Hotwire
Reviews and Complaints

I just got off the phone... I told them to have fun with my $200.

Can everyone get join in and file suit on this company? I totally agree they are thiefs and do not deserve to be in business...

YOU ARE A BIG IDIOT!
BOOKING WITH HOTWIRE IS FINAL THAT MEANS NO REFUND ONCE YOU COMPLETE THE RESERVATION! ITS YPUR FAULT DUMB ### MOTHER###ER!

I agree totally! the hotel I booked charged me what amounted to 20% of my rate for parking! With this unanticipated charge, I could have booked a better hotel without using Hotwire! In addition, the hotel was outside the area as described although they claimed it was not. Customer service rep and manager would not discuss. When I asked what others do when they don't help, the answer is: everyone eventually hangs up. Great customer service. I'm hoping my credit card will help me, but the Hotwire manager told me they won't.

Why didn't I find this site BEFORE I got screwed?!

I am a college student, working part time and me and a friend booked a flight to Aruba THINKING we had a place to stay with a mutual friend of ours. Now plans have changed and we're stuck with paying $1, 000 for nothing. All they care about is getting your money.

Can the credit card company cancel the charge? I'll have to check with that...

HOTWIRE IS GARBAGE!
booked a 3.5, got a 2, said bloomington CENTRAL. Got ritchfield EAST . according to hotwire they make their own boundries of cities too. will not cancel booking, so i booked directly to hotel i wanted. Also booking directly and telling them you had problems with hotwire, hotels are more lienient and try to match prices.. ! NEVER AGAIN ! ALSO AGAIN, HOTWIRE is GARBAGE!

I Agree, such a scam, i found the lower rate on other site, when called CS they were rude and mean, plus the hotel they offered me as 3star is 2.5star, when i mentioned that, they say its our own ratings...someone need to complain to BBB for this site.

I agree completely, my hotel has been down graded from 4 to 3 1/2 stars, and they refuse to give me my money back - false advertising or what! They have to be the worst company I have ever dealt with. I will tell everyone that listens.

Just had my issues with a car rental through Hotwire. Found out the price had dropped 40% so I called Hotwire to modify or cancel my reservation. They said the car company would not allow it so I called the 800 number for the car company and the actual location I am to pick up the car. They said it would be no problem to modify the reservation so I called Hotwire back up. They would not modify the agreement. Warning to anyone who even thinks about using Hotwire, DON'T. You are far better off contacting the companies directly, Hotwire provides no value add.

That's what happens when you book online trying to save 15.00 instead of going to a reputed travel agent that would know right away the lowest posibble fare and how to get it for you.
Better luck next time and remember that without a travel agent you are on your own.

I wholeheartedly agree, I wish I had checked this website before I made my reservation, my wife says she did see, a TV report about internet travel agencies and the problems you encounter with them.

Me too, unfortunately I also got rip off, I hate them!

hotwire is awful we never even got to book our flight the took 1100 dollars out of our account had to call four times just to get a supervisor named taylor who was no help we were on the phone for over an hour the fist lady said she would get a supervisor and then hung up the second guy said he would talk to the bank his name was rusty he hung up when the bank got on the phone he said he would call back if the call was lost and he never did the third time we called we told the woman first off we wanted a supervisor and she wouldn't stop trying to find out our name which there was no point for her to know we just wanted a supervisor after being on the phone with these idiots in india the supervisor named taylor employee number A189 if that was even true told use he is as high up as we could get because he was also no help to us this was an awful experience for the last hour and a half they were no help so we got charged a ### load of money just to have to wait up to 72 hours to get it back and they want us to rebook then.. absolutely AWFUL customer service

I paid for a rented car from Hotwire. My flight was cancelled and they gave me "Hotwire Bucks". Although I fly almost monthly, they never have a car I can use my Hotwire Bucks on. Never rent a car from them because if you don't use it, you may never get a chance to use the credit which expires.

