Hotwire.com is Misleading

ComplaintsHotelsHotwire.com

Complaint

0
Devon
Country: United States
Me and my wife planned to have a family vacation and since we are running on a tight income I'd searched online for affordable hotels using hotwire.com, there they seem to have affordable hotels but they don't let you see its names until you've booked for it, It was a shame that I was forced to payed a substandard hotels. They told me it was mandatory. It was really unfair not disclosing those information to me before booking, I thought we'll stay in a 4 star hotel but it was not. When I contacted them they refused t cancel my reservation, they are only bunch of rip offs, thanks to them we had an awful vacation and our budget was ruin.

Comments

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  • 0
    You are absolutely right!
    | 17 replies
    They got me Howard Johnson Newark Airport hotel and they did not tell that in advance that there is a $15 parking fees. Although I was not flying or accessing the airport!!!

    Also the non-smoking room was full of smell of smoke! This is last week of March 2011.
    • 0
      Common Sense replies to You are absolutely right!
      | 16 replies
      People are complaining about hotels and such, Hotwire is a BOOKING service...they don't run the hotel and can't control what your stay is like or conditions of the hotel will be like! Over half of these complaints about Hotwire need to be redirected to the actual Hotel, Car Rental Agency, Flight Line, etc. They don't run these companies, they just book them for you and try to find you a better deal!!!
      • 0
        Gayle replies to Common Sense
        | 3 replies
        They inappropriately label the hotel.  Such as saying it is  a 3 star hotel instead of a 4 star.  They also lie.  They stated the hotel is downtown.  Actually it is not.  The hotels provides shuttles to downtown.  The hotel is not downtown.
        • 0
          not true replies to Gayle
          | 2 replies
          do your research. anytime i use hotwire and get my hotel i check star ratings on other sites like trip advisor, orbitz, travelocity, etc and its usually either exactly the same or an average of the others in the middle.
          • 0
            karen replies to not true
            Facebook to do research when they don't tell you what it is until after you book it and then they won't let you change itit would be another thing if they don't let you see what their booking until after and then they let you change it if you need to
          • 0
            Kelsey replies to not true
            I do the same thing and they completely screwed me! I did all my research, found the matching trip advisor rating, matching hotel rate that they said I was getting a discount on, etc. Guess what?! They amount they said the hotel was charging was completely off! Not even close, I didn't get a discount at all. Had I known, never would have booked it.
      • 0
        D replies to Common Sense
        Well thats right they do the booking and research for us so we dont have to worry about it. But at the end you spend more money than needed hotwire should recommend hotels that say they offer something that they dont and if you dont get what you pay for then whats the point of hotwire existence
      • 0
        Lori replies to Common Sense
        | 4 replies
        They don't control the hotel but they do control their ethical practices . They say " deeply discounted rate" I booked a hotel and once the name was disclosed i went to their site and my deeply discounted nonrefundable rate was $9.38 below price on site. after paying their fees etc. I ended up paying more then if i had gone to the site directly.
        I am now trying to see how many other people find this to be the case and then contact a law firm to start a class action suit against them.
        • +1
          Deanna replies to Lori
          | 1 reply
          I am in the middle of a dispute with Hotwire as well. They advertised Hunters Green Motel in Yarmouth as a 3 star hotel valued at $288 for $92.  This is a $65 per night hotel.  They refunded the difference only.  The customer service rep even offered to have research call us because she ADMITTED they had no benchmark for why they rated this a 3 star.  She said someone would contact me to possibly provide some sort of compensation. I received an email today stating they are sticking by their 3 star rating. I told them they had 24 hours or I was contacting the Attorney General of NY.  I do not think they are going to upgrade us to a 3 star hotel
          • 0
            Angeleen replies to Deanna
            Hi,

            I am in the same situation. Except they charged us $130/ night plus 11.7% tax. Total $462.85 for 3 nights!!! FOR A 2 STAR MOTEL!!!!!  How Hotwire can claim this motel is a 3 star hotel is unbelievable. I am disgusted and trying to fight this as well. Could you please update me on your status with Hotwire?
        • 0
          Alfred McReynolds replies to Lori
          I want to be part of this law suit.  I try to book a room for me an my girls when we arrived at the 2 star hotel
          That hot wire booked for us my girls was so afraid from the appearance of the hotel they did not want
          Get out of the car.  We did not stay at the hotel.  When we call hot wire to complain we could not get my money back.  I feel hot wire should not have this kind of hotel on there list.  This is so unfair..  please contact me when ever possible.  My booking date. Was 10/04/2013.
        • 0
          Niam replies to Lori
          Curious if you were successful in filling any class action suit against Hotwire.com. I am thinking the same after being mislead by their dubious and specious information. This kind of blatant deception needs to be exposed to the public and condemned and punished legally. Please let me know. Thanks.

