People love to complain about Hotwire. You might be thinking that a site like HotelDealsRevealed.com was in support of Hotwire — we are, but we always advocate educating yourself about how it works because purchases are non-refundable. We also want to help travellers save money on travel, and that doesn’t always mean Hotwire. Here are some trips to help you avoid pitfalls and complaints against Hotwire.
How do I cancel a reservation on Hotwire? You can’t. When you book a hotel or other products using Hotwire Hot Rates, you can’t cancel your reservation. When you book, your credit card is charged and there is no cancelation clause. I have a bit of an inside scoop and I’m lead to believe that this will be changing soon. Hotwire will soon open up a very short cancelation window. Nothing confirmed quite yet.
How do I change a reservation on Hotwire? Same as above. Not only can’t you cancel but you can’t change your reservation either. I don’t really see this as a valid complaint against Hotwire since they make it very much up front that you cannot change your reservation.
Will I get stuck with a bad hotel room? This is a mystery. Some travellers have reported that they’ve gotten a bad room at a hotel they booked on Hotwire. Indeed, people do get bad hotel rooms. But whether there is a correlation between the room and Hotwire, I have a hard time believing this. All hotels have different tiers of rooms and a Hotwire reservation will get you in one of the lower rated room types, but the notion of them putting you beside the ice machine or near the elevators simply because you booked on Hotwire is a fallacy. I’ve spoken to dozens of hotel check-in staff members and none admitted to giving crappy rooms to Hotwire customers.
Does Hotwire inflate hotel ratings? I’ve often heard people complain that Hotwire hotel ratings are ‘generous’. Meaning, a 4-star hotel on Hotwire would not be ranked as a 4-star hotel on other websites. Thanks to the Hotwire and Priceline forum, thousands of people have shared their winning bids which I then put into a database and a collection of hotel lists. When I compared the hotel ratings of Hotwire to Priceline, there does seem to be some generosity in Hotwire’s hotel ratings. Have a look at this blog post on Hotwire vs. Priceline hotel ratings. What does this mean? Chance are you are not going to get a resolution from Hotwire if a hotel doesn’t meet your expectations. If, on the other hand, the hotel doesn’t have a particular amenity that was displayed when you booked, be sure to complain and get some sort of refund out of Hotwire.
Does clearing your browser cookies get better rates? This is a bit of an odd one, but I first learned about this on the Consumerist that some people get better rates on Hotwire after they’ve cleared their brower cookies. In this example, they purport that someone tried to book a car rental on Hotwire and $41 per day, then cleared their cookies and performed the same search, getting a rate of $23 per day. Wow! I couldn’t resist and had to try this. Surprisingly, I found similar result. When looking for a hotel, I got slightly different prices (they varied by $1 per night). More imprtantly, 2 of my searches only showed 3 results and one of my searches (after cookies cleared) produced 7 results. These searches were done within about 2 minutes of each other. I can’t explain the variance. Tip: Clear your browser cache and cookies and try searching Hotwire again.
How can you protect yourself against Hotwire Complaints?
I like to think that using Hotwire is a bit like playing blackjack in Las Vegas. You need to know the rules before sitting at the table. You simply cannot place your bet and then and then complain when you lose because you didn’t know the rules. This is not unlike Hotwire. You really are gambling. After all, you DON’T know what hotel you’re going to get. That is the very premise of Hotwire. They only reveal certain information and you have to decide whether to take the chance or not. Here are some tips to help you with better bidding on Hotwire:
- Learn how Hotwire works by visiting the help pages and the Hotwire forum.
- Don’t book on Hotwire if you think you might need to cancel.
- Check out the Hotwire hotel lists to help you reveal your hotel name before bidding.
- Ask questions in our Hotwire forum. We love to help.
Three different search results for the same search on Hotwire, despite performing the same search. 2 different browsers, with 2nd search after browser cookies cleared.