Hotwire did the same to me. A 0 star listed as 2 star. It is the scam they have to hook you in. Priceline is much, much, more reputable and knows that the star rating is all you can go by, so they stick to it. I have only had one minor star level disagreement with their listings in all these years. So go Priceline if you are bidding, don't get hooked by a cheap deal by HotWire. You will pay with your frustration and discomfort.

My daughters softball team is playing in a tournament in Lancaster, CA next weekend... All the usual sites were out of rooms. We went to Hotwire.com and found a 3 star hotel for $59.00! Good deal, right, WRONG! The 3 star hotel was actually a motel! I called the motel and asked them to rate themselves and they told me they were similar to a motel 6... However, Hotwire shows 3 star hotels as DoubleTree, Holiday Inn, and the Radison. I called and they have refused to do anything to help remedy the situation. We are not staying in this dive and I am calling American Express as soon as the charge hits my account! NEVER, EVER use HOTWIRE!

I agree completely with you about hotwire hotel rating I got the same experience and hotwire never admitted that they are wrong, they even said they thoroughly investigated the hotel after my complaint about the hotel rating and their rating is accurate.
My message to anyone who want to use hotwire because of cheap price is : do not believe their rating, you want a good deal you will get a worst deal and you will ruin your vacation because of frustration.

hotwire is awful we never even got to book our flight the took 1100 dollars out of our account had to call four times just to get a supervisor named taylor who was no help we were on the phone for over an hour the fist lady said she would get a supervisor and then hung up the second guy said he would talk to the bank his name was rusty he hung up when the bank got on the phone he said he would call back if the call was lost and he never did the third time we called we already had the bank on the phone and she politely waited about 30 mins while we tried to get a supervisor again and they put us on hold for over 20 minutes so we just told the woman on the bank that we would call again we called again we told the woman first off we wanted a supervisor and she wouldn't stop trying to find out our name which there was no point for her to know we just wanted a supervisor after being on the phone with these idiots in india the supervisor named taylor employee number A189 if that was even true told use he is as high up as we could get because he was also no help to us this was an awful experience for the last hour and a half they were no help so we got charged a ### load of money just to have to wait up to 72 hours to get it back and they want us to rebook then.. absolutely AWFUL customer service dont trust hotwire.com

i also booked a r/t flight package through hotwire.com, we picked the package we wanted and in the time it took us to book it online the cost per person for the package had gone up $10 we backed out and choose a new package and the same thing occurred when trying to book that package, so we called the help line on the site only to be met with a person who seemed to have great difficulty in making the booking there was an issue with our card we were told to call again when it was resolved we called a few minutes later after we fixed the card issue and talked to a new person to continue our booking when doing our booking we asked what our flight times would be for the trip the woman said we would be told our flight times after the trip was booked/paid for needless to say we were more then disappointed to hear that after a 7 hour flight to our destination we would arrive at 10 pm when the distance can be driven in 10 hours, we tried to alter flight times and since we had already purchased the package hot wire refused us a change in flight times and refund long story short we spent 1k to have hot wire dictate our three day vacation to see friends we have 3 days to be there and most of it will be spent on a plane, hot wire needs to inform people better of the refund and business policies or i should say the lack of refunds and customer service.i will never book through hotwire or any travel site for that matter again. the savings and convince they rave about on thier sites and commercials simply inst TRUE!

I to am having an issue with Hotwire, I have been watching the flights for a month, planning our first vacation to Florida, unfortunately with the way the Economy is going my employer did a lay off which effected my dept. Being short handed to begin with we are now two, so it took quite some time for my vacation to be signed off, The day I finally got my sign off I went to book our flights and noticed a huge price increase. Because I never travel as this is my first vacation I am not familar with alot of the way things are done. I listened to to many people, seeing school vacations are coming up I was told the flights will continue to go up. Well the original flights that I was looking for were $208. per person which was perfect. But by the time I finally had the ok through work to get the time off that night the flights went right up, I checked every flight every website and hotwire was the cheapest by a few dollars at $326. which I ended up booking I booked 3 tickets which cost me clost to $1000. way more then I expected. I just found out the place we are staying does not have a shuttle service so now I have to rent a car. So I went to check out car rentals and for the heck of it I checked to see what the flights were going for and found they had gone down to the original $208. so I immediately called hotwire and explained to them about the cost and would like a credit towards a rental car. I spoke with a customer service rep and he informed me that he could not give me my money back for the difference and that Hotwire works with customers to save money thats why there rates are so low?Where did this Customer Save money? I just checked there flights and today they are even lower $189. They SCREWED MY OUT OF $411.00 . I think hotwire is crooked and if there out to save there customer money and give them the best rate possible then they should give some sort of credit or incentive to there customer, not screw them. I will be making a call to the Better business bureau about this !

