It seems that you have no choice as to room type that you end up with. I’m travelling with an old flat mate (two males) and we don’t want to be sharing a bed and ideally none of us would end up with sofa beds (we’re doing a tonne of driving and want to ensure we have comfy stays). I’m guessing that in most of the cases you end up with a single queen/king and if not a sofa as well. Is there any flexibility in changing room types and does any ‘upgrade’ fees negate the whole gamble process savings?
Should I say that there are 4 adults travelling to ensure two beds?
Considering I’ve already booked 5 of 6 using conventional (Expedia/direct hotel) ways would you recommend going back and trying Hot/Price for these? Note I only just became aware of the ‘gambling’ aspect of these sites after I’d made booking. So far for West Coast canada we’re averaging around $200 per night for the conventional means.
Thanks
Mike
I’m going to let you in on a little secret- Hotwire is the bomb!
I have a group of us who travel a lot to marathons, triathlons, vacations, etc. and we always go through hotwire.
My advice-
3 stars and above.
3 people to guarantee 2 beds- haven’t been disappointed yet.
I bet I have done hotwire over 20 times and only been disappointed when we chose the wrong hotel star rating- which was our fault.
If I remember correctly, I scored a downtown Kansas City hotel- 4 stars for $60 on marathon weekend.
Bam!
As long as you type in 3 people will be staying then you’ll get 2 beds in the room…
If you’re paranoid about it, as soon as you make the reservation and you get the name of the hotel, call them to make sure. 99.9999% of the time, hotels in north america will have the same price for a room with 2 doubles, or 1 king, so if they happen to give you a room with one king, then it shouldn’t be a problem to get you a room with 2 doubles.
Another question. Do you get to choose the section of the city where the hotel is? Example, I’m going to be staying in Ft. Worth, TX. I don’t want to be somewhere with a 45 minute commute in that traffic.
And from what I’ve learnt in the Lavender Room in the last 24hours (I think from Reconstyle), with Hotwire you can go to www.betterbidding.com and compare the description to what other’s have bought and pretty much figure out what hotel it will be.
You guys are legends. Thanks for all the help!
Cheers
Mike
I’ve never used betterbidding.com…
On priceline, once you type in a city, it brings up a map with diferent numbered sections, you pick which sections of the map you would be willing to stay in, and then enter your price that you would be willing to pay.
On hotwire, you can type in a zip code, then in the search results it will tell you approimately how far away from the center of the zipcode the hotel is.
One last one before hitting the sack…
Presumably the rates get better the closer you are to departure? So, being two months out, I can’t expect to get the same massive savings as people who might be booking a week or a few days before checking in?
One last one before hitting the sack…
Presumably the rates get better the closer you are to departure? So, being two months out, I can’t expect to get the same massive savings as people who might be booking a week or a few days before checking in?
Depends on the hotel, some load their rates months in advance on those 2 sites and never change them, others are fairly proactive about it and will open up/close out/lower rates depending on demand at the time.
using betterbidding.com as a guide has helped accurately identify the hotwire hotel 100% of the time for me.