Travel help (non disney end) hotwire ??

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Has anyone ever used hotwire for a hotel. The prices are low but it seems to good to be true. My friend gave me her starwood points for the Dolphin for the disney end of my trip but I need to find a hotel down in Melbourne and hotwire was the only place I found reasonable rates. Just makes me a bit nervous, ( and I used to be a travel agent before I went to nursing school), so that is saying alot. Is the ressie legit or will I end up with no bed. LOL. Thanks for the advice in advance.

Also on the Disney end of the trip. What are your favorite places to eat non park and reasonable??

 

[luna99]

I'd like to hear people's opinions about this as well. My brother in law was bragging about this sweet hotel deal he got on priceline or something... but I get scared about those sites.. the ones where you have to "bid" on the room and put your credit card number down and make the reservation before you actually know what hotel you will be staying at.

I know they will let you choose the star rating of your hotel (4 star, 3 star etc)... but maybe I'm just a hotel snob or something. I'm so scared I would make my reservation and even if it was a supposedly 4 star I would end up having to stay in some dumpy place. I like to do a lot of research when it comes to what hotel I'm staying at. I usually look at at least trip advisor, the hotel's actual website, then I try to look up reviews of the hotel on other sites besides trip advisor.

I'd love to hear some success stories with sites like these.

DH and I are probably going to Ottawa, Canada in September and I'd love to get a nice hotel at a cheap price!

thanks for bringing this up OP!

 

[robertgp124]

Check out betterbidding.com. It's a forum site and can help you understand the in's and out's of priceline and hotwire. I've used priceline with some success, but I would make the analogy to power tools. Don't mess with them unless you know what you're doing.

 

[The Grumpus]

Although slightly different, I used Hotwire successfully for a car rental and had no worries. I ended up with Hertz, with a rate of $205 for 8 days, versus $300-400 if I went for a Hertz car through them directly or another site like Expedia.

The key is to understand what you are going to get. You get a region and a hotel class. If you're curious what hotel ratings look like in that area, use the non-bidding section of Hotwire to assess how they rank hotels (look in Melbourne and see what level of hotel you'd stay in consistently). Once you're happy, you can place the bid with confidence that you're going to get a hotel you'll be satisfied with.

-The Grumpus

 

[cocowum]

We have used priceline and hotwire many times. We have gotten some pretty good deals. In Orlando, I would not bid on any thing less than 3 1/2 stars. Learned that one the hard way. Good luck!

Definitely check out betterbidding.com.

 

[WaltD4Me]

You can actually get a good deal on Hotwire for a hotel, a friend of mine did it and got a beautiful hotel in San Franciso for 1/2 the price the website quoted her, but only go with a 3 1/2 to 4 star hotel and you might have to be flexible when it comes to the location. It might be 4 star hotel, but it might be a ways out of town or not right on "the main drag." Personally, I just don't like not knowing the name of place before I pay for it. I guess it's the planner in me, but even if it is 4 star, I want to research it, read reviews, ect....I just cannot bring myself to book something "blind."

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

If I click on a hotel that is rated 3.5 stars and it said they have 2 suppliers the Hilton and Crowne Plaza and both have good reviews and look nice. It would have to be one of those two or am I looking at this wrong. It didnt say to offer a bid just listed a price. Is that normal?

 

[DisFhan]

I have used Hotwire, Orbitz, hotels.com and have not had any issues. I have used to book room, airfare and car and no problems. I actually had to use it on the road the other day to book a room and got a great deal. I had to borrow the free internet from another hotel to book a room. It was cheaper than booking from the hotels website. There are times it helps you search for hotels in a certain area and then you can check out the hotels website and sometimes the rates are cheaper. I just say shop around and look, sometimes the rates are cheaper from the hotel.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I've used Hotwire and Priceline. For the most part, experiences have been good. However, you do have to watch out for hidden costs once you check in like parking and resort fees, etc.

Also, on more than one occassion we've stayed at name-brand properties and found out once we got there that construction was going on, or the pool was closed for maintenance...that sort of thing. Minor issues that might cause the hotel to not book as many rooms as usual, so they turn to HW/PL to get their occupancy up.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Thanks for everyones help. I got my first choice of hotel being the Crowne Plaza for about $100 less for 4 nights cant beat that. Lets hope it all goes smoothely otherwise. That is really incredible they offer deals like this when the hotel quoted me $30 higher per day.

I will be moving around a bit but I got 4 free Nights at the Dolphin from a friend, 4 nights at the beach, 2 nights at POP for a total cost of $621. I think that is the cheapest vacation I have ever taken. LOL

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Sounds great Liz -- I hope you have a wonderful vacation!

 

[ExBellhop]

I saw someone mention "betterbidding.com" and I will also throw out "biddingfortravel.com". Both of those sites allow you to do some research (and if you're reading these boards, don't tell me you don't like doing travel research ) about Hotwire and Priceline hotels. Based on past wins from other users, you can often get a pretty good determination of what hotel you can score for a given price on Priceline, or what hotel Hotwire is cryptically referring to.

There is no reason that anyone on the boards should NOT be using Hotwire or Priceline when booking hotels. We all like to save money, right?

Enjoy,
ExBellhop

 

[Hedy]

Has anyone ever used hotwire for a hotel. The prices are low but it seems to good to be true. My friend gave me her starwood points for the Dolphin for the disney end of my trip but I need to find a hotel down in Melbourne and hotwire was the only place I found reasonable rates. Just makes me a bit nervous, ( and I used to be a travel agent before I went to nursing school), so that is saying alot. Is the ressie legit or will I end up with no bed. LOL. Thanks for the advice in advance.

Also on the Disney end of the trip. What are your favorite places to eat non park and reasonable??

I got the Hyatt MCO on Hotwire for $84, and ther Sheraton suites at MCO for $35.

 

[yosh12]

I got the hyatt convention center orlando for $38 a night.....regular $123 a night.

Good deal

 

[Disneybridein2k3]

I saw someone mention "betterbidding.com" and I will also throw out "biddingfortravel.com". Both of those sites allow you to do some research (and if you're reading these boards, don't tell me you don't like doing travel research ) about Hotwire and Priceline hotels. Based on past wins from other users, you can often get a pretty good determination of what hotel you can score for a given price on Priceline, or what hotel Hotwire is cryptically referring to.

There is no reason that anyone on the boards should NOT be using Hotwire or Priceline when booking hotels. We all like to save money, right?

Enjoy,
ExBellhop

This is great advice - particularly on the part about "what hotel Hotwire is cryptically referring to". Many users have already figured out by looking for certain amenities at the hotel in a particular location, you can figure out which hotel is which and know what to bid (and if it is a good deal).

 

[timmac]

This is great advice - particularly on the part about "what hotel Hotwire is cryptically referring to". Many users have already figured out by looking for certain amenities at the hotel in a particular location, you can figure out which hotel is which and know what to bid (and if it is a good deal).

I'll add one caveat though, that in certain areas that are densely populated with hotels, this logic falls though.... there's just too many providers with very similar amenities to accurately gauge what you're bidding on. Not that it's a bad deal or that it's a bad way to go, but be advised. The one location in particular I'm thinking about is a certain central Florida vacation destination...

For my trip this past April, I booked the first and last nights of our stay through hotwire, same star rating, same amenities listed, even same price, but they were different hotels.

More general advice, if your heart is set on a certain location or certain features, then hotwire and priceline may not be for you in that particular case. If you just need a place to stay for a night or two (particularly if you're going to be in town for some other event outside of the hotel/resort anyway) then I'd say go for it and who cares where you end up (within reason).