Hotwire Reviews

I used to use Hotwire a lot a few years back, now I don’t recommend anyone using this website, they don’t give you the hotel on the recommendation, and the prices are not good, sometimes even more expensive than other travel agents on line. When you call, they will tell you the hotel is one of the chain showing, but it’s not. I paid $90 US dollars, before you paid you don’t even know what you get, after everything was Canadian dollars $155, Hotwire tell you match guarantee, it’s a four star hotel, but it's 3 stars hotel. I checked other site. They charge the same amount and you know what do you stay.

I booked car rental and when I arrived at the rental place the agent stated that it was only for electric cars and I did not purchase through Hotwire so I plainly stated in small writing that it might be a electric car. So the agent rewrote my rental policy and when I looked at statement 10 days later I was billed twice. Once by the Hotwire and once by agent at the rental. So reach out to Hotwire and because I didn’t call to cancel it I’m out the pocket for it as if I just gave free money and in today’s society whose has money to throw away and I hope and pray that you treat neighbors the way you want to be treated but instead this company is a thief and liar. I will no longer use this company and recommend those who traveling to use another source.

A Complete Scam - Stay Far Away!** I can't believe I fell for this company's deceptive practices. From the moment I booked my trip, it was one issue after another. The so-called "luxury accommodations" were anything but—dirty, outdated, and nothing like the photos online. The "all-inclusive" package was a joke; hidden fees popped up at every turn, and the "guided tours" were just a rushed mess with no actual guidance.

Biggest rip off ever!!! They advertised a $1000 hotel room for 87% off. Wow what a deal right? No I get to the hotel and got a standard room. It would have been cheaper to book with the hotel directly for the room I actually paid more with Hotwire!! Big fat liars!! They wouldn't do anything about it except tell me to go to another hotel. No credit, no chance to even attempt to make it right. Just a big too bad. Do not use!!

I booked 2 rooms with a Hotwire Agent last night; she gave me the price details and it sounded good. I asked what hotels were included. Her response was several brand named hotels; I proceeded to book with her. When I got my hotel notification is was some unknown independent. I just spent over 2 hours trying to get a refund; due to being misled. Even got a supervisor involved eventually; they will not budge from their policy. Very aggravating when you were duped by one of their employees. They did offer me HotWire Dollars; but I don’t ever want to book with them again. Will be deleting the app and never going to use or recommend them again.

Beware, Hotwire is truly become fraud and spam. I made my reservation looking at the hotels that is offered during the reservation process but was provided an unknown hotel brand which does not meet the Hotel class and top of it customer service was pathetic instead of trying to understand the situation were rude with do not care attitude. When confronted with actual hotel cancellation which was until 4pm same day, it was mentioned on the hotel website, Hotwire demanded $60 cancellation charges. I have been using hotwire from almost 5+ years but day by day they are becoming more like frauds. I see much better options outside. Will never use their services again.

I am extremely disappointed with Hotwire for the inaccurate information displayed in my online itinerary, which directly contradicted the flight dates in my original booking confirmation email from September 30th. The online itinerary incorrectly stated my flight departed today, December 21st, 2024, when in reality, the Delta flights booked through Hotwire departed yesterday, December 20th. As many travelers rely on readily accessible online itineraries to confirm their plans, rather than digging through old emails, this discrepancy caused me to miss my flight entirely.

I have used Hotwire many times over the years but have realized in the past year or so that the quality of their hotels has really went to the bottom.. If you look at your possible hotels listed before booking... be cautious you might get totally different hotel and it's usually a dump.. Just beware.

They may have good prices but their prices are All in USD. I booked a Canadian Hotel while in Canada and using a Canadian credit card. At no time was it made clear that the currency was not CAD$ until I received and email confirmation after paying. Suddenly the prices are not really great deals at all and there are no refunds. Customer service number is impossible to find and when you do finally get through they can't do anything. I asked for a manager and had to repeat my request 3 x because he "couldn't hear me". I had to literally shout. It was very uncomfortable. I gave up after a runaround and feel I feel like a victim of fraud. Won't ever use this service again.

Horrible experience, double charging, refusing refunds, scam, scam, scam, pick any other company! Save yourself the hassle. Was tired from a flight, poor response, poor customer service, had to book second hotel.

Hotwire is a completed joke and a scam. Booked a room at a Days Inn on Asheville Hwy in Knoxville TN and the room was completely infested with cockroaches. I provided pics and videos. How the heck they have this dump rated as a 3-star hotel is beyond me. We were in the room for a total of maybe 20 minutes before we turned around and walked out after discovering the roaches. Hotwire won't give me my money back but offered me $40 to use with Hotwire in the future. Are you insane??? Nasty jokers with garbage hotels. Never again.

I’m not sure what happened to Hotwire. They used to be great, but they have changed—and not for the better. I tried changing my zip code and email address on their website, but I ran into technical difficulties. When I clicked on “save changes” when I change the zip code, it says that changes were saved, but it reverts back to the old zip code. When I clicked on “save changes” when changing the email address, I get an error based on the red box surrounding my email address, but it says that changes were saved.