Same happened with my Orlando FL. Worst Service from hotwire!

Same thing happened to me, but neither the hotel nor Hotwire provided alternative accomodation, so I had to drive around looking for a hotel all morning from 2:00 am to 5:00 am. Hotwire did not take responsability and is not refunding the money for the hotel that refused to give us our room even when we had prepaid for it. I finaly got Hotwire to reimburse the additional money that I had to pay for the other hotel.

I tried to book a hotel reservation for Everett, WA for July 2008. These clowns would NOT take my credit card from my credit union because they were concerned about "preventing" fraud. I called my credit card company and they stated there were no charges or"concerns" on my account and they did not require the disclosure of my SS# or birthdate to complete the transaction. Hotwire.com originally wanted me to confirm my SS number and my birthdate to complete the transactions. I REFUSED.

I called Hotwire.com and they said I would need to provide ANOTHER credit card in order to complete the transaction. I REFUSED and told them to take a hike. Seems to me these people are not complying with the offers that they are advertising. Seems like a bait and switch practice and these unethical people should be fired, charged by a state DA and put out of business. BEWARE people, don't give out your SS# or birthdate to anyone except maybe the IRS, your local tax board and the Social Security Administration...

Why shouldn't they be allowed to have the agreement? Ever put a deposit down on a building for a wedding reception? You know why those deposits are nonrefundable? Because by holding it for you, they lose the opportunity to make money from other people! If you book something and then cancel it with hotwire it's the same for car rental agency. And if you don't read their terms of use it is absolutely nobody's fault but your own.
You seem like the type of person to me who would park in a no parking zone and then whine for hours about getting a citation, trying to justify your ignorance of the law by saying that "nobody reads those stupid no parking signs". You indicated to hotwire that you had read and understood the terms and conditions of the rental (which were presented briefly and in size 12 front, with parts even being in bold on the very same page where you enter your billing information). This means that you are now bound by them. Your rampant narcissism will not get you out of it. Also, their rates can vary from extremely discounted to slightly discounted, it just depends on the situation.

HOTWIRE THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH WE'LL BOOK AGAIN ... NOTHING BUT RIPPING PPL OFF ... THEY DO THERE OWN RATING FOR PROFIT ...WE WAS BOOK 3 STAR HOTEL... HOTWIRE BOOK US 2 STAR OR LESS & TELLING US IT WAS 3 STAR IN THERE POLICY... HAHA... TO WHOM WORK ENDLESS JOB WITH HOTWIRE MAYBE MOST OF THEM ON THE WORKING PAY & GO BACK HOME, DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HOW HOTWIRE RIPPING COMSUMER CREDIT CARDS (FINAL).. THE US GOV OR WHICH EVER LICENSE TO THEM ... PLEASE DO SOMETHING OR MAYBE THEY'RE GETTING A SHARE...BEWARE... DO NOT USE THIS HOTWIRE.COM...

You do realize of course that when an airline goes bankrupt anyone (including a travel agency) that sunk money into it is out of luck? Of course you don't. You expect hotwire to lose large quantities of money becasue an airline bailed. That isn't going to happen. Had you booked through an airline the result for you would have been no different. Hotwire's policy would have them refunding your car rental, though.

