HotwireReviews 770

Hotwire has been advertising amenities that hotels do not currently have available, using the Hotdeals as a cover for not allowing you to research, while lying to you about the details. We have reason to believe this is done intentionally, with the purpose to deceive. This behaviour should be stopped, as customer support routinely shoots down these complaints as the client has no other option but to accept. Anyone who has faced a similiar problem with Hotwire, please sign up, and with enough signatures, we hope to open a class action lawsuit on the grounds that Hotwire has acted in bad faith and not honored their contracts. The URL is http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/class-action-suit-against-hotwire. Thank you for your time.

I have never been to hotwire nor do I have an account. But I was charged several hundred dollars from them. Obviously fraud. I called HW and was told there is an account, open just a few hours earlier that day, with my name and credit card number but the phone, email, and zip were all different. Because I could not verify the account was mine, they would not discuss it with me. Obviously the account was not mine, but it is obviously fraudulent also., My name and CC number but someone elses email and phone number. Serious? They sent me to the fraud protection VoiceMail twice. VM, really? No one answers the phone to tell them they are charging my account fraudulently. Obviously HW is not committing the fraud, but one of their customers is and they don't really seem to care. As long as they get their money. Had to go through the bank and as of yet, have not settled the issue. They burned me for 800+ on my debit card. Debit card. That's the card I pay my bills from. 800+. That has an impact on household finances. HW could care less. So I am on a mission to be sure they are penalized far more than the 800 they got me for by convincing folks not to use them. Stay away from Hotwire.

I LIKE TO USE THIS WEBSITE TO FIND HOTELS IN CITIES I AM UNFAMILIAR WITH. I HAVE USED IT ON 4 OCCASIONS TO STAY AT BISHOP CA. S. LAKE TAHOE CA. ZION NATIONAL PARK UT.AND ST. GEORGE UT. I FOUND OUT IT REALLY IS NOT CHEAPER BUT IT IS NOT MORE EXPENSIVE EITHER. IT ALLOWS YOU TO COMPARE ALL THE HOTELS AVAILABLE AND EMINITIES THEY OFFER SIDE BY SIDE. I DON'T USE THE FEATURE WHERE THEY TELL YOU WHERE YOU STAY AFTER YOU PAY, I LIKE TO KNOW WHERE I STAY BEFORE I PAY AND MAYBE THAT IS WHY I DON'T SAVE MONEY. I AM PLEASED THOUGH WITH HOW ORGANIZED IT WAS TO BOOK A ROOM AND PAY. I LIKE TO COMPARE ROOMS THIS WAY AND NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WHEN I ARRIVED AT THE HOTEL I MADE A RESERVATION AT. I NEVER USED IT TO PAY FOR AIRFARE AND A COUPLE OF TIMES TO RENT A CAR.

I received advertisement from Hotwire.com "Save up to 60% on hotels with low Hotwire Hot-Rates" while searching internet to book a hotel. I bid on a hotel not knowing its Name. Why? I was under impression of saving ("Save up to 60% on hotels …) so I booked a hotel through Hotwire.com "Hot-Rates" deal hoping to safe at least 10-15 %. After transaction was completed I received confirmation email with hotel name. Right away I checked rates with Expedia, Travelocity and even hotel's own web site and discovered I saved ZERO. All those internet sites would charge same rates if I searched for a hotel by Name! I was scammed indeed. From a consumer prospective I truly believe it was 100% FRAUD and miss advertising from Hotwire. Right away I called them at *******473 to cancel transaction and I talked to Customer service rep. Ashley and then Amy, id 0645, her supervisor. Amy said she could not help to cancel deal and promised a call back from her manager. On 07/31/2013 at 9:30 AM Amanda, id 1543, called me back and told basically "Dude, you screwed." She refused to cancel booking and to address my concern with upper Management.

Beware: Agents will mislead you on location of hotel. Specifically asked via a chat session if the "secret" hotel was less than a mile from the Smithsonian museum area in Washington DC. The target area is so large the hotel could be any where including on the very edge of the area, thus making the hotel a mile or more from the museum area. Assured me that it was 0. 51. 7 miles straight line. The hotel is actually 1.3 miles a way; a healthy walking distance. Agent was misleading and unethical. I was specific in my request for information and the agent should have said that she did not know. Instead she purposely mislead me. When I tried to fix the problem after I became aware of the situation, the various people I spoke with refused a refund or to find a solution. Be very careful dealing with this company. You would do better booking the hotel on your own.

I have had some satisfactory experiences with Hotwire when traveling on business when I needed a car or a room for a short 1 night stay and wasn't to particular. Unfortunately that experience changed recently when I booked what was said to be a 3 star hotel for a family vacation. The comparisons that they provided were at a minimum 3 star. They compared the hotel I was booking to local bed and breakfast and full service hotels. It turned out to be false of course. What I was sold was a motel that had been a red roof inn, a motel 6 and is now a mom and pop roadside motel. It's latest incarnation came about as the result of the property having been sold at auction in 2011. Yes, I was able to learn alot about the history of the property online. Recent reviews were even worse than those of it's past. Google actually had pictures of the same motel in 4 different incarnations... the area was not desirable and the huge savings turned out to be a mere 90 cents per night.
Well, I got my money back...
Want to know how?... details... I had searched for a room that would accommodate 4 people. The hotels own website said their rooms could only accommodate 3 guests. Holding them to this forced them to issue a refund to me.

My recommendation; hotwire can save you a few dollars if you're on a tight budget or just passing through and need a place to crash when you're on your own. I would NEVER recommend that you use hotwire to book family vacation travel or lodging unless you're really very tolerant and you are willing to subject your family to the uncertainty of safety, comfort and quality of stay. The amount you save is virtually non existent in most cases. I had used them for several business trips in the past and never found the savings to be very significant but my management preferred that I use them at the time so I didn't really mind some of the dumps I ended up in... but there are too many nightmares around hotwire to justify me ever using it again...

