Hotwire Reviews

Hotwire refuses to return my money and doesn't want to give me credit for the purchase done. I had a reservation for a baseball game, and the coach canceled on me. I am a single mom and can't afford for you to steal my money. Please return my funds or give credit.

Hotwire.com gave us a hotel well-known for its bedbug population. We're now apparently locked into paying nearly $400 for 4 nights at a Kill Devil Hills, NC hotel that we will not sleep in. We're having to cancel our entire vacation now which was to have been my wife's Mother's Day gift. Thanks, Hotwire.com!

It was the first time that I booked with Hotwire.com. I've heard radio advertisements of the great deals that people receive on rooms so when I saw their "Hot Deals" offer for a 3 Star room at a great savings off of the rack rate, I figured it was ok to let them pick the hotel. After all, it will be a 3 Star place at a hot deal room rate.

I booked the Hot Rate hotel which marked "University of Minnesota" area on the face. So I booked it step by step. And then, they sent me the hotel information which indicates that the hotel is nowhere near UMN, and there is no bus that can take me from UMN to that hotel. I called up the customer service, and they said it was completely my fault not to do further research on the map coverage. And it was also my fault that I chose to get the cheap hotel. The lady has a really bad attitude and made me realize that that's how they usually trick customers--trick the ones who do not know about the area, trick them with lower price, and say "It's completely your fault"!

I made reservations for a hotel out of state to attend a competition. I was bumped from the roster before the competition so I had to cancel. I assumed incorrectly that the $8 travel insurance that I purchased was in case I had to change plans and couldn't travel. My fault. I should have read into the deal. I'm out US$86 for the room, and $8 that I paid to Hotwire's affiliate, Allianz Criminal Global Thiefdom. It is my position that they created the menu in Hotwire so when people like me who are in a hurry are booking, they unknowingly purchase the $8 policy and are trapped into the deal. Shame on me for not being on guard.

On Saturday, February 24th, I booked a vacation package as advertised by Hotwire. This vacation package was supposed to include roundtrip flight, car and hotel. Since this is a special sale package, the hotel, car and flight information is not disclosed until after the package is booked. In addition, it was clear to me that I will not get a refund or be allowed to make any changes once booked. However, after paying my money I noticed that the package booked did not include my roundtrip flight. So, I called Hotwire to ask if I can add a roundtrip flight to my package considering that there was a miscommunication in their advertisement that led me to believe that this was a full package. Unfortunately, I am not being accommodated and being told that I have to book my flight separately, which will cost me close to or about the same as what I would be paying if I had the full package that include hotel and car.

Hotwire provides misleading and deceptive information at its website regarding hotel rating. It sold me a low-star hotel for a high-star price based on "their own review data". Its price was actually higher than it was listed at Expedia.com (which shows as a low star hotel!). Even in their own rating guidance, the chain hotel was listed as low start. I called customer service. I was told for this specific hotel of the chain, it is worth high star. Such a deceptive and misleading practice should be warned, given consumers can not access to or understand what Hotwire Review Data is. They can claim whatever the hotel rating is without following the practices of other websites. I will never use Hotwire!

Rented SUV through Hotwire for 01/30/2012 until 02/14/2012. $791.85 comes out of my account. My employer changed my work dates to 02/02/2012 - 02/15/2012. I called both Hotwire and Budget and was not allowed any credit on the car even for the 13 days I had already paid for on 02/02/2012. I would have paid for the extra day 15th. It was beyond my control that my schedule was changed and I was three days late getting to my job in CA from TX. I rent an SUV 17 days a month and now I rent from Hertz.

I purchased an airline ticket from hotwire.com because they guarantee confirmed seats for every ticket sale. I received a standby ticket at my time of check-in. I was bumped to the next flight and not allowed to board my flight and had to wait almost 7 hours in the Atlanta Airport. I contacted the company about this and did not receive any help, so I filed a BBB complaint. The company refused to refund my ticket cost. I disputed the charge with Discover card, and unfortunately Discover says all sales are final with Hotwire. They can not be allowed to blatantly lie to the public like this. This company is out of control and a simple review of this site shows numerous complaints against Hotwire for their business practices. Please help the consumers!

I booked a trip (for $15,000) and tried several times to get customer service to please do one simple task for me, change my seating arrangement (I have Parkinson's disease and need to be on an aisle seat with my husband to my left or right, depending on which side of the plane I am on). I asked customer service at Hotwire to please put me in an aisle seat and to please upgrade me to the seats where a person had the extra inches of legroom (and I knew I had to pay for it as I had paid for it before). This was an overseas non-stop flight and I have always gotten the extra legroom before. The lady at customer service told me there was no such thing as extra leg room and I would have to talk to the airline.

