Booked a hot rate hotel & paid for it. Got there, hotel was locked with no vacancy sign in window. No staff there, no one answered phone. Called Hotwire, was told too bad, you booked a hot rate & no hot rates left in state. Refused to put us up a a different hotel. Will give you a refund. Ended up having to sleep in car in parking lot. No compensation for their screw up. DO NOT USE HOTWIRE! They refuse to correct any of their mistakes and care nothing about their customers. Had a similar issue with Vrbo & they were great! Accommodated me & even gave me a credit. Like, seriously, who leaves a customer homeless when they're traveling in another state. Shame on them! Tip for consumers:They should give you a place to sleep if the hotel you booked sold your room. Products used:None. Had to sleep in my car in a different state. Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: September 25, 2023I was promised with the words "guaranteed" for a certain hotel and got something totally different. Support didn't care and would only offer be hot dollars credit refund after a cancellation fee which is total rip off. Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: August 1, 2023Hotwire charged my credit card FIVE TIMES for a total of $6500! They didn't send me an email so I have no itinerary. They can't find these charges in their system. Now we have to wait to get our trip in order until these charges fa off the card. What kind of business charges you five times and has no record of it! Products used:None Service Date of experience: February 6, 2024The people were really nice and it was a very easy and smoothe check in, but when we got to our room we immediately got the smell of mold. The shower is disguising and it took multiple people in our party to try and turn it off. The top bedding blanket smelled like it's never been washed. We heard loud blasting music from 10 pm-2- am. do not recommend this hotel. The people were very friendly and sweet though! Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: September 10, 2023Completely useless writing this cause nobody cares but will write it anyway not a great site they put bad hotels under higher ratings probably to get that particular hotel more money… i keep wanting to look at 3.5 stars or higher and you see what hotels you might be getting but they'll but a dump of a hotel like say the wingate in a list with Westin, Hilton(dump), and say embassy suites for say 110 per night with a total of 140 with taxes and fees they you pay, YOU do not get to pick, and they will give you the least impressive hotel every damn time! Or say the last time i stay at a hotel stay in hotels for a living so i know, I'll put airport shuttle under what i need and i get a hotel that doesn't even have a shuttle! Won't use them again Service Value Quality Date of experience: August 1, 2023I booked a rental in July with Sixt on the Hotwire site and when i got the bill i was charged for the rental by Sixt and also the charge from Hotwire also went through so i ended up being double charged. I reported that case to my credit card company and Hotwire never refunded the money. I only saw all the so many other similar negative experiences after it happened to me. I wish i knew before my booking. Products used:Car Rental Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: September 30, 2023Worst experience with this company. They have the worst customer service. I booked a hotel months ago out of town and when I went to the hotel I received a room for 2 people when the reservation said 4. Hotwire said they would call me back with a supervisor to solve the issue. No called and I was left to figure out sleeping arrangements. Terrible experience. Date of experience: July 07,2023 Date of experience: July 12, 2023When we rented car through hotwire we got dollar car rentals. The site said compact or large vehicle; no where it indicated it could be a all electric vehicle! To our surprise Dollar car rentals said we signed up for manage special and it means we will get only all electric, we don't get to choose. We said, the rental agreement said compact or large, we are ok with either of those but not all electric! After going back and forth, finally we got a pickup truck, huh! Products used:We ended up with a pickup truck, huh! Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: August 3, 2023I used to use hotwire more back in the day but today's experience basically reinforced why I will never use them again. They quoted me an "all booking are final" rental car package price. I paid most upfront but then had to pay the balance to the rental car agency directly. I ended up paying $75 more to the rental car agency and hotwire refuses to honor their price. Their customer service started with: 1) I needed to contact the rental car agency directly (but I purchased the package from hotwire); 2) the price is only an estimate (but all bookings are final); 3) and finally, I requested an car upgrade directly to the rental agency (just a flat out lie). Hotwire sucks. Never again. Products used:Rental car package Service Value Quality Date of experience: July 29, 2023Please do not use Hotwire. The company will not advocate for their customer, will take your money and will not attempt to resolve issues that are not your fault. I was refused a car rental because I did not have my auto insurance card on me and my auto insurance company was closed. The company was ACE car rental and my rental was paid in advance. Hotwire refused to contact ACE, refused to assist me with another rental and since the rental was paid in advance, refused to refund me my money. Lastly, I