Our flight was delayed. We called the car rental company immediately so they understood us and cancelled the reservation of the car BUT Hotwire refused to credit back the charges. We sent Hotwire a message the same day of the issue with our flight and they never responded back. We were satisfied with Hotwire in the past but we asked them to credit back the charges as a courtesy. Very upset.

Hotwire don't have live support. It's all text or email. When you badly need to speak to someone, you have to wait few days. So when you have problems with your reservation, you're on your own. Calling their 18663942015 will tell you "no Agents available". Any day, anytime, no Agents available. I did a hotel reservation. Hotel did not honor my reservation as the hotel is full. Hotel just asked me to call Hotwire for refund. So, to summarize, reserving a hotel don't really matter when it's through Hotwire. The 2nd time it happened to me.

Bait and switch with respect to insurance during covid. Only made the reservation because it SEEMED I could also buy insurance in case of covid - it was late December 2023 travel. Only after I booked, got an email saying the insurance was only offered to US residents whereas I live in Canada. But that was known at the time of booking when I entered my address!!!! Website accepted the purchase of reservation and the insurance when surely they knew or should have known that it was only a pretense that I was also purchasing the insurance. Of course, family member got covid, couldn't use reservation, no insurance, no refund. Very borderline scam. Seemed like it was intentionally misleading.

I've had a lot of issues with my channels not changing, along with my voice remote does not work. I spent over an hour and a half with Melanie and she was outstanding. Between her and me it was very difficult to do this over the phone and she was not sure on what else to do, so Melanie scheduled an appointment for a technician to come out to try to fix my issues... Up until this issue I have had great service with Hotwire especially since it's free in our development. So thank you very much for your services and kudos to Melanie she's absolutely the best representative I've talked to in almost the year that I've been dealing with Hotwire. This girl needs a raise. Thank you so much for your patience and your help Melanie!!!

Wow, what deplorable service. Have used Hotwire for nearly 20 years, but won't again. Seems they have gone way downhill. Room at the Holiday Inn Bellingham, Washington was atrocious. Tried to cancel and rebook at another property, but the hotel was unresponsive and Hotwire did not bother to intercede. Two brands lost my business today.

Booked 6 nights in Kelowna at a supposedly a 4 star. This hotel was offered as a promo priced mixed in with other decent 4 stars. Of course we get the low value one but still pay approx 200 per night for a mediocre hotel... the comfort Inn kelowna. Hotwire offers junk hotels in their promos if I am correct that make the marginal star level. I would not book with Hotwire again. Borderline scam sales tactics. Overpriced for low value.

Absolutely worthless website app. What’s the point of booking through Hotwire when the hotel then asked you for the same credit card and they slide it so many times that it freezes your account and so you’re not even able to stay at the hotel because they need to slide your card for incidentals instead of just taking a copy.

Used Hotwire for flights and car rentals. Booking a flight went flawlessly. The past two trips found that prepaying for car rental is worthless. Car chosen on app are not available when needed for trip. Chose different car on-site in lot and the upgrade cost more. I happy to pay the difference from original choice, but found prepaid amount does not show up when paying for the rental. Hotwire does not give itemized receipts, which makes it hard to file a claim to retrieve my prepaid amount. They claim Budget's property manager has not returned Hotwire's emails request and Hotwire's policy claim "Nothing they can do" when someone has $1800 for services they did not provide.

Pathetic - gave them business for 15 years for most of our trips and made the silly mistake of choosing wrong date (one day earlier) and couldn’t give even a partial discount on a $80 booking as a one time courtesy for an old customer. Never using them again.

Hotwire should be shut down immediately. I have been without my tv for 7 hours right now. Are you people serious??? I absolutely hate hate hotwire. We pay all this $$$$$ and just get told, "We are working on it!!!!" You people are a complete joke.

If I could give them a zero I would. I booked a rental car months ago and the day of my trip had to change by one day. I prepaid for the rental car and they would not give me a refund. I tried claiming my flight was delayed, they wanted the flight number. I told them there was a loss in the family, they wanted the name of the person to verify. I actually did lose someone but I would never give them that info. It obtrusive and crazy. Basically they took 1,000 dollars and refuse to give it back for needing to postpone the reservation 1 day. For real, one day. I wouldn't suggest this company to my worst enemy which is them. I wouldn't suggest this company to the people who work for it.

On Friday, May 17, 2024; I used Hotwire and their mystery hotel HOTRATE special to get an affordable hotel near the designated location my fiancé and I were scheduled to attend. We used the sorting toolbar for 'DISTANCE' and the sorting tool stated that the HOTRATE HOTEL was exactly one mile away from our destination. Nonetheless, I submitted my credit card information and booked the mystery hotel. Afterwards they revealed the hotel that Hotwire chose and it was not 1 mile away but more than 10 miles away in a prostitute and drug infested area of Baltimore, MD.

Company will post pictures of vehicles that are not similar to what you will actually receive. I booked a car that seats seven people and the description says this car or similar, yet the rental car company will only provide me a car that seats five people. Andy ** Was the supervisor I spoke with there, indicating that there is “nothing they can do” because they have a right to give customers any vehicle they desire that is similar regardless of what is advertised on the picture as the “similar vehicle.” The Audi Q7 in this photo seats seven people, a similar vehicle should also see seven people not five.

