Hotwire question

[pbrim]

For those of you who use hotwire, does the price drop signifcantly as you get closer to departure time?

I need a hotel for just the first night I arrive, as I ended up with a flight that gets in at midnight the night before. I have found something on hotwire, but I am still 70 days out. My question is, shoudl I go ahead and book now, or wait and see if the price goes down? (If I can't get the deal I want later, I can find something I can deal with for one night, so I'm not too concerned about that.)

They advertise that theses are rooms the hotel is afraid they can't book, so it would make sense that the price would go down closer in, but I've never used Hotwire before, so I'm asking for some experienced advice. Thanks!

 

[clanmcculloch]

It really varies by availability. If the hotels are having trouble booking, they may agree to further reduce their rates as the dates get closer. If the hotels are booking up they may no longer even have rooms that they'll offer to hotwire.

One thing I will advise you to do though is to clear your cookies and redo your search before booking. Hotwire keeps track of the offers they've given you via cookies and will display a higher price each subsequent search unless you clear your cookies so that they don't know you've searched before.

 

[Singinglizzie]

I use Hotwire frequently and I have found that you will have more hotel selection about 3-4 months out. The closer you get, some hotels will have met their minimums, so will withdraw. You can still get a deal last minute, but I have found that if rooms are selling well for my time period, prices go up not down - but this depends on supply and demand. I also use better bidding . c om to try to make an educated guess about which property I am likely to ge. Out of about 20 wins, I have only been wrong once but was satisfied with the outcome. Have fun!