I have just returned from a business trip and I had a horrible experience both departing and arriving as a result of inaccurate information provided by Hotwire. I made reservations for a conference at which I was presenting and needed to be timely, etc. I printed my confirmation information and my paperwork clearly stated that I was to fly out of Phiadelphia Airport on United. However, I get to the airport stand in line for 45 minutes and find out that the information provided to me was incorrect and I was actually suposed to be at the Delta Airlines counter; the Delta which was 10 minutes away. My wife and I sprinted through the airport o try and check-in. Luckily, we were able to make it to the proper check-in counter 10 minutes before the plane was scheduled to leave. On my return leaving from Miami back to Philadelphia my information stated that I was to leave via United. Again, after standing in line this time for almost an hour we were informed that the paperwork should actually read US Air. Again, we made it in time because they held the plane for us. Even the people at the airport check-in were perplexed with how this could happen and confirmed that the information we received was inaccurate. My wife and I travel frequently for business and pleasure and spend approximately $2, 500-$3, 500 per year in airfare. I have used Hotwire before and had a good experience. However, this time I am extremely disappointed and very angry with this most recent experience.

in all likely hood you booked a non cancelable reservation

so the hotel or car or seat on the flights was reserved paid for and available to you even if in the end you chose not to use it

carte blanche

There are a few inaccuracies here, at least one of which is an outright lie. Hotwire's research team's turnaround time on an issue such as this is 7-10 business days, not 10-14. They do need to review the situation. Unfortunately, many car rental companies are crooked and/or do a poor job of educating their employees on Hotwire rentals. They then screw Hotwire's customers and blame Hotwire for it.

That said, Hotwire never told you that they would blacklist you for disputing a charge with them. That is not their policy and you are lying to drum up sympathy for yourself because you are unwilling to go through their procedures for resolving an unfortunate, but unfortunately unforseeable issue. They will compensate you once they are able to verify the situation, of that you can be sure.

i agree with kyle on this. part of the discounted rates they offer is the fact that the cant be canceled. i did hotel sales and people foolishly asked for the lower rate even though i advised them they should only do it if their plans are set in stone. as in, they are immediately non cancellable. while our website listed 3 times before booking that these rates were non cancellable, people still insisted that they were never told.

its a consumer issue. not a customer service issue. i think they are ok with stupid people not using their services^_^

Whatever Kyle, you must work for hotwire because so far I've seen you defend them in every complaint post against them. Hotwire is a crock of bull, this is coming from a customer not an employee, and they will pay for ripping so many people off. Again as I've seen so many people say: AVOID HOTWIRE AT ALLLLL COST!

This person is either lying or incredibly stupid. Hotwire does not ask for CC information until after you have already selected a flight, gone though several screens detailing the flight, and entered the passenger names. Then you put in your payment information (several pages after you see your search results) and read the Terms of Use, which are presented in 12 point font and take up about half a page on an 800X600 screen resolution (in other words, it's not a lot of reading). You check a box to indicate that you accept them and then and only then do you complete the transaction and authorize the company to charge you credit card.

I don't know what the criteria is for Hotwire in judging how many stars a hotel rates. Went online and thought I was getting a 4 star hotel and ended up with "The Westin Bonaventure" in downtown Los Angeles. In some ways the hotel is a 4 star (outward appearance, lovely lobby area, nice pool, glass elevators, great view from higher floor rooms), but the small rooms, dismal carpeting, annoying putrid smells in rooms and elevators and bad lighting in hallways don't rate as 4 star. I don't think the "you get what you pay for" applies here. I thought that Hotwire was supposed to advertise good deals. A 4 star according to them was supposed to be along the lines of the Omni (which I've heard nothing but raves about). As I see other reviews I'm seeing this hotel is actually a 3 to 3.5 star. Hotwire needs to get their star ratings correct. Don't say a 3 to 3.5 star hotel is rated as a 4 star. Plus the Westin was pet friendly. I lOVE dogs and am the proud owner of my beloved dog, however, you just don't drop a client in a pet friendly hotel without inquiring. Just because I LOVE dogs, doesn't mean everyone does. It's worth a mention especially since my husband and I experienced an unhappy dog that was left in a room on our floor, unattended and whining for over an hour at night.

