Hotwire
Questions & Answers

They cheat people and convince them they have better hotel prices... though in reality they show you a price, and then charge you more adding taxes and charges you thought would be included in the price shown in the start... cheaters, manipulators. Beware dealing with them... bunch of crooks

Because they have managed to successfully promote themselves as a discount provider, and have managed to convince customers that pre-paying for things like a car rental gives you better pricing. In truth, other car rental sites like carrentals.com offer lower pricing without pre-payment requirements.