Hotwire Hotels

[TheGreatGoat]

Hotwire now lets you select the number of people that will be in the room. They guarrentee that the room will accomadate the number of ppl that you select.

[thereuare]

That's HUGE for many people!

Great info and thanks for adding it.

I get the following message when submitting one room for 8 people:

Hotwire's hotel partners allow a maximum of 4 adults and 0 children per room. To continue, please modify the number of occupants or the number of rooms.

Have they now contracted with hotels that all rooms will hold 4 people, or do some hotels still only accomodate 2 people and these just won't show up in a search if more than 3 or more people are selected?

[TheGreatGoat]

I would think that it has to do with the number of beds that the room has.

[thereuare]

Although most hotels don't fall into this 'special situation', i was specifically thinking about the Shoreham in NYC (and i'm sure there are others) where their standard room only has a queen size bed and the room can not accomodate a roll-a-way.

Would this hotel be flagged by Hotwire to only appear on searches for 1 or 2 people? If so, it may be possible to change the hotel offerings which appear for a given set of dates by changing the number of guests.

[TheGreatGoat]

I would think that that specifc hotel would not show up in a search for a room with 2 adults and 2 childeren or they will get an upgraded room either way it will have 2 beds or a bed and a pull out.

[flyme2]

I don't know if there's a glitch in HW's system, but whenever I enter more than 2 adults in the ADULTS field I get the following error message:

Please correct the following fields(s):

Hotwire's hotel partners allow a maximum of 2 adults and 2 children per room. To continue, please modify the number of occupants or the number of rooms.

So I wonder which version is correct?

[TheGreatGoat]

I would think that it is a total of 4 ppl split any way but not sure.

[thereuare]

I am once again able to do a search for 4 adults.

[MickeyMagic]

Number of occupants may change the search results. Example: Orlando - MCO airport area - 12-26-04 1 night. If I enter 1 adult and 1 child or 2 adults, I get 3.5* $50 (matching Marriott), but if I enter 2 adults and 2 children, 3.5* $70 (matching Embassy Suites) is returned.

[buster]

Yes, number of occupants certainly does change hotel selection and price. I am not sure if this is a good thing. For instance, it seems 3*Murray Hill Suites shows up when submitting 2 adults but not 2 adults, 2 kids. Wouldn't this hotel be able to accomodate 4 ppl? Is it not wise to get it if you actually need a place for 4 but have typed in 2? The hotels showing 4ppl are so much costlier. Any thoughts?

Buster

[thereuare]

Wouldn't this hotel be able to accomodate 4 ppl?

Either the rooms won't or they don't want to. This hotel is a converted apartment building so unlike a typical 'suite' hotel, this is a 'true' NYC studio apartment. The hotel may have an extremely large percentage of rooms with only one bed and therefore don't want to risk disappointing a customer if they need a room for 3 or 4 and no such accomodations are available. The Candlewood Suites in Jersey City is another property with a similar situation. Given the word 'suite' in the name you would think it would be ideal for 3 or 4 people... but their standard rooms only accomodate two guests (and the hotel does not appear when searching for a number of guests greater than two).

The hotels showing 4ppl are so much costlier

Often, but not always. Many hotels are starting to add this practice (additional cost for occupancy greater than two) even on their own direct bookings. While i don't agree with this hotel policy, i do understand their position that extra people require extra towels, electricity, laundry, wear and tear, etc. I guess i wouldn't have a problem if the fee was more reasonable and inline with their incremental cost, say an extra $5/per person, but some are charging an extra $20-$30 per extra person (on both opaque and direct bookings!) Occupancy of four, which isn't all that uncommon, could add $60 to the price of a standard hotel room. This is a significant percent to add to the base price of a room, but is even more exagerated given the discounted rate of the opaque services. I guess when you have an industry that can charge up to $2.50 for a local phone call :) you have trained them to do/charge whatever they like.

Even with the above issues, i still believe this is an excellent feature!

