Thais V.

My husband and I booked a hotel via Hotwire for our stay in Rome, Italy. Before we booked, we made sure our hotel choice amenities included Complimentary FREE internet. Before hand, we made sure this was something our hotel had regardless of the area we stayed in since in Europe a lot of places don't offer free WiFi just like that. When we booked, it states that one of the three hotels we would get would have Complimentary FREE internet. But when we arrive at our hotel they actually told us they charge 10 per night for internet AND we can ONLY use it in the lobby and not in our rooms. We were immediately upset because we chose specifically a hotel that had Complimentary FREE internet as advertised on Hotwire. We immediately email Hotwire the next day of course, in the lobby after having paid to use the internet. We check on our booking (the confirmation email you get after you've booked) and towards the end it stated that the hotel offers Internet Access and NOT Complimentary FREE internet like what was advertised on Hotwire PRIOR to and DURING booking. Basically this is FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. How can you say we will get one of the three hotels listed and the amenities that it will have is complimentary FREE internet and then it doesn't?

We then get an email THREE WEEKS after from customer care team saying that we have to call so any of the "travel specialist" can resolve our inquiry. We then call, after we've already emailed them in detail our situation with screenshots so they could process a refund for false advertisement. We then call and one of the customer care team members say the research team didn't provide any details on our account so he couldn't help us. We get transferred to a supervisor upon request and they state what the team member said was correct but that because of their process (that was NOT mentioned to us in the email, which it should have!) all we have to do is email that customer care team member stating that we spoke to a supervisor so then the research team could look into it. Mind you this was going to take another 3-5 business days (so now it's been over a month since this first happened and we're still dealing with this) for them to get back to us for a response.

The same customer care team member gets back to us seven days later stating that they could not process a refund because it was our fault. Our fault that they advertised that our hotel was going to have Complimentary FREE internet and it didn't. We spoke to the supervisor just now and she basically said that she could do nothing about it and that the research team already said no. Even though Hotwire lied. We will NEVER EVER use Hotwire again. They have lost us as a customer. Please pay a little extra and get yourself an Airbnb or spend your money on a hotel you actually like and will provide all the amenities it says it will. We never experienced this with Hotwire but we do not appreciate FALSE ADVERTISEMENT.