Hotwire really needs to send someone out and I'm talking about a surprise visit to check out the hotels that they have contracts with to get accurate star ratings.

I agree there are limited number of fees and with any system now a days, they should be able to list common fees that will be charged by the hotel. Every hotel around me has free parking and mine is pay for parking

I've used hotwire to book for a 3-star hotel and I got really dissapointed. hotwire listed their 3-star is comparable with double tree etc.., it turned down the so called hotel I booked was a motel upgrade.
The room area is only about 12x12 ft only enough for a single small size bed with television. The internet is horrible it took me almost 45 minutes to log in since the signal is not working strong.
The worst thing is after I contact hotwire for my feedback they kept insisting that their rating is correct. The bottom line is : I paid for the price of the hotel 3-star but stay in a less than average motel.

I booked a flight on Hotwire and Anyfares, both were fine both reserved the tickets I wanted for the price I was looking for, can't say anything bad about them, they helped me.

I didn't have any issue with Anyfares except for one small issue and that was my insurance work but I emailed them and they took care of it so I was please either way.

Anyfares.com works fine for me.

I found Hotwire to offer the best price on rental cars, I saved with them and flights to Boston from California. They aren't that bad and Vayama.com and Anyfares.com were cheap on flights to China. They were neck and neck on the price that Orbitz was a lot higher. I wouldn't leave Hotwire off the wagon if you want a cheap price, just insure your ticket with the right insurance if you choose to get out of it.

I booked 2 flights and got a super deal from Vayama.com and Anyfares.com. Vayama.com got me a great rate to Europe and Anyfares.com got me the best deal to Mexico. I shopped and couldn't find a cheaper price. Both gave me instant etickets and ticket protector insurance included without extra fees. So I don't know how these companies could be any worse when they treated me fine.

It seems like hotwire.com would be ideal if the area was booking up fast and you needed a space quickly. I was looking at the their website and just by looking at a specific weekly rate I knew what hotel it was. Personally, I think doing the booking on your own time and asking questions is your best choice. I would never go with a .com service that's not willing to refund your money after doing whatever they could to accommodate you. I was also surprised to see that they weren't able to specify the type of room you'd be getting or whether or not it's smoking or nonsmoking, but that you'd get a room.

Hotwire has no way of knowing (or at least of indicating before you purchase) what hotels will charge parking fees. They do inform you before you book that it is a possibility. That information is in the terms of use, which you seem to only have read casually. With regards to the supervisor, wouldn't you get indignant if somebody tried to bully you into the response they wanted by asking the same question over and over?

Your service is very poor, I am very disgusted with your services,
I gave the correct date of services needed for my hotel and your company booked the wrong dates, and I had to pay more money for your mistake. I will continue to make my complaint known around the world, no one should have to pay the price for your company's incompetent staff. You did not provide the service in which you promised.

With respect to the difference in the price charged by the hotel and the priced charged by Hotwire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Expedia Inc, a Bellevue, Washington corporation, Expedia has been sued in a class action and a Washington circuit court has ruled in favor of consumer. You should contact an attorney if necessary.

Kenneth -
Chicago Lawyer

You can't cancel and get a refund. You didn't read the terms of use. Not to mention that comment had virtually nothing to do with the review above. You are a failure.

i have not got the product yet and i am getting billed aready.i want to cancel and want a refund.

green tea took money out of my account without my permission and refuses to give it back,this was my electric bill money,and they dont care about anyone,they charged me $80.00 for green tea i did not want or order,BEWARE OF ULTIMATE GREEN TEA sites there thiefs,dishonest,and unconcerned about you or anyone else.FRAUDS

Hotwire does have a policy called the "Low Price Guarantee". Under this policy if you book a hotel reservation and then find a lower rate for the same hotel, same dates, and same type of room, they refund you back double the difference once they are able to verify it. Course, I can't say anything for the courtesy level of the agent, but that's a somewhat different issue, though they should have at least informed you of this LPG.