-it allows the 'smart user' (of this board) to try various searches in an attempt to view multiple offerings for the same stay. As an example, i might not like the offering Hotwire shows me for only '2 adults', but if i change that search to '2 adults and 1 child' and am now happy with a hotel and price offered, i can accept it, even though my stay is only really for 2 adults... it has given me an additional option

-if two platonic users want to share a room but not a bed, searching for a room for 4 people gives them a way to ensure at least two beds in the room (or at the very least, one bed and a pull-out sofa)

-reserving one room for more than two people has always had a certain amount of 'risk' involved with it, this new feature gives users piece of mind and a way to guarantee sleeping accomodations for more than two. Users can still weigh the risks of booking a room for only two people when in reality they have more than two, but at least now there is a choice. Most times I would have little concern about booking a room for more than two in a city like Orlando/Disney where most of the room are designed for families... but i would never risk such a booking in NYC.

So as i see it this is an additional feature that can't hurt, but could help users.

[ljm]

I got an even bigger discrepancy when putting in 2 adults vs. 2 adults and 2 kids. Example: MCO airport, 1/15, 1 night. 2 adults returns 3.5 star (Holiday Inn CP?) for $50. If I add 2 kids, the 3.5 star Sheraton Suites is returned at $149! Does the Crowne Plaza not want children there? Certainly they have plenty of 2 bedded rooms that will accomodate 4 people. I can see a price going up a couple of dollars for adding the extra people, but this is crazy!

BTW, I stayed at the Sheraton Suites via Hotwire back in March for about $57...

[TheGreatGoat]

Does the Crowne Plaza not want children there? Certainly they have plenty of 2 bedded rooms that will accomodate 4 people.

The hotel may have a large number of rooms that have 2 beds but the may all be booked. Remember that every thing is based on availablty.

[thereuare]

You comparison is not a fair one since you're looking at prices for two entirely different hotels.

(using the names of that you believe to be the id of each hotel)

Hotwire shows the least expensive hotel at each star rating for your dates of travel. The Holiday Inn is the least expensive in the area. When changing the parameters to 4 people, the Holiday Inn is excluded from the search (could be that they have a low percentage of rooms with 2 beds, maybe they don't want to sell hotels at such a discounted price for 4 people, maybe they just haven't signed and sent back the contract that allows Hotwire to sell their rooms for more than 2 people, etc, etc,... could be for any one of a variety of reasons). As a result, the next cheapest room is at the Sheraton, and they could have substantially higher occupancy for those dates than the Holiday Inn (and therefore substantially higher prices).

If the Holiday Inn wasn't available at all, i suspect that you would see the Sheraton offered when searching for only 2 people, and then see it offered again at a slightly higher price when searching for more than two people... but to compare the price of the Holiday Inn for 2 people to the Sheraton price for 4 people is not an apples-to-apples comparison.

[ljm]

I understand your comment about apples/oranges, but since HW only returns one hotel per star rating/area, I could not compare prices at the same property for the same date. Checking the Holiday Inn website, the CP has lots of availability in all bedding/smoking combinations. Even the fully cancellable/no deposit required Entertainment rate is available at around $65.

I find it strange that I could book 2 double rooms at the HI CP for less than one quad room at the Sheraton Suites, that's all. Just my $.02...

[kayexalate]

How about different prices with one adult vs two?

When I checked the price for the same 4* hotel (Hilton), it was $129/night if 1 adult, and $140/night for 2 adults.

of course, I purchased the 1 adult at $129/night, even though my girlfriend and I will be staying together.

Do you think this will pose a problem? We of course will sleep in the same bed, so I presume that won't be an issue (I guess they could give us two double beds instead of one king).

Since meals are not included, that would not be an issue either.

And since I'm the one who will be checking in, it's all under my name, and it should be fine.

The only thing is that when I called Hilton Hotel to verify, they do have the reservation down as "1 adult". But I can't see how it would make a difference to the hotel if it was "1 adult" or "2 adults" (more than two, I can see how that would be a problem".

Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks.

[thereuare]

Please post the details of your results:

Include: star rating, city, zone, hotel won, price paid, dates of your stay, and the amenities shown before your purchase... we'll then move this post, and your post above, to a NEW TOPIC (in the appropriate state category) where we will reply to your question.