Anyone use Hotwire for Hotels?

Mariah&Steven

I'm trying to book a hotel room in Austin for next Friday...but it won't tell me the name of the hotel (which makes me a little unsure about whether it's a good deal or not).  Is that normal?  When do you find out the name of the hotel?  I don't want to find out after I've already paid for it!

stephl3055

I've used them before for hotels.  What I usually do is go to the section of hotwire that doesn't have name your own price.  Then I search for hotels for the same date, and the same star level that I would use on the other search.  It should generally give you the same list of hotels.  Another thing to watch for is the amenities.  Sometimes those are a giveaway of which hotel it is.  I would just suggest having 2 browser windows open and just compare the hotel lists for each the name your own price website and the regular one.  Also, try this website.  It was helpful for me when planning our trip to Colorado.  It lets you know what deals people have gotten in the last few days.  It also might list the hotel names.  www.betterbidding.com

llc_lauren & chris

From what I read on wikipedia it says that "Hotwire does not identify the participating companies until after the purchaser has paid so as not to directly compete with regular retail sales of the travel partners".

emimayor

I am not a fan of those sites. Try going straight to a Hilton or Marriott website. I used to travel there weekly, so if you need hotel recs, let me know. I also have a few corporate codes you can use.

stephl3055

I tried going directly to the big name hotel website and using my corporate codes (2 codes actually, one for my company and one for the company that had just acquired us), and none of the corporate codes were near as cheap as what I got on Hotwire.  We got a room at the Omni outside Denver and it was like $55 a night, so it was around half price of what my corporate code would've gotten me.  If you have the time to do reserach, then Hotwire and Priceline can save you a lot of money.  But I understand where some people are nervous about which hotel you get.  I was able to guess that we were getting the Omni, but our 2nd hotel I couldn't figure out if it was going to be the Marriott or the Hilton.

Mariah&Steven

So I did MAJOR sleuth work and have come to the conclusion that the hotel is either The Driskill (which would be a-freakin-mazing) or The Omni downtown (which is still pretty sweet).  I'm trying to convince Steve to do it since it would be fun and relatively cheap ($90-not including tax) for one night.  The Driskill's room rates start around $230 and the Omni's are around $160.  Either way-it's a great deal!

callie_knot

I've booked Austin hotel rooms on Priceline before. I once got a great deal on Austin Marriott North close that was wonderful. I would stay there again in a heartbeat and I got a room that was at the time almost 200 for around 70. Cheaper than the sur rounding Courtyards or cheaper hotel chains.I also did it once for around 90 and got the Omni (I was hoping for the Driskill too but the Omni was nice). In this economy you might be able to get it a lot cheaper on Priceline or Hotwire than with standard discounts. Especially last minute deals.

emimayor

I'm a big Marriot person because of the points. Another reason I don't use those types of sites typically. Mariah - the Driskill is awesome!

fallbride1109

The Driskill is nice but the rooms are tiny.  Best bed I've ever slept on at a hotel though.You don't know the hotel until the end.  But if you can find a region where you can narrow it down like PP said, then there's little risk.  We bid on the Omni in Las Colinas with Priceline--because it was the only 4-star hotel in that region, so we knew that's the hotel we would end up with.

Mariah&Steven

Yeah, I'm 99.9% positive it's the Omni now because one of the amenities listed was a Pool and I can't find anything about a pool for the Driskill.  Even so, the pool for the downtown Omni is on the top!  And it looks pretty sweet!