Have you ever considered using Hotwire to book your travels? In this episode of the Travel Fun and Adventure Podcast, we review our experiences with Hotwire and whether it is a good choice for you.
Hotwire was started in 2000, with funding coming primarily from the major airlines. The goal was to provide a new avenue to purchase tickets for seats that the airlines had a hard time filling. Within a few months, they added being able to book hotels, car rentals, and vacation packages.
Hotwire is now owned by the same company that owns Expedia, Booking.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, and others. When booking a hotel with Hotwire, you have the chance not to know what hotel you are booking or see the name of the hotel, which will cost you more and be the same prices you would find on their other agitators.
However, just because you don't know the name of the hotel does not mean you cannot try to find out what hotel you are looking at. When you input your destination and dates, it will give you a map of the area that you are heading to, usually divided up by several subareas. One way to try to find out what hotel you are looking at is to go back and forth from Hot rates to standard rates and look for hotels with the same rating and also the same distance from the place that you input in your initial search. This should give you a good idea of the hotel you may be booking.
That being said, starting a few years ago, we started getting hot-price hotels that were not showing in the standard hotel rates. This caused us to end up getting booked in hotels that were very questionable, including the worst motel experience I have ever had in my life.
When you look at hotels that are between one and three stars, it will tell you the type of hotel brand you should be getting, but as mentioned above, that has not been true lately, and in fact, less than 50% of the time did the hotel end up being a chain hotel at all which does not bother except for the fact that all of them had issues. However, from 3.5-star hotels and above, it will guarantee you that it will be one of 4 brands so you will not have a fear of getting something less.
Another thing to consider when booking with Hotwire is the number of people that will be traveling. If it is just you or you and a significant other who wants to be in the same bed, then you don't have a problem. However, if you are traveling, say, with a couple of children or a friend, so you want a separate bed, make sure that the place you are choosing will give you the option to choose whether you need one bed or two. Otherwise, if it says that the hotel makes the choice, then you could be at the mercy of a place that will try to gouge you for additional money to get a room with two beds.
If price is most important to you and you don't care about getting loyalty points or any of the benefits of being a member of the hotel's loyalty program, Hotwire can be a good option to save money with your hotel stay.
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Travel Fun and Adventure
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