They have the worst customer service ever. I rented a car through Hotwire for a family vacation. I put the car under my husband's name. When we got to the counter to pick up the car, my husband had forgotten his driver's license. The Budget agent said that I would have to contact Hotwire since we were making a change to the contract. Hotwire told me that “I should have read the fine print and it was my own fault that we were out the $189 bucks”. However, if I wanted to rent another car from them, they would be happy to help. I asked to speak with another supervisor. I was told, "Sorry, they will tell you the same thing.”

I am writing to complain about the above reference booking. I made the booking approximately 15 minutes before arriving at the hotel. When I arrived at the hotel, I was told by the guest clerk that no reservation for me was found. When I told him that I had booked the room through Hotwire, he told me that it usually took about an hour and a half for them to receive a confirmation from Hotwire. I told him that I had the confirmation on my computer and offered to show him the confirmation. He said that wouldn't do any good and that he had to have the confirmation directly from you.

I called to modify a return trip and was told that the regular Customer Service could not assist. I was informed that there is a special group that manages air flight changes due to an emergency surgery for my daughter. I was told that there was no direct number to contact them. Additionally, I was told that I would be contacted within 2-3 days from the initial point of contact. Also, I was not asked nor given a specific time that they would contact me.

I booked a hotel stay with Hotwire and within 24 hrs upon returning to work being a newly promoted supervisor, I was informed the weekend (Oct.2009) had been taken from until December. I called Hotwire, informed them of the issue and was even willing to receive half of the payment if they could not book the hotel for me in Dec.2009. Hotwire stated they could not do either, so I went to Rushcard to assist with the issue and they sided with Hotwire.

For over a year now, either I can't make outgoing calls or people get busy signals when calling me or both. I call them an average of once a week. It will be okay for a week or so.

On my family’s vacation to Orlando, I purchased transportation for airport to hotel roundtrip. Upon arrival to Orlando airport, I tried to use the travel vouchers I purchased in my Hotwire package. The Mears transportation people told me that the vouchers are from Disney to hotel only. I purchased from airport to hotel because the hotel I was staying at was a Disney hotel and it provided transportation to all the Disney parks for free. So I paid a taxi of $55.00 to hotel and $55.00 from hotel to airport. So now, I have paid for transportation twice. Upon getting home, I contacted Hotwire to see about refund and they would not honor my voucher refund.

I booked a rental car on line with Hotwire on 16 June 10 using my MasterCard for $742.63 that morning. That same afternoon on 16 June 10, I tried to use my MasterCard to purchase some item for $42.00. The sale was denied due to account being over the limit. I called my bank and was told that there were two Hotwire charges for $742.63. There should have been only one charge. So I called Hotwire and was told that there was a problem with their system and that customers were being double charged and that they should soon have it corrected. I sent Hotwire a email 6/17/10 and advised them to credit my account, the 742.63. I did not get a response.

I attempted to book a vacation package on hotwire.com and was told many different things by many different people. Initially, I tried to book using two credit cards and the operator could not get the address correct after spelling it multiple times. So, the card was denied due to the multiple requests. I then attempted to pay for it using my debit card, but it did not go through. I increased my maximum daily purchase amount, but again it didn't go through.

I made reservations on 6/14 at 4:02 pm and this morning 6/15, I needed to cancel my flight and car reservations within a 24hr period. I was told it was valid contract and they could not give me a refund. I asked to speak with a supervisor and basically had to give a compelling reason for the cancellations even though it was within 24 hrs. The supervisor put me on hold and came back to tell me that they would refund the airline tickets and when canceling the car rental, he told me that he could not complete it without further documentation. I said there was a death in the family. Now I found out that you can cancel the car at any time unless it is that day.

I booked a room on Hotwire for a 4-star hotel. I got a 3-star room in a location that was not on my itinerary and it was almost two miles from the location as promised on my confirmation itinerary. I booked two rooms, one for me and my wife and another for my in-laws. We took a taxi to the location only to discover that we were not checking in at that location.

I moved to this condo on Dec 1, 2009. I had HotWire hook up my internet and cable TV service at that time. They are the only choice I have for internet and cable TV here. When the technician was showing me how to use the cable box, I noticed that I was receiving channels that weren't in the package that I ordered, so I told him. He mad a phone call and they took them off immediately. Well, later I noticed that I wasn't getting 2 HD channels that I should be getting (one of them my most watched channel). I also noticed that every channel was having bad pixelation problems at different times.

