshot of the site. When I went back to Orbitz they had raised their price to that of Hotwire. So unless you want a lower level hotel then you expect, AVOID AT ALL COST HOTWIRE......

I have used PRICELINE several times and have not had a problem.

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Welcoeme to BetterBidding!

From Our Rules and Policieis:

While we welcome both positive and negative experiences, please keep in mind that the spirit of this message board is helping users.

If you have a complaint, problem, or question with a recent or upcoming Priceline/Hotwire stay, we will be happy to do what we can to help, but please be considerate of the board's primary goal of helping others and first post the details of your 'win.'

It is important for everyone to know when problems and customer service issues arise, but the majority of the users come here to see winning bid information... so please oblige them with this information before asking for them for help.

Thanks! :)

Please share the details of your win to the board... include the star rating, city, zone, hotel name, price paid per nite, dates of your stay, and amenities shown before your purhcase. You can still view all of this information by going to HOTWIRE and clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

The information above will best help others and allow them to make their own decision regarding HOTWIRE, rather than just stating "Don't Use Hotwire", as well as help them identify the property you purchased above before their own purchase (and letting them decide if it will work well for their needs or not)

Knowing this information will also provide us details which will enable us to comment specifically to your purchase above.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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Here are more details;

The deal was $49 for a 2.5 star hotel in Tuscaloosa, AL Feb 13 to Feb15. When paid I got notice that the hotel was La Qunita. If you look on hotwire it is listed

as a 2 star hotel and on other sites. A look at Orbitz showed $39.00 for this room. Hotwire was notifed and said they could not change hotels and that they would refund twice the difference. Later I got an email saying they could not verify. Going back to Orbitz showed an rate increase of $39.00 to $49.00 and I had not made a screen shot eariler.

So in regards to your quote "Please share the details of your win to the board... ", there was NO WIN in this situation for me. I could have gotting the same room cheaper at another site. As for Priceline, I have never had a problem. Used a dozen times and have always got a good hotel, flight, or car......

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So in regards to your quote "Please share the details of your win to the board... ", there was NO WIN in this situation for me. I could have gotting the same room cheaper at another site. As for Priceline, I have never had a problem. Used a dozen times and have always got a good hotel, flight, or car......

Perry,

The main reason I post the details of my wins is to help other people. I also post reviews so others know what to think about the properties.

Now I am going to come down very hard on you. If you would have used the board and did your home work before bidding you would have known which property this was.

This is what I found in the Hotwire list of hotels.

Tuscaloosa

2.5* La Quinta REVIEW

Amenities: Complimentary Breakfast, Pool, Hi-Speed Internet

Here is a review of this hotel posted on this site.

"Warning! This LaQuinta in Tuscaloosa, AL is anything but a 2.5*. It's not even a hotel - rather a motel with all exterior doors to the outside. It's right on the expressway - loud!! Don't waste your money here."

I did a quick search for your dates Hotwire came back with the same Amenities listed. So you could have identified this property and known that it may not be one that you would like. Remember all of this information was provided by someone who "Won" this property.

If you took to the time to post your information requested in the correct forum to help someone else then perhaps you could get some help. Or to put it bluntly if you are not willing to help me identify a bad hotel why should I help you?

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...there was NO WIN in this situation for me.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn't understand the semantics of my original comment, so i'll rephase and be more specific:

Please share the details of your purchase with the board... include the star rating, city, zone, hotel name, price paid per nite, dates of your stay, and amenities shown before your purchase. You can still view all of this information by going to HOTWIRE and clicking the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

Please use this HOTWIRE and these PRICELINE LINKS: HOTELS, CAR RENTALS, and AIRFARE to begin your travel purchases

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I agree with powerplantop, if you had taken an hour before booking the hotel through the site you would've done a more informed decision.

I booked a 3.5* hotel through hotwire at a price of $71 per night, compare that to the low rate that Orbitz offers of $159 per night and youll see I saved over half per night, and Im sure my case isn't the only one.

Don't blame hotwire, because even though its advertised as a "blind bidding" site you can often still get an idea of which hotel your staying at and read tons of reviews on it before making the purchase, all thanks to this wonderful website :)

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I understand your frustration regarding Hotwire because, as a newbie, you essentially leaped before you looked. The next time, whether for Hotwire or Priceline, you just need to do a bit more research, including the currently available hotels/prices, Hotwire's classification of the area/zone hotels, and matching amenities to hotels.

