HotwireReviews 770

Booked a Full Size rental car for 5 days, inputted my dates of 9/22/15 - 9/26/15 at $9.99 per day through ENTERPRISE CAR RENTALS. Great deal but... After they ran my card the final itenary showed 9/27/15 - 9/29/15. Called Hotwire and they advised th offer only good for the dates listed. They would be happy to refund my $50 and book me with their partners, ENTERPRISE CAR RENTALS, at well over $300. Higher than all other offers on the market, even renting directly from ENTERPRISE. If I didn't book the $300+ deal then they would simply keep my $50. The Judicial System calls that BAIT AND SWITCH. So ENTERPRISE and HOTWIRE have created a new profit center. My recommendation is DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ENTERPRISE CAR RENTALS or HOTWIRE. Do a SEARCH ON HOTWIRE SCAMS and you will understand. I have forwarded this scam onto my attorney and if anyone else has suffered from this scam please continue to review this site and other scam reporting sites to provide your information for a potential class action lawsuit.

Total fraud! Customer service is a farce. Hotwire booked two rental cars and I had no clue what rental was supposed to be the correct one. Customer service agents cannot help you resolve anything... 3 hours on hold, 3 transfers and not one could tell me what was the correct rental car. Making matters worse after making a formal complaint I received message after message on my work phone where they leave an inoperative toll free number telling me to call them back. The number they call from is for outgoing calls only. The number they leave... inoperative. Nothing but condescension from the two people leaving messages... they repeat the behavior when called out on twitter.

This was a great company about 3 years ago. Now you get routed to an overseas customer support center that cannot help you at all. They will not refund any money at any time for any reason. This is now a bottom feeder company.

It seem ridiculous that one can not cancel a car rental and at least get a portion of their money back. Tried to cancel only three hours after making the reservation and 4 days before the actual rental. I got absolutely no service at all and paid $250.00. Somebody made a lot of money for doing absolutely nothing! I will NEVER use this service again and will do everything in my power to discourage everyone I know from using them too!

Beware of hotwire's blind deals. They do not show you the genuine room rate. When they tell you that you get a 30% discount, it doesn't mean that you pay 30% off the original rate. Instead, they estimate some "fair rate" by comparing similar offers in the hotel neighborhood (similar star rating and other factors). They call it a "Crossed-Out Rate". Your discount is relative to this crossed out rate, not relative to the hotel genuine room rate. The idea might be nice, but sometimes they do make big mistakes. I thought I caught a bargain: 70% off a $650 room rate! Turned out that they computed a wrong estimator. The same room was offered at the same time in another booking site for $171 I found myself paying more. Refund? Don't even think about it. They have many excuses, including "breakdown of taxes and fees are not included". And what about the misleading crossed-out estimation? They tell you to read the terms of use

First time I've used Hotwire. I've used Expedia, Trip Adviser and other sites with reasonable results. NOT Hotwire! I clicked on the 50% off button (sales speak was that big hotels didn't want people to know they rented so cheap) I selected the deal when it said the reviews were 4.5 approval from customers. Then they give you your hotel's name once you pay. Not only did I not save 50% - it cost me more to go through Hotwire than to go through the hotel's website. AND only a 3.5 approval rating from customers. SO BAD! Save yourself the frustration and run, don't walk away from Hotwire.

Rented a car through Hotwire and thought I was getting a great deal. Picked up car at one airport and returned it another. Was not advised of $300+ fee for not returning car at same airport it was picked up at. Did not see this additional fee when I accepted rate.

So renter beware of this additional cost.

I will never use Hotwire again. This experience did make me aware of this fee so should I ever rent a car from one location and return it to another location regardless of the rental company, I am will negotiate appropriately.

Very disappointed with Hotwire.

Don't ever rent a car from hot wire. They have you pay in advance and will not even talk to you if you find a better rate from the same or different company. I rented a car in Boston for 18 days in late June / mid-July. I gave Hotwire my credit card. The next day when my plane arrived in Boston I found the same car over $100 cheaper from the same company, Alamo. Unable to contact Hotwire about a price reduction. Also, if you need to cancel your trip early you will be stuck paying the entire rental amount and won't get a refund for the unused balance.

Don't book with them. I found the same hotel for 10% less and hotwire gave me the run around for over a week. First for days they said they could not read the screen shot. Then they emailed me and said that the reservation I found did not have the same number of persons - I then showed them I actually made the reservation for 2, and so they were wrong! They will make you work for weeks to try to get the lower fare you found, hoping you will just give up. DO NOT USE THEM

I used to love Hotwire, which I have used only to book hotels, but two unfortunate experiences with Hotwire's customer service has me looking for other discount sites. Latest. Somehow the CAD denomination was showing above the hotel prices. I booked before it really registered that I, with a US credit card, US address, and US destination, was going to have to pay in Canadian dollars. I called immediately. Experienced long holds and not-even-marginally-friendly customer service rep. Be very careful when you book. NOTHING can be changed, including the currency in which you are paying. Oh yes, they do say this on the site. And the rep did say, "Sorry."