          NM
      • +1
        dj replies to Common Sense
        I believe they know the condition of the hotels. We called and told them our experience but they didn't seem interested. All they have to do is look at trip advisor and see a bunch of bad experiences for that hotel. I would never use their Hotwire again.
      • 0
        Chuck replies to Common Sense
        They can control when you book a 4 star hotel and it is actually a 3 star hotel they flat out lie
      • 0
        monica replies to Common Sense
        Do you work for hotwire?
        It looks like you do
        when you book a hotel with 4 stars, you should get a 4 stars hotel
        Hotwire give arbitrary stars to thd hotels just to increase booking, that's false advertising.
        I booked a 4.5 stars hotel with 100% approval and I got a very bad 3 stars and nowhere this hotel got more than 3.5 stars by customers.
        They create the data that your are using to select your hotel.
        A good deal implies a good price for a good product.
      • 0
        the real truth replies to Common Sense
        hotwire and their parent company, expedia, SUCKS!!   Period.
        They lie and cheat and use incompetent employees to rip folks off.
        It's happened to us one too many times.  Screw them and their GREEDY CEO's
      • 0
        Sally replies to Common Sense
        We have been hotwire customers for more than a year and we made the mistake of trusting the website. We booked several 2 star hotels under the HOT RATE HOTEL PRICES with basic amenities as we are both students and just need a decent place to stay as our main aim was to explore the area and go for sight-seeing and activities in the area. We had a satisfactory stay these few trips as we were provided the described standard of care. We now planned for a trip to Universal Studios Orlando and decided to book for a 3 star and 3.5 star hotel this time through hotwire.com. BIG MISTAKE! First thing we learnt that this "Hot Rate Hotel deal" is a big scam. If you read the fine print, they can stick you with any hotel that they find and is deemed 3 star even if it doesn't meet any required standards!! They misrepresent the category by putting in names like Sheraton, Westin, etc. and I doubt barely any customer is actually provided with an actual booking in these places. Instead they have a large mix of any nearby hotels who they deem eligible and chances are you will be stuck with one of them. This is exactly our story and they cheated us this way not once but twice. Here is our story. We made a reservation through the Hot Rate deal at a 3 star hotel and were stuck with a substandard hotel deemed 3 star. Checked reviews on google, yelp, tripadvisor, and several other websites and sorted those with most recent ones. We were horrified to see pictures of filthy and dirty rooms and furniture, complaints about pest infestation and unsanitary conditions. So of course we decided to call customer care. After a long time of explaining the situation and being redirected we finally got an agent who stressed that this would be a one time exception given to us. We of course noted that they should not have kept such hotels in this category and they should update according to recent reviews! In this day and age, who relies 3-5 years old reviews. We finally made a agreement to pay more and get a decent place. The category we chose was a 3 Star Boutique Hotel! Of course again we specified we would require basic amenities and we asked to be filtered out of such places. The lady mentioned that she removed the hotel we complained about. AND AGAIN WE WERE CHEATED! They stuck us with a hotel even worse. The filtering was only for that one place. We got another horrible place with even bad customer ratings and pictures with shower heads hanging, broken chairs and awful conditions. Their claim about the hotel was false - it was not 'boutique'. The hotel was below standard. So we called them again! After speaking with several people and getting redirected about 5 times. All they claim is we were already given a one time exception and they can't do anything further. How is it a one time exception if our complaint was never addressed. Another excuse to stick us up by giving us any substandard place and charging us even more for it! They state that their reservation policy is non-refundable. Of course the policy is enforcable but the standard of the hotel mentioned is not??? Their 'customer service' is anything but. The supervisor claims they were isolated incidents when we were ready to provide all the required proof and information from several recent past customers posted online on several travel websites!! This is just another way to scam people and they are making great money in doing this. There is no proper management and it did not even seem they were redirecting or doing anything about our case. Just putting us on hold and saying we cannot do anything. We, obviously, now are out of our money and will never use them again. All we were looking for is a decent place to stay! We got scammed by their hot rate deal and misrepresentation of hotels! This is just another effort of on our part so other customers are warned of the shady business these people run!! PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS WEBSITE! YOU MAY HAVE HAD A GOOD EXPERIENCE ONCE BUT DO NOT TRUST THEM!!
      • 0
        O replies to Common Sense
        They are responsible for advertising a hotels rating which are usually very misleading
  • +1
    scotty1824
    | 1 reply
    I booked through Hotwire for a hotel in Las Vegas. The description of the hotel says "Condo" but when I bought the room stay, all I got was a small dinky regular hotel room. When I called them they said that the description of the "Condo" says "most" of the condominiums would have separate room but in my case it is not condominium even though the name of the establishment clearly says Condo. Beware of them, they are biggest liar I have ever seen.
    • 0
      Andrea replies to scotty1824
      I had a misleading Condo in Carlsbad California.  It was basically a small studio hotel room.  It would have been cheaper to select a 4 star hotel room.
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