Travellers in the Hotwire Discussion Forum often ask how to cancel a Hotwire reservation. Before booking a Hotwire hotel, travellers should be aware that Hotwire “Hot Rate” hotel reservations are non-refundable and cannot be changed. This is according to the Hotwire website, “For all Hotwire Hot Rates, bookings are final and cannot be cancelled, refunded, exchanged, transferred, or changed, even for a fee.”
Although this is clearly stated in the Hotwire common questions, I personally do not feel their policy is as obvious in during the hotel reservation process. In fact, I could not see a statement that clearly says hotels cannot be cancelled or changed during the booking process before I gave my credit card. it is worth noting that Priceline, on the other hand, makes it very loud, bold, and clear that their reservations are non-refundable. Check out how obvious Priceline makes it.
Priceline – making their cancelation policy obvious.
Why are Hotel reservations non-cancellable? It’s fairly straight-forward. The way Hotwire works is that they sell off rooms that hotels want to fill, but do not want their other guests knowing about. Hotels, in turn, use Hotwire (and Priceline) to sell them through their system where the hotel name is not revealed until after a purchase is made. The system would not work if Hotwire allowed cancelations.
Having used Hotwire well over 100 times for personal travel, I have been caught just once with a hotel reservation that I could not use and had to cancel. My travel plans changed and I could not use the reservation. Despite my effort, my hotel reservation went unused and I ate the cost.
Personally, I believe that Hotwire should offer a cancelation policy whereby there is a heavy cancelation fee, of which a portion goes to the hotel and a portion goes to Hotwire. Say, for example, on a $100 hotel reservation, the cancelation fee was $30 (30% or a flat fee of $30 per night). This cancelation policy would be steep enough that people are only going to use it in extreme cases where they genuinely have to cancel their hotel reservation and are willing to absorb a significant fee.
An ounce of prevention… Quite simply, its best to avoid making a Hotwire hotel reservation if you think you might have to cancel for any reason. It is worth spending a few minutes learning Hotwire policies and common questions and how Hotwire works. Things come up, plans change, life happens. Its best to avoid booking unless you are 100% certain you won’t have to cancel. Hotwire does offer trip cancellation insurance. Quite honestly, I’ve never used it. Having glanced at the insurance policy, it appears that the cancelation insurance applies only to certain situations. In other words, you simply cannot cancel at whim.
Additional Help: I have heard of accounts where people have been able to cancel a Priceline reservation in extreme circumstances, such as a death in the family. See this article on how to cancel a Priceline reservation. I do not recommend this approach, but some travellers have used it with success. Other options for how to cancel a Hotwire reservation
- Give Hotwire a call, explain your situation, and see what they can do for you. It is likely that they will not be able to do anything at all, but you might stumble upon a friendly staff member who wants to give you a break. Maybe they’ll give you a credit or partial credit. Not likely, but worth a try.
- Call the hotel. Like Hotwire, you probably will not get any resolution, but its worth a call. Again, maybe they’ll be able to give yo a credit or partial credit, but not likely.
- Consider transferring your reservation to a friend who can use it. Although reservations are non-transferrable, hotels will often allow this if you call them and explain your circumstances. You can also “add a guest” who will be able to check in. Your name will remain on the reservation, but technically, you do not need to be there.