HOTWIRE CANCELS HOTEL !!

[thebay]

UNBELIEVABLE... HOTWIRE cancelled my confirmed hotel reservation at the last minute.

It's Saturday night and I am being driven to Manhattan to my Hotwire hotel when I retrieve a cell message from Hotwire that my hotel room has been cancelled !!

I call back the number and, although polite, they can provide me with no hotel in NY !

I'M LEFT STRANED IN MANHATTAN. NO ROOM. NO NOTHING !

They offer to refund my charge on the room I paid for (whoopie). They offer me $25 Hotdollars (no thanks.).

What is up with this ?

How can I have a confirmed room... with no cancellation rights and yet THEY can cancel?

BE AWARE !! USE CAUTION !!

[thereuare]

Please start with Our Rules and Policies:

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.

As per the post above, please share the details of your purchase (star rating, city, zone, hotel name, price paid per nite before taxes and fees, dates, and amenities shown before your purchase)... all of this information is accessible thru the MY ACCOUNT link near the top right of their home page.

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

[IsleOfMan]

Is it possible the property actually canceled your reservation and notified hotwire since they were seen as your travel agent? The property may have had any one of a thousand reasons to not have a room available, but should have walked you to another property when you arrived. If they did it simply to free up availability for a more profitable customer, that's low and probably breaks their terms & conditions with Hotwire... but sadly it wouldn't surprise me either.

[bargainsmarts]

Is it possible the property actually canceled your reservation and notified hotwire since they were seen as your travel agent? The property may have had any one of a thousand reasons to not have a room available, but should have walked you to another property when you arrived. If they did it simply to free up availability for a more profitable customer, that's low and probably breaks their terms & conditions with Hotwire... but sadly it wouldn't surprise me either.

Some hotel insight. I worked at a hotel front desk for several years and was shocked by some of the practices. I cannot speak for all hotels but this is what I experienced.

Our hotel would frequently overbook our rooms. So if we have 200 available, we may end up with 205 reservations for that night. Often people do not show up and it MIGHT work out. If not...we would "walk" people to a nearby hotel. This just means we say sorry and direct them to a room we have arranged nearby (if we can find one close). I assure you, this is a very unpleasant task. Another common occurance is that guests with third party reservations would show at the front desk and we would not have their reservation in our system. The booking agent can be very lax about forwarding reservation info. I would ALWAYS call hotel after I booked and verify they have the reservation. Do not believe that your wad of papers from your online booking is proof you actually have the room. Although we would always get a guest in, if you arrive late, the hotel does not have your style room, or any room, not much can be done.

Our hotel might also, depending on booking issues, sometimes put guests in a totally different type of room than reserved.

My advice (besides calling ahead) is to arrive early in the day if possible. If you should be walked, to not have a tantrum, just express your dismay and ask for some type of compensation. All that desk person wants you to do is LEAVE because chances are they are as disgusted as you are. Ask for a meal, or for some amenity. If you planned to stay more than one night ask to return in the morning and for an upgrade for the rest of your stay. When you return express yourself again to management and you may be offered a return stay, or additional compensation. The key is to make them feel you can still be a return customer if you are treated with respect.

From the hotel's point of view...Sometimes things happen, like a water problem that cause several rooms to be shut down, or maybe a guest refuses to leave. A hotel cannot MAKE someone leave, it's like an eviction.....a big drawn out deal. They can charge rack rate for additional nights, but cannot remove someone and their stuff..at least in my state.

When we were booked and a guest asked to extend we would explain the room was not available additional night, but if you really want to stay you cannot be forced to go (expect to be charged high rates)

This overbooking practice was the worst part of my job, and I really believe it should not be legal, it could be unsafe stranding someone, and at the very least it is disrespectful!

Hope that helps someone in the future.

[Kade]

Some Hotwire Insight:

It does happen occasionally that a location will "forget" to remove themselves from the listings, thus continueing to accept reservations when in reality their already sold out.

Its in no way a fault of Hotwire, but an inconvenience not taken lightly and do everything they can to try and fix it for you. Just understand, HOTWIRE can't control whether a hotel has the availability they promise.

[Z3R0]

Some Hotwire Insight:

It does happen occasionally that a location will "forget" to remove themselves from the listings, thus continueing to accept reservations when in reality their already sold out.

Its in no way a fault of Hotwire, but an inconvenience not taken lightly and do everything they can to try and fix it for you. Just understand, HOTWIRE can't control whether a hotel has the availability they promise.

^ Indeed. Each hotel has the ability to open or close their availability. Most hotels have to do this manually to stop receiving reservation and showing up on listings, and get busy and forget, etc. It happens, and it is unfortunate. Most booking sites will work to provide whatever re-accommodations they can as well as a refund.