HotwireReviews 770

Hotwire's Hot Deals are a total scam. You will pay a service fee to HotWire for the pleasure of booking a hotel for which you could get the same price at any other website. While the star ratings for the hotel you book might be accurate, you certainly aren't getting a deal.

I booked a hotel that was advertised as a $190 hotel in downtown Stuttgart for $112. Seems like a good deal, right? With the taxes and fees, it comes up to $132. Okay, still fine. However, when the hotel was revealed, turns out it's far away and exactly the same price as it would be on any other site.

While I'm sure it's a fine hotel, my issue is with the trustworthiness of Hotwire and their Hot Rate deals. The risk of getting a Hot Rate Deal is just not worth it.

I booked 3 nights with the westin on 17th street Philadelphia and I was going to be late so I called and when I got there they told me they canceled my reservation and said because I can't tell them the name of who I talked to we were out of luck and probably wouldn't get a refund. I didn't have money for another hotel and had to stay on the street for 2 days. They gave me one night. Hot wire ended up refunding me but the money didn't help because I wouldn't have it for a week after my vacation. Oscer the manager for western was more than willing to throw me to the street saying it was my fault. Ronnie the lady who helped me on hot wire said I should be happy because they are not suppose to give refunds. You know forget the fact I had to sleep on the street for 2 nights in a dangerous city with my girlfriend and are dog. I will never give them biasness again and the westin is heartless and has no problem throwing you to the street after you have paid.

Just spent 45 minutes on the phone with customer support. I have e mails from Hotwire with itinerary numbers. The reps can't find the account and argue that the booking was with Expedia despite the e mail screen shot being full of Hotwire logos. Get ping ponged back to Expedia and back to Hotwire after getting disconnected twice... Hotwire can now magically find the booking thenrgird time. Only after I repeat the number 4 times with each of their reps.
All this to cancel a reservation. That reservation was canceled due to their currency policy. I am Candian. I booked through a canadian URL. I booked a Candian hotel one hour from my home. The charge came through on my visa in American dollars. I normally book through hotels.com. They charge me in canadian dollars. What a novel concept. Booking a Candian customer on a canadian hotel in Candian dollars. I guess I should not have assumed.
I guess it's too much to assume that if you plan on doing busines in another country that you transact in the local currency. I own it.
The manour in which the issues was rectified was Mickey Mouse without the trip to Disney.
I just looked up consumer reports ranking Hotwire and they are shameful. Never again.

I used them to book a room and a car for vacation. The price I was quoted for my car was not what I was charged upon returning the car.
Then I was outsourced on my room to Expedia without notice. Until I had a complaint then I have to talk to Expedia. Wow where did they come from? I called Hotwire.

The BIG ISSUE was the false advertising. Per Hotwire website this hotel had a kitchen microwave refrigerator and a grill. Upon arrival I find out the hotel remodeled a while ago and no longer have any of the accommodations. I was falsely advised to period.

I called once I returned home only to get the run around for hours. I was told by Dakota I had to hold the line if I wanted help. After a hour I requested a supervisor. Got Ricky Da-pa-la-parre he assured he would confirm the hotel has none of these things and call back with some type of resolution. He never called back so, I called back talked to Kendra she told me he was gone for the day. I asked to speak with another supervisor. She then tells me she will take my number and call back. I refused because that's what Ricky said and did nothing.

At this time I feel like I was falsely advertised to and taking advantage of. Then the customer service was like oooh well this was prepaid.

This is by far the worst experience I have ever had! There was unexpected traffic on my way to the airport and I barely missed the cut off time for check in so I missed my outbound flight. I couldn't change my flight and pay the difference because it was bought through this website so I bought another ticket. The airlines told me to call hotwire because they will cancel the whole trip if I didn't make that flight. I looked on my email confirmation and it did not indicate any of this. I called them and explained the situation and told them I bought another ticket and would be arriving the same day as originally planned and wanted to make sure my return flight was still good to go. That is when they told me that the return flight was cancelled. So on top of buying another ticket, there was no credit or refund they would give me for my missed flight then proceeded to tell me there was an additional charge for rebooking my return flight that I hadn't even missed or wanted to change. I paid for this trip and then another $700 to keep my existing reservation. What a rip off and horrible customer service. Never again... I will be reporting this to the BBB and filing a consumer complaint.