Hotwire is a SCAM! They don't show the shady prostitute infested Hotels on their list. They also lie about the rating score. You will end up in a despicable location if you blindly fall for the low rate.. DON'T DO IT... IT'S JUST NOT WORTH THE CHEAP OPTION.

Hotwire charge me $202 for a hotel and when I got to the location the hotel did not look like the picture. It was full of weeds and grass everywhere. It did not look safe on the outside. When I asked for my money back to find a more secure location they gave me credit but they put it on a generic email where I was not able to use it. This company will steal your money. Do not use it. You will thank me.

I had the worst experience last night. Went to Atlantic City, went on Hot Wire to rent a room. The website defaulted one of my old employees onto the reservation, not my name the owner of the account the one who has an email address the credit card that was used. Spent two hours of my evening, trying to get them to change it back or add me to the reservation, I was told by a supervisor they cannot and that I will lose my money, there’s no way this could be legal.

Corporate politics prevails at this agency. No credit given for accidental duplicate booking. Being a loyal customer means nothing here. Not sure how it’s legal or ethical to simply take peoples’ money. Will not use again.

We had a hotel booked on April 5, 2024 at Best Western International Tuscon Airport, I booked d ahead of time on Hotwire. When I drove for plus hours from Tempe to find out that there is no Best Western hotel where I had booked, it is Hotel Bridge Way at that address, a very dingy place, looks like a shelter place, I was so tired, frustrated and needed to sleep in for early morning next day.

I booked two tickets for international flight with two stops in December 6. January 25th, Hotwire sent me a notification about my flights has been changed and gave me two options: Accept the changes or cancel the flights. I made a phone called to let them know the time changed had discrepancies due to arrival time to Tokyo is 7:00 pm but the next flight from Tokyo to Ho Chi Minh City is depart at 5:10 pm local time which I will miss the connection, no way that I can accept the changes. During my phone conversation with Hotwire representative, the person told me she is making a request to the airline and have them change to fit with all flights schedules, but they need 72 hours to response that request. I called back after 72 hours, waited, and had the same answer as initial called 3 days ago, which meant I had to wait another 72 hours for the airline to resolve the problems.

I booked a rental car through their site and it double booked me so when I went to pick up the rental the agency said I had two reservations and that I had to contact Hotwire regarding the second reservation. After my trip I get back, I call Hotwire and they say, "You have 24 hours from when you book to receive a refund" and that there is nothing that they can do. I talked to four different people all not on the continent of North America only to keep being told I could not get a refund. When I asked to escalate to another manager they said they were the highest I could get to via the phone and that I would have to write a PO Box to voice my complaint. Total ripoff.

I wanted to book a weekend in Rocky Point Mexico. Looked on Hotwire. The price seemed ok so I booked it. Today I was reviewing my email and I see a $400 resort fee. I did not agree to $400 resort fee. The hotel doesn't charge a resort fee and my entire booking was $380. This is a complete scam. Do not use Hotwire. It is not the same company it use to be.

I reserved a car rental. When my flight landed at the airport the rental counter was closed. I called the car rental company Sixt and they couldn’t help me and they kindly cancelled my reservation. I got a car from enterprise. Now Hotwire refuses to refund my money. Warning - do not rent through anyone except the actual rental company.

I am a business traveler and use Hotwire extensively. I set up a business card to use and it disappeared and they billed my personal card. I asked them to change the billing to the correct card and they refused and said they couldn't? Really? I book 2 to 3 nights a week and they now list my business. Stupid business practices. This was a simple adjustment for a heavy user.

I rent a car luxury car with Thrifty in Denver, they don't have it waiting for 1 hour and the end have to take mid-size and paid luxury car. Thrifty said, "Call Hotwire for refund" and Hotwire said nope. What idiots.

Having never used Hotwire the way it is now it was a surprise when trying to book a hotel for one night that we don't know what hotel we would get until we paid. We got an Air BnB called Metro Tempe Apartments. The room we reserved was a mess, when calling Metro back they didn't have another room and we had to drive two hours back home arriving home at 1230am (not fun). We called Hotwire the next day and was told they could only give us a $25 credit, not the $125.19 we paid. We called back a 2nd time and talked with someone how talked with Metro for a refund.

I do not recommend Hotwire for renting a car. I rented a car through Hotwire in Louisville for two weeks, but Hotwire charged me 440 USD in addition to the 748 USD that the rental car company charged me!!

We booked Holiday Inn Express through Hotwire in Nebraska City for one night. The Hotel Charged us as well. Neither one wants to pay us back for double-paid room! Hotwire gotten a lot more greedier over the years.

My husband and I recently took a trip to Vegas for his birthday. We were quoted a price of $58. The car rental company (Ace), states they never received this price. Neither company wanted to reach out to the other. Both agents at Hotwire were completely unhelpful and didn’t want to listen. So, please beware you’re not going to be helped if you book through this company. Very sad and disappointing!