HotwireReviews 770

I have booked hotel reservations on their website many times and was always satisfied with the quality and value of the 4 star hotels we got for reasonable rates. BUT...

On 06/26/19 I decided to call them to book a specific hotel instead of rolling the dice for the online selection process and that's when the problems started. I spoke to an Agent and requested the London House Hotel at Wacker/Michigan in Chicago. She put me on hold multiple times and told me that the name of my requested hotel had changed. (it hadn't)
She booked me at the wrong hotel around the corner. I questioned her on this and she assured me it was correct and proceeded to take my reservation and charge my CC. When she sent the reservation to my email, I immediately called back to get them to correct their error and then the trouble really started!
I spoke to a Supervisor named Sheila (put on hold 4x to wait over at 48 minute call) who promised to call me back after reviewing the recording of my reservation. (Didn't happen) I called them back 24 hours later on 06/27 with their reference number provided and was again put on hold 3x over 18 minutes, to be told by another Supervisor that it would take their "Back Office" 5 business days to review the phone call and get back to me.
I've contacted my CC company and told them to reverse the charge and be assured I will NEVER trust this company again.

I have been booking on hotwire since they started and I loved the deals I used to get but those days are long gone. I just booked my last room on Hotwire. It is such a disappointment and I actually think I over paid for this dump rather than get a deal. Since Expedia acquired them they ruined this site. Now you can book directly with the hotel and get within a couple of bucks of the rate hotwire is offering. They may save you $5-10 off the hotel rate but once you add in their fees then you are back at the hotels retail price. Disappointing for sure. Not using them anymore. It's the end of an era for travelers.

I was a customer for about 5 years and I never had a problem with them until the other day. I booked a hotel through them and they offered two different options there was one rate just for the hotel then there was another rate for the hotel with the breakfast for 2 and that is the one I went with. However arriving to the Hotel the lady mentioned and also confirmed over the phone with myself and Hotwire that the reservation didn't show it came with breakfast in their system. So long story short I didn't get the breakfast at the hotel because I had to pay and additional 12.00 per person and the property confirmed this. I told Hotwire I need to get some credit or my money back for the breakfast that they falsely advertised and I paid for it already and they fully refused. I spoke to about 5 different mangers at Hotwire and they simply told me they will not refund me anything or give me any credit at all. They all treated me like i was crazy. So I paid hotwire 301.50 total shows on my bank statement and the receipt they sent me the total was 289.50 and the hotel would've only charged me 268.00! STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE BOOK DIRECTLY WITHT THE PROPERTY OR EXPEDIA!
ATTACHING PICTURES FOR PROOF BUT ITS NOT LEETING ME ADD THE PDF I HAVE ALSO LET MY BANK KNOW OF THIS FRAUD***

DON'T BOOK THOUGH THIS DISGUSTING AGENT, THEY ARE DODGY, I BOOKED TWO TICKETS FROM SHANGHAI BACK TO HONG KONG IN JAN FOR MAY, WE GOT TO THE AIRPORT AND OUR TICKETS HAD BEEN CANCELLED, THEY TOLD US THAT THEY WERE NEVER PAID FOR! I PRODUCED THE BANK STATEMENTS SHOWING THE MONEY HAD COME OUT OF MY ACCOUNT THE SAME DAY OF THE BOOKING! STILL CAN'T GET OUR MONEY BACK FROM EITHER THE TRAVEL INSURANCE COMPANY OR TRAVELGENIO. WE HAD TO BUY NEW TICKETS WHICH COST $1200AUD - DON'T USE THEM

Nightmare. I had a graduate exam at 8 AM in the morning. I drove all the way out to Holyoke. I drove 20 minutes out of my way to get to hotel, I wait in line then when I get to register - oops, Hotwire overbooked and I have no room! Yea.

The hotel was trying to contact Hotwire both before and while I was there to no avail. It's now 5:30 and I've got nowhere to sleep with a tremendously important exam first thing in the morning. I'm exhausted. I have to drive two hours right after the exam the next day to get back to my shift at Urgent Care.

I spend another 30-45 minutes looking for a place. Find one 30 minutes in opposite direction. Awesome - Not an awesome experience. I'm stressed. Finally get to next motel wondering if I'm going to have a room or not. I did, thankfully.