I used Hotwire to book a vacation to Orlando in Feb 2017. Hotwire over charged me $698.40 and I still have not gotten it back. After customer service talked in circles for months, an investigation by my bank, and an inquiry with United Airlines got me no closer to getting my money back I decided to tell the next customer service rep that I was calling to check the status of my refund. Sure enough, she looked up my itinerary number and assured me my refund would be released on the following Monday; mind you there is no refund to speak of. Are these reps instructed to just tell customers their money is on its way? Going to Disney almost $700 short and hours spent on the phone has been a nightmare. Also they have no legal team and were unable to direct me to anyone who can help in regards to a refund. Small claims court it is. What a scam.

I booked a hotel in Niagara Falls with my husband. I called Hotwire for some help when I accidentally booked the wrong hotel. First when they found me a hotel they booked it in MINNESOTA when I specifically said NEW YORK. That should of been the first red flag. Then he said he found me a hotel right next to the falls. I said that was perfect and he booked it. When we got here it is a terrible hotel 20 minutes away from the falls. I will never ever use Hotwire again, they also never refunded my money from when the messed up the first time. ABSOLUTELY AWFUL

Do not use hotwire hot rate hotel. It is a scam. I recently booked a 2 night stay in Paris. Well, the "original, slashed out price" was $269. At a hot rate of $103, I thought I was getting one of the really good hotels in that zone. I had cross referenced features, etc. to their standard list of hotels for that zone, spending an inordinate amount of time on this in order to save some change. Well, in the end, it is the Mercure Mirabeau --- which has never had a $269 rate. Called hotwire to complain about the advertising. Their story was that the rate must have magically changed within one minute of booking. Again, keep in mind that I was monitoring all the rates throughout the process. The Mercure Mirabeau hasn't had a rate like that for a standard room. Horwire is ridiculous. Hotwire will try to use any line just to say you were wrong. Very deceptive practices.

A deal advertised as a 2.5 star hotel in Florence, SC comparable to the Holiday Inn Express turned out to be a 1.4 star Roadway Inn that was not only dirty, but unsafe. (The door woudn't close fully and the latch was broken.) We made calls to Hotwire customer service both before and after arriving at the hotel, even speaking with a manager, however Hotwire turned our every argument against us, blaming us for choosing a bad hot rate deal. Hotwire does not hold itself accountable for booking hotels in far lower quality brackets than what they advertise. Their customer service is shockingly rude and uncooperative. Not only will I cease using their service and recommend others do the same, but I would advise that stockholders beware because any company that treats it's customer so poorly is surely on the decline!

In the past I have successfully used their service despite restrictions on cancellations or changes and refunds. Last week, I attempted to make a hotel reservation. The transaction was not completed due to lack of inventory, but they still processed a payment authorization. Five days later, there is still a hold on those funds even though there was no completed reservation.

Twice I called the customer service department to resolve this issue. The first time was a Sunday and even still the representative offered to call my bank. The next day a different representative suggested that I call my bank and offered to call the bank on three-way only after I expressed deep dissatisfaction. She claimed to have sent a fax, but the bank reports that no fax was received. The hold on the funds persists.

I am finally done using this 3rd party service.

Just wish there was a way to get this out to everyone thinking of reserving with Hotwire. Called three times in three days and never got a confirmation email that was promised. Finally had someone on the phone today who got a confirmation to me that was completely wrong. Twice! I just wanted to change a hotel reservation to check out one day early. To do that they had to contact the hotel for their permission, then cancel the original reservation and begin a new one. Well, the only thing the hotel has available is a suite for $50 more a night. I had the reservation in front of me for a regular room, but Hotwire would not allow me to keep that room. Ridiculous! I ended up canceling with Hotwire while I called the hotel directly to get the same room I had originally reserved. Somehow people have to be informed about what a mess Hotwire is. And somehow I have to remember never to use Hotwire again. Ever. Oh, and of course I was speaking with someone in India who was almost impossible to understand.