I used one of these sites once and will never do it again. The hotel was horrible. So many things went wrong that I complained and they said there was nothing they could do because I went through the website.
Did you happen to call the booking site while you were in the lobby? That has been highly useful (not that we've had BAD situations, but in not-perfect times we've done it) because they then call the hotel and work it all out. A hotel shouldn't want to be dropped from a booking site, and they should work to make them happy (and therefore the guest).
Can Hotwire legally picture hotels that they would never have available as a match? I would think Disney would have some issues with that. My guess is that the hotels they use are nothing "LIKE" Animal Kingdom Lodge, etc... The Disney resorts are fairly unique.
I think there might be two ways of hearing "like". In your case, you're saying "an orange is like an apple because they are fruit and they are sweet and are round and palm-sized". I hear it as "I would like a piece of fruit like an apple", which means it could be an apple or it could be something else.
I bet the lawyers would say they were using it the way I'm hearing it.
That said, are they even doing what the OP described anymore? When I went through just now, instead of "here's a hint", I see something like the following:
Hotels in our 2.5-star collection
Hotels don't want to advertise prices this low. You'll get the hotel name after you book, so the hotel keeps its good image. (These hotels are examples, not a guarantee.)
And then it shows some hotel brand logos in a box. They aren't saying "like". They are simply showing hotels in that collection. And they say it's not a guarantee.
We had a horrible experience with booking.com We were in a resort town during a holiday weekend and checked out of one hotel and decided to stay another night. Whipped out the phone and booked a hotel.
When we got there we were told that there were NO ROOMS. Yes, they had our reservation but sometimes "that happens"
I called booking.com after 45 minutes on the phone fighting I did not want my money back I wanted a room. They kept suggesting hotels that were a lot more expensive than the one I booked. It was a premium weekend and hotels were expensive.
After a lot of negotiation they agreed to find me a hotel in my price range and call me back. It took them 2 hours.
We were "homeless" for 2 hours. I would NEVER use them again.
Lisa
DH got stranded in Chicago a couple weeks ago. Even though he was on the phone AND in line for United at the same time, tons of flights were all cancelled at once, and he had a LOT of people in front of him in both lines. Meanwhile I was at home trying to find him a hotel. Every time I would try to book it was booked out from under me. It was quite difficult for both of us.
I finally got something booked. Then I called them to let them know he was on his way, and they said they were totally booked. This was through hotels.com, BUT it could have happened through their own website, too. I called hotels.com, they called the hotel, got the refund notification inside of 5 minutes. Same thing happened half an hour later with a different hotel, and they said it had happened more than once that day.
I think sometimes websites just get overwhelmed! The HARD part is when they just can't accommodate you, like you encountered. I knew how many people were trying to book; watching the map on hotels.com just turning grey every time I clicked around was very difficult. And I understood that websites aren't infallible, and hotels can't create rooms from nothing. DH was nearly homeless that entire night, and was turning around in his rental car to go back to O'Hare to turn it in and spend the night. Then he drove past a Ramada or something, that had a vacancy, and got a room. Whew.
Although my fave booking site was of no use, the websites of the hotels weren't, either, and were being overwhelmed.
What was important is that the hotels.com people were able to call the hotels, get confirmation, and get refunds made to DH's work CC immediately. And if push came to shove, he's spent the night in an airport before (Munich), and he could do it again. Not fun, but it happens sometimes.
Their site may have it for 139 or 129, but then there is 50$ or more in tax and fees. Per night.
There are fees with Swolphin anyway, and their taxes are high.
While I am sure some of the information is still accurate, did anyone notice this thread is from over a year ago? Not sure why mello bumped it up just to mention someone's avatar.
Happens sometimes. It's also possible there was a spammer who bumped it up, mello saw it and read the thread without realizing, and then the spammer was deleted. That's also happened. But sometimes you just get to reading threads from a search and lose track of the dates of the thread!