took the insurance out with Hotwire during my initial car rental because it was cheaper than my deductible. It makes no sense! I am out of almost $300. Please book directly through a rental car company that will not leave you with these concerns. Tip for consumers:Please steer your customers away from Hotwire Products used:rental car Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: December 18, 2023Drove 6 + hours from Roanoke va to Myrtle Beach resort in SC.when we get there we get treated like we are trying to pull something,even though we have confirmation we didn't have a booking! And they are like dumb and dumber blaming each other and we're stuck out in the rain Tip for consumers:Will NEVER use it again! and have plans on doing a lot of sharing Products used:Hot wire Date of experience: July 28, 2023I had booked a package deal with flight, car, and hotel. The website makes you set the dates of when I will be leaving and coming back from their main webpage. So I went through the package screens and picked my flights, car rental, and hotel. It turned out that their website booked me for 1 night of hotel stay when my trip was for 4 days. I thought it was all set until I decided to double check everything 2 months prior to my trip and noticed the error. I also had to change the flight booking with them because they changed my flight which put me on a 6 hours layaway between the flights. I had to address the car reservation issue. All they do is put me on hold. I was on the call with them for over an hour each time to address my issues. Awful. Awful. At the end of it all, they told me to call the hotel and call the car reservation company. I will NEVER use Hotwire.com every again! Tip for consumers:Don't use Hotwire.com Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: August 21, 2023I booked a two bedroom condo in Pagosa. Springs paid an extra $120 for the reservation to have a king bed I get there and they tell me they don't have any king beds available and put me in a totally different classroom. We booked a two bedroom they gave us a small three bedroom, but all the bedrooms were smaller, even though the advertisements showed a layout of the apartment that I booked with larger bedrooms and a king bed when I ask for a refund after immediately finding this out, I was basically told I was $#*! out of luck that it was the same room type even though it was a different room, I don't know how to bedroom could become a three bedroom and a king room can become a queen room, but that's hot wire, so just steer clear! Date of experience: August 20, 2023I have booked a hotel in Niagara fall with Hotwire. Here are some positive points I found: 1. It was a real deal (not a scam). 2. The website and the phone App are easy to use, fast. They also sent me notifications and reminders which are nice. 3. Accept many different types of payments including PayPal. 4. They often have promotions code on the App, so you can absolutely make the booking even cheaper. 5. Customer service is great. You can just chat with them through the App. 6. Although it does not reveal the hotel name, it does give a hint by saying " Last guest get hotel XXX" and I noticed that it was always correct. - Negative points: 1. The currency was not based on the hotel's location. We have to set the currency, otherwise, it will be in USD. 2. I had problems using code for the App sometimes. 3. The price is not much cheaper and not always cheaper. So use it as an alternative source to compare with other sites. Tip for consumers:- Check for the promo code on the mobile App. You would save some money. It always appears every few days and lasts for 1-2 days. Products used:Booking service Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: August 18, 2021Honestly I've tried Hotwire twice in the past and it was fine, however when you need to get customer service involved it's game over. My friend booked us reservations in Vegas at the Tropicana, her flight was arriving 4 hours prior to mine. She tried messaging them for 3 DAYS in a row to try allow me to check in to the reservation to only receive delayed responses and fake promises that support "emailed" Tropicana. Clearly nothing happened because I had to sit in the hotel lobby for hours since they never added me to the reservation. Very lazy support team, I would have easily bought full price for the hotel if I knew it would be this much of a headache. Peace of mind has a price too! Tip for consumers:Be careful. Service Value Date of experience: May 19, 2022I can perfectly live with Hotwire's secrecy and lack of change flexibility. But when I go to the rental car office and I am told to wait for more than an hour, while no one at hotwire picks up the phone or is available to chat, I can truly say that they ate failing operationally. Service Value Date of experience: August 13, 2021Stay away from this website. It is like a lottery, they show you potential hotels you can stay at a cheaper rate than you typically find in other online travel websites. You are supposed to get one in the list but we got a horrible hotel not listed in the options, one star below and with 2.3 star reviews. A second time, they advertise a bed setting that was not offered by the hotel. The hotel did not want to give us the bedroom we paid for on the Hotwire page. Neither the hotel nor Hotwire returned the money, because Hotwire sale is final, non-refundable. This is too much risk for $10 less than regular more reliable online travel websites, just stay away. Tip for consumers:Stay away from this website. It is like a lottery, they show you potential hotels you can stay at a cheaper rate