Between time I spent driving around, searching for another motel and adding stress to the already high amount existing it was an both a highly inconvenient and awful experience.

Not to mention I'm charged for two rooms in two places! Hotwire is sending me emails to rate my stay at both the place I couldn't stay and the place I did, obviously not responding the hotel's attempts to contact them.

At the very least Hotwire should comp me my nights stay. I'm doing another shift or I'd call now. I will tomorrow at some point.

With wasted and lost time, stress, inconvenience and duress, $500 refund would be a bargain in restitution.

I needed to change a flight. The individual at Hotwire did not clearly communicate the costs of changing the flight. The cost of the new flight was much higher than other flights available online. When I talked to someone at Hotwire about the first individual having unclearly communicated the change cost, he agreed that she sounded "under the weather". When I communicated with someone in a management position, he was rude.

Now they are refusing to give me the documentation I need to file a travel insurance claim. I have a charge of $954 on my credit card for the airline, but it does not specify what flight it is for or that part of it is a change fee. I need documentation for the claim that it is $300 for a change fee and $654 for the more expensive flight, but they are refusing to give me the documentation.
NEVER USE HOTWIRE

Canadian, searching in Canada, specified canadian dollars in my kayak search and thats what kayak displayed BUT... hotwire (otherwise known as haywired)... show you ads for deals as part of the search results... if you click on their ads the prices will be displayed in US dollars... so they will look like good deals... but arent... I am sure they do it on purpose... and nothing shows its in usd until the payment goes thru... and then its too late... they will not cancel or correct a booking... Really pretty shady and no surprise there are so many poor reviews... in the short run... nothing to be done about it except spread the word about this awful company... Do NOT use them

DO NOT BOOK through them because there is a chance you will end up with nowhere to stay and out of the money you paid to them.

I booked a hotel through them for New Year's weekend 2019. When I arrived at the address on my itinerary, there was a vacant building. I looked for signs showing they had moved and saw nothing. I called the number for the hotel and got no answer. I had to stay in a MOTEL 45 minutes outside of Miami. When I contacted them they said they could not give me a refund. I even had pictures of the place with the "For Lease" sign in the window. The rep told me they contacted the hotel so I tried the number again myself. I did get through to somebody at the hotel that day and they informed me that they did have a DIFFERENT ADDRESS and they share a building so ANOTHER NAME was on the outside. Without speaking to someone, there was no way for me to know this! The credit card company (Citi) took their side because of Hotwire's "no cancellation, no refunds" policy (even though I didn't cancel or stay there). They ROBBED ME of my $515. No services were rendered because they provided me with inaccurate information and did not care enough for their customer to admit or fix their mistake.

I booked today a hotel in NYC for June 2ed. 2 rooms. They offered a hotel in the times square area, one out of 4 hotels. I booked, the price is 200$ a night and I got Yotel hotel. Than I found out through TripAdvisor that there is no door between the room and the toilet.
I called them immediately. At the beginning they said they would check with the hotel. After they did check and the hotel confirmed that information they said they can not do anything about it. Can not give me any other hotel on that category, on their choice, or cancel the reservation.
So I'm paying more than 200$ per night for a room with a toilet inside the room.
They would not send me this in writing either, but the case id no. Is *******2893 and the supervisor name is Diana agent id 945

The review summary here is confusing. It shows about half 5-star reviews and half 1-star reviews. Yet if you scroll down it seems that every review is 1-star. I suspect hotwire at some point flooded your site with bogus 5-star reviews to hide the fact that THEY SUCK. Here's my experience. Booked one of their hot deals for a car with Advantage Car Rental. Arrived around 10:30pm. Advantage's window was already closed but said to go to another window nearby. There, the guy said they had no cars. Didn't matter that I had a confirmed, PRE-PAID confirmation. Worse is that the hotwire customer service people were USELESS. Best they would do was refund me. Big deal. Stuck in an airport where EVERY other car rental place had no cars available. Even checked off-airport (at least those that were still open at that hour). Nothing. They gave me a credit towards a future hot deal. USELESS! Why would I ever book them again if I can't trust that my car or room will be available when I show up? Ended up having to Uber a ride to my hotel half an hour away. Bottom line - It was not at all worth the couple of bucks they were supposedly going to save me. Look - if you want to play russian roulette with your travel plans, use hotwire. But if you're not a moron, you'll stay as far away from them as possible.