Hotwire website offers a fixed price for a hotel, but you don't learn the name of the hotel until you have paid with your credit card. I took an offer of $66 for a 4.5-star hotel west of Las Vegas. As soon as I paid for the hotel, I was told the name of the hotel - Red Rock Resort. The message was "Congratulations. You've saved 32%." Then it says there will be a $25 per night "resort fee" to be paid to the hotel upon arrival. I would never have booked a hotel way out of the city for $66 if I'd known I would be hit with an extra $25 in charges. This was a fraudulent, bait and switch tactic. I didn't "save" 32%; I was hit with an extra 40% charge.

Hotwire has shown the same fares for a round-trip flight from Philadelphia, PA to Orange County, CA for over a week. None of the flights are available and haven't been for the last week (July 20-28) at the lowest rates. They have emailed me that rates have dropped within this same time period. Sometimes their site will indicate the rates have gone up by $50 or the flight is full, but they are not updating the info. I have called 3 times and emailed them, but the old low rates are still advertised on their website. Any recourse they promise is not done. This is false advertising. Orbitz, Expedia, and Priceline also do this but I did not contact them.

A confirmation email was received on 7/05/09 for a car rental in San Juan, Puerto Rico at Dollar car rental at $26.49 a day for four days from 7/11/09 to 7/15/09. Upon arrival on 7/11/09 at San Juan Dollar rental office, the rate was changed to $26.49 a day for the first two days and $32.99 a day for the third and fourth days. The Hotwire representative Laurie and the Dollar rental representative Madeline stated they were unable to change the terms even if I had in my possession a confirmation email with the $26.49 a day price, which was presented to the Dollar car rental representative Laurie.

Hotwire violated their own ranking policy and rated a hotel a 3-star based on the hotel ranking of itself. Priceline, Yahoo, and Expedia all ranked lower than a 3. The policy is to take an average, but when most rankings are 2s and the highest is 3, the average cannot be 3. Customer service after 45 minutes told me that they had cancelled the reservation. But 3 days later, the credit card had not been refunded. A second call resulted in an admission that the reservation had been cancelled, but they would have to refer it for research before refunding money from a cancellation. I understand the no refund policy, which is fine as long as the quality of hotel is what is advertised. This is a bait and switch scam. The chain itself is listed by Hotwire as an example of a typical 2-star property. Although not all chain hotels earn the same rating, this is clearly not a 3-star in terms of facilities, safety and location, which was only on the fringe of the advertised area.

I booked a hotel through Hotwire.com. The hotel was listed as a 3 star hotel. When we arrived at the hotel to check in, my mother, my son and myself were registered as guests. They put us in the old hotel location which is not even a 2 star hotel. They put three adults in a room with a single bed. The TV was so dark that we could not even see the picture. No one in the hotel would do anything because of the contract they have with Hotwire. The contract from Hotwire states that no changes would be made at all. So we are stuck in this old, dirty hotel for 3 days with a single bed and an old lumpy roll away bed and no TV that we can see. If you book through Hotwire.com, I recommend that you inquire as to the specific details before agreeing to any booking.

I reserved a car with Hotwire.com on 4/9/2009 for use from 4/17 to 4/20. On 4/11, we decided we would not take this trip and I called Hotwire to cancel. I was advised that they had a no cancellation policy. I was told this policy was on the agreement, which I later found after I had entered all information on the website, including my card number. This is a totally deceptive situation. No one should have to pay for something they cancelled at least 24 hours before the reservation day, unless it is a special made product. What ever happened to fairness?

I booked a room in Silver Springs MD. for Aug. back in 3/08. I was assured I could change the reservation with no fees. Our plans changed and I attemtped to modify my reservation on line but was unable to do so. The drop down menu only gave me 2005 and 2006 as options and would not let me modify my dates.

I was suppose to arrive in Philadelphia @ 11:17.or so. After quite a bit of hassling, I finally managed, to get back on flight #789, but my luggage with my personal ID (licensees), etc didn't arrive until about 2 or 3 pm. Meanwhile I could not rent the car , I had reserved, nor would they allow me to switch or add my husband to rental agreement, as stated by HOTWIRE. Meanwhile, We ended up @ the airport, until about 6 pm(trying to rent a car), too late to attend the event, that I went there for.