than you typically find in other online travel websites. You are supposed to get one in the list but we got a horrible hotel not listed in the options, one star below and with 2.3 star reviews. A second time, they advertise a bed setting that was not offered by the hotel. The hotel did not want to give us the bedroom we paid for on the Hotwire page. Neither the hotel nor Hotwire retur Products used:Hotel reservations Service Value Returns Quality Date of experience: July 27, 2022I could not add a booster seat to my car rental reservation through Hotwire for December 23,2023. The following directions to add amenities on their website are inaccurate; "please call the car rental agency at the number shown on your confirmation before the scheduled pick-up date to check availability." When I phoned Alamo Car Rental, the agent told me to call Hotwire. When I phoned Hotwire, the agent told me to call Alamo. Finally, after being transferred to three different Hotwire customer service representatives, the agent told me to request a booster seat at car pick-up and that there may be fees associated with the item. There will be fees, but my concern is that a booster seat may not be available to rent on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, whereas reserving a booster in advance would have given me cause to expect to have one waiting as part of my reservation. Hotwire should have an online method to book or request amenities during the car rental. This option would give the customer peace of mind during a stressful time. If I can pick up a booster seat at the Alamo desk on December 23, my 2-star rating stands. If not, I'll be back on sitejabber after Christmas with a 1-star rating only because 0 stars isn't an option. Hotwire Itinerary #*******449 Date of experience: December 21, 2023Hotwire.com is a great way to pick up sweet deals on hotels, but has a bad history in meeting the accommodation requirements that it's customers sign up for. Sources at hotels recount that many customers who previously stated on hotwire.com that they require 2 beds are only provided with a single bed room upon arrival. This lack of attention to detail by hotwire.com creates stressful mix-ups at inconvenient times during already high-anxiety trips. Hotwire.com has a good premise but it needs to improve upon it's booking system and customer service before I would recommend booking with them. Written by Nick Mau, hotel review enthusiast Date of experience: April 4, 2015I used to love Hotwire, which I have used only to book hotels, but two unfortunate experiences with Hotwire's customer service has me looking for other discount sites. Latest. Somehow the CAD denomination was showing above the hotel prices. I booked before it really registered that I, with a US credit card, US address, and US destination, was going to have to pay in Canadian dollars. I called immediately. Experienced long holds and not-even-marginally-friendly customer service rep. Be very careful when you book. NOTHING can be changed, including the currency in which you are paying. Oh yes, they do say this on the site. And the rep did say, "Sorry." Date of experience: July 16, 2015Had some good deals, but mostly bad deals with some really shady hotels that we ended up not even using. Customer service is worse. When you get a room that says one thing but ends up being another, you're supposed to get a new room or refund. Nope. The hotel can deny your refund if they want. Never again. I use Expedia now, and the customer service is way better. Date of experience: September 15, 2019Hotwire excels in one specific area: below-market "mystery" hotels which offer exceedingly low rates for those consumers who are willing to take a gamble. If you are flexible on the name brand and the exact location and amenities, what you get in return is a bargain which may well be worth the unknowns. Date of experience: April 20, 2014Will never use Hotwire again. Car rental agency isn't shown until after booking is confirmed. Our car rental iMacs looked like a hole in the wall, and customer service was awful. Our rental car was infested with ants, but we didn't know it till after we drove away. Lots of hidden fees. Will not rent from Hotwire again. Date of experience: October 13, 2019My wife and I use Hotwire all the time and have yet to be disappointed. Note, that you should really only be booking 4 star and above hotels and have a general understanding of the area and you should come out alright. There's always a risk involved with these type of things, but if you do your homework you'll get a great deal! Date of experience: February 15, 2017In general, Hotwire provides a good service. I've used Hotwire probably 12 times. BUT on 2 different occasions, I have tried to place an order and I've gotten an error message saying the hotel room was not available, and that my account has not been charged. In reality, the money is taken out of your account and held for days. I don't know if the money is held by Hotwire, or by the card company or by whom, but if the transaction failure happens on a Friday evening, it will be Tues or Wed before the money goes back into your account. It can be a real pain when you try to book a room, the transaction is bungled by the system, then you try again, and its bungled again, and you get charged TWICE for a nice hotel room... I'm really frustrated by this. Hotwire's approach to it to say unequivocally, "It's not our fault." Maybe it's not. But it definitely makes me afraid to use their service because if the transaction is bungled, I know I'll be out my cash for days and days... Date of experience: September 6, 2016