Will NOT use them again!

Booked a car incl. Insurance through hotwire. Car was just 'booked' without pay, but had to pay for the insurance upfront. So far so good.

When I picked up the car the agent said 'sorry, we don't accept 3rd party insurance'. Means, I had to use rentals insurance, which was more then double the cost compare to the prepaid one.

Hotwire should simply not sell 3rd party insurances for car rentals were such insurance is not accepted.

Luckily the insurance money was paid to an external insurance company (Allianz) and not hotwire. After I explained the case to Allianz they gave me a full refund.

But Hotwire no more!

I have used this site multiple times over the past five years, with very good results as long as I have ony booked hotels that are 3 stars or above - there is an enormous decrease in quality beteween a 3 star and a 2.5 star. Also be warned that although they tell you the general location before you book, those locations tend to be very large, and the likelihood is that the hotel will be in the less attractive part of the area - after all, that is why they need to use this service to full their rooms. But if you are willing to accept this limitation, the rates are generally much lower than the ones that I have found on comparable sites. Also a hint - if you are booking somewhere (like London) where there are a lot of hotels, you can often figure out which one is listed on hotwire by comparing the features to those listed on hotels.com, since the two sites use the same categories for features.

I have used Hotwire 7 or 8 times for hotel rooms in 5 different states. I planned many of the stops for our honeymoon through Hotwire. I have never experienced any sort of problem with lower quality rooms than I expected or prices higher than what I could have got elsewhere. I was honestly surprised how many people on SiteJabber have had a negative experience. In fact, a few times after booking through Hotwire.com and finding out where I was now staying, I looked for a better price for that same room. I haven't found one yet.

On time my wife was stranded with some friends in Chicago after a plane was delayed. She called me up and had me look up a place to stay close to the airport (before we had smartphones). With just a confirmation code they were able to check in a few minutes later.

I haven't used them for flights, car rentals, or cruises. Given my past experience using Hotwire I wouldn't hesitate at all. My only complaint would be they didn't accept me into their affiliate program so I could get a kickback when I tell my friends about my experience. I guess my blog won't cut it for them. :) Oh well, I still let friends and family know I've had nothing but good experiences after using Hotwire multiple times. As with anything, do your research beforehand; I'm just one opinion.

Deep Discounts an hotwire program is a SCAM. I was promissed a 5 star hotel in the city center (never mind the city) for 132 Dollar a night. The idea is that you do not know the hotel name and brand until you paid. Similar saving concept available on priceline and last minute unrevealed hotels. A great deal you would expect to save at least 30 percent of the hotel original rate.
Well think again. After booking without the possibility to cancel, I got the hotel name which is not known brand but rated OK. 4 nights for 592 dollar including tax. Great. Lets check the original hotel rate, I told my self, then found out that 4 nights at the same 5 star hotel on the same site cost only 599 including tax for same dates.
You understand why its a SCAM?
Promissing deep discount and what you get is 1 percent (yes one percent) discount while taking a huge risk.
Satisfied I am not.
Beware of their DEEP DISCOUNTS offering of hotwire its a SCAM.

HotWire: Don't expect "Deep discounts" as their website claims OR Any Customer Service!

I reserved a hotel thru HotWire for 3 persons and paid a total of 74.64.

I have spent the last 2 hours trying to get some sort of service out of their "customer service" people, first of all, the total savings I got was a fantastic total of 2.40 usd which is NOT a "Deep Discount" as their website claims (that is IF I got what I reserved). Once you get ripped off, like I did, and call customer service, they tell you that they guarantee the "Lowest rate on the Internet" which can be as low as 1 cent cheaper and they still claim it's a discounted rate.

Second, I called the Hotel HotWire choose for my reservation just to confirm that they had received my itinerary and the lady told me that I had a HotWire reservation for 1 king bed, then I called HotWire again, and they told me they had a "problem" with the Hotel reservations (or something) and that if I wanted to "upgrade" to a double bed room (which is not an upgrade, it's what I originally paid for) I had to pay an extra 10 usd to the hotel and then mail the receipt to HotWire and eventually HotWire would reimburse me the 10 usd back.

Why do I have to do this? I paid for a double bed room, Hot Wire selects a roachy hotel for me at a fantastic savings of 2.40 usd, and then I STILL have to go to the trouble of paying this Hotel, sending my receipt to HotWire and then I have to wait for the refund? Why? Why the bad service? Why do I have to do all this running around to save 2.40 and get an inferior hotel that I would have never chosen on my own?

I prepaid the hotel for my mom who is old and does not speak English so she would not have to mess with anything and now she'll have to do all this? My goodness! This is just bad all around!

I've used HotWire before with very good results and have highly recommended it to all my friends and family, but after this I will never use HotWire again and will tell this bad experience to everyone who'll listen! This is just wrong!

Will NEVER use HotWire again!

Be VERY careful with this website! I booked( or thought I booked) a room at a four star overseas hotel. As I never received a confirmation on the booking, I thought it had not gone through, and some ten days later rebooked when I was actually overseas. On arrival at the hotel, I found I had been charged for two rooms for the same night(!). There was no way I could contact Hotwire by phone or email(hotel computers were down, no access to any directory assistance, the hotel was 'too busy' to look up the site on their computer to assist me). I was told I would have to take this up with Hotwire. Hotwire told me that it was my hard luck. They 'send out thousands of emails every day and assume no responsibility for ones that are not received' and, no, they would NOT refund the amount for the other room. BEWARE!