The good thing about Hotwire is that the amenities list can sometimes really narrow down the likely hotel so that you're pretty sure which hotel you'll be receiving. The bad thing is that Hotwire is sometimes way too generous with its hotel ratings, which don't make a significant quality difference generally on 3.5-to-4-stars or 3.0-to-3.5 stars but do make a huge difference when a 2-star is a 2.5- or 3-star. Regarding the latter -- the Colorado Springs Clarion listed now as a 3-star and the Vegas Clarion that Hotwire's parent company, Expedia Inc, lists as a 2 or 2.5-star on its Expedia and Hotels.com websites but has called a 3-star on Hotwire. For the latter I sent Hotwire an email disputing the star class, and received canned responses (fortunately I didn't book the hotel as my research IDed this fraud-of-a-3-star).

Hang in there, and good luck in the future.

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The bad thing is that Hotwire is sometimes way too generous with its hotel ratings, which don't make a significant quality difference generally on 3.5-to-4-stars or 3.0-to-3.5 stars but do make a huge difference when a 2-star is a 2.5- or 3-star.

This complaint is so prevalent that it has its own topic in this forum (and quite a popular one, judging from the number of posts). I think that a good part of the problem (particularly at the low end of the scale) is that Hotwire, unlike Expedia or Priceline, has no 1* rating. Therefore, a hotel that should be rated 1* (a typical Super 8 or ESA, for example), is rated 2* on Hotwire. Compared to those places, a La Quinta can suddenly look like a 2.5*.

I think it should be made clear that this website was not designed for people to simply gloat about their good deals or vent over their bad ones. It's a resource for people who want to make informed decisions when using Priceline or Hotwire. That's why we post our purchases here: to increase the knowledge we have about what is available through Priceline and Hotwire. And that knowledge base is free for anyone who wants to make use of it. If you need further assistance, there are many BB members (and thereuare, of course) who are willing and able to help; all you have to do is ask. If you choose not to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and experience available through BetterBidding and get burned because of it, you have no one to blame but yourself.

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well, it's also worth a lot more than a ton of vitriol.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The deal was $49 for a 2.5 star hotel in Tuscaloosa, AL Feb 13 to Feb15. When paid I got notice that the hotel was La Qunita. If you look on hotwire it is listed as a 2 star hotel and on other sites."

This just happened to me for a LaQuinta in Florida.

I have used Hotwire for the past two or three years and never had an issue with them up until recently. Just in the last week alone, they have been practicing what looks suspiciously like bait and switch. In one instance, they had a logo on a listing identifying it as having guest rooms that are always non-smoking. That turned out not to be true. Then, as customer service was of little help I had to file with the Better Business Bureau before they booked me in a real non-smoking hotel.

As an apology, they credited me a few bucks which I used to book another room thinking that this was an isolated incident.

So, I book what is advertised as a "Midscale" hotel--a category they define as a "Holiday Inn Express, Amerisuites or Country Inn and Suites" type of property. What I GOT was a lower class of property they called an "Economy" property (a 2 star LaQuinta). They say directly on their site that LaQuinta (they mention LaQuinta specifically by name) is an "Economy" 2 star property. So, they shorted me (again) and it doesn't seem to bother them (customer service) that Hotwire did it again. I've complained twice already.

And, as the previous poster pointed out: Hotwire defines the LaQuinta as a 2 star hotel on their site then sells it as a 2 1/2 hotel. (And, no, it's is not any fancier or has any more amenities than other LaQuintas).

What makes this particularly irritating is that I recently got an email from Hotwire saying that I was some kind of frequent-user preferred customer who could expect a higher standard of service. Obviously not.

Also, this comes not that long after they tried to pawn a bad South Beach Hotel off as a three star hotel when the Trip advisor reviews complained of all sorts of crime and general filth going on there. (It took months but they finally did downgrade that hotel, although they probably still list them).

When I went to the Better Business Bureau site I saw that they have had some other complaints about false advertising and bait and switch.

I don't know if you tried the Better Business Bureau or not. It, at least, helped with the first situation for me.

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Franksfoil,

As I stated in the post before yours, the purpose of this board is to help people make informed purchases on PRICELINE and HOTWIRE; simply complaining about your purchases does not serve that purpose. Please post your purchase in the Florida Hotwire forum, and include dates, price, and amenities; that will help others identify this hotel, and possibly avoid making the same mistake.

I suggest that you start taking advantage of the knowledge that's been compiled here, rather than spending valuable time filing complaints to Hotwire and the BBB after the fact. I (and many other members of BetterBidding) have helped others with identifying HOTWIRE hotels, and I can tell you that, based on my research, that the majority of La Quinta hotels are rated 2.5* (and I know at least a couple that are rated 3*). Yes, the examples given by Hotwire, particularly at the 2* level, are no longer very accurate. But there's no need to pay any attention to them; the resources here are a far better way of determining the possible identity of a Hotwire hotel.

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