I went on line to rent a car for a manadatory conference that must attend to stay a teacher they decline the purchase on 6/21 so they told me to try again 6/22 but they refuse to send the bank the information stating that the transaction was deline so it can be reverse on my card

My daughter booked a flight with Hotwire from Philadelphia to Chicago to visit a college roommate. Her friend called 72 hours prior to the flight due to an unexpected business trip to China. We contacted Hotwire not for a refund but a change for a later date. We were both told if the ticket is not used the full fair would be lost. I feel that this is an excessive penality for situations beyond our control. I further contacted Northwest Airlines and offered to pay the penality for a different date but they told me to take the problem back to Hotwire.

Hotwire offered a 3 star hotel in Pismo on Shell beach. When I entered my details after I booked my trip, I received a 2.5 star hotel at Groover beach in the Pismo area. I confronted them with the difference in star rating and location, but their customer service does not want to refund or book me a room in a 3 star hotel in the right location. I feel cheated, it looks like hotwire is a scam. I would not recommend them.

There was a drop in the price from the time that I booked my flight. I called Hotwire to see what could be done with that. The rep informed me that there is nothing that could be done but that they RECOMMEND that customers book there flight NO MORE than 3 to 4 weeks prior to completing the trips for the lowest price. I found that to be interesting because the website states shows the lowest price or fare disclaimer. I think they are misrepresenting what they are trying to advertise.

I made a reservation through hotwire.com for a rentel car. I did it on online with my credit card. I received the bill and after I paid it something came up that I had to call to change the rental date. The supervisor said it couldn't be done because it say's 'no changing dates and no refunds'.

I am from the Toledo OH area. Family members will arrive the end of June for a visit. Because of space constraints I booked a hotel room in Toledo OH for 5 nights for 2 persons using Hotwire. The internet site noted Westgate. There was referral to a small map showing area where hotels could be. Westgate is convenient to where I live. However, when hotel name was revealed it was the Seagate Hotel in downtown Toledo. This hotel has been in the throes of bancruptcy for several years and is extremely undesireable. User reviews are almost all negative citing poor repair, dirty rooms and lack of service.

Booked and paid for the reservation on the special website (entertainment.com), used to get a $30 rebate. Filed the rebate form upon completion of the trip. They say didn't meet all of the terms of the rebate in an E-mail. I sent a note to their customer service, and they said I had to write a letter to their corporate office, as they couldn't help me. I have since written two letters, with no response! The trip took place in June, and the rebate form said they would rebate the money back within 6-8 weeks!

I booked my hotel on Hotwire.com. I requested a three star hotel, the highest star quality they had, and a certain location. When are reservation came up it was for a Holiday Inn in a area that I did NOT request. Holiday Inn to me is not a three star hotel. Our room was a nightmare. Two full beds instead of a king that we booked. The room smelled of mold, and smoke. The carpet was not stretched and no towels in bathroom. We complained and were moved to another room. We called and asked for extra pillows which we NEVER received. When I contacted Hotwire there was no remorse or no offer to make it right.

With Hotwire you don't know what you get until you book or in our case get to hotel. I searched for a hotel for a trip to Universal Studios California. I searched Hollywood then chose Burbank/Universal City as my choice knowing Universal City is what the area directly around the theme park is called. I got my confirmation email it described the hotel as the Hilton Burbank/Convention center. I called Hotwire they said that the area was so close that it would be at Universal Studios. We arrive at Midnight and saw the Hilton from the interstate at Universal Studios finding we were at the wrong Hilton (our fault we just followed the Hilton sign knowing we were booked at the Hilton Burbank/Universal City)

It was not disclosed that I would not have a choice in the time the flights were leaving. I booked 1500.00 worth of tickets and it only saidyour flight times will be given to you after purchase. To me I thought that meant that I would be given options after I had given them my credit card. I have purchased tickets online alot before and I have never not been given an option as to when I wanted to fly.

I booked a flight through Hotwire and the website failed to add the second passenger. I called into the Customer Care center to have the second customer manually added. After much pleading they agreed to add my companion (they make an additional $600 because of it). Unbenouced to me, they incorrectly entered his first name. When I noticed this error (3 weeks before the departure date) I requested that they make the appropriate correction to the passengers first name. The adamantly refused.

I was checking prices as I always do, and suddenly they charge me for airlines tickets, when I just need some more info, about the airlines schedules. I called them, and they claimed I press the agreement buy now tickets.And quite frankly it's a set up on the worse case.