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Home » Hotels » How to Tell What Hotel you are Getting on Hotwire BEFORE Paying
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How to Tell What Hotel you are Getting on Hotwire BEFORE Paying

Matthew January 23, 2018 21 Comments

Those shopping for great quality and a great value often turn to Hotwire for cut-rate prices at fine hotels. Now you can know exactly which hotel you’ll receive before making your blind purchase…at least in some cities.

Hotwire offers great values, but there is a catch…you won’t see the name of your hotel until you actually pay. Instead, you’ll see the general neighborhood the hotel is located in as well as the star level. The name is shielded: Hotwire says this is so they can provide great prices.

But here’s a way you can virtually guarantee you’ll know exactly what you are getting when you purchase a blind offer. Hotwire partners with Trip Advisor and every hotel on Hotwire has a Trip Advisor rating next to it. You can’t read the reviews themselves (that gives away “Hot Rate” identities too easily…), but you can see the star level that Trip Advisor users have given it. More importantly, you can see how many reviews the hotel has. This is the true giveaway.

For example, the first masked hotel has 992 Trip Advisor reviews. It is no coincidence that if you scroll down the page to normal hotel rates, the NH, that also has 992 reviews and the same star rating. That’s the trick. Click through on the blind booking and you’ll receive that hotel for a fraction of the retail price.

I just did it…

How about the second blind booking above?

Same story in terms of star level and number of reviews matching. But that’s not much of a savings…

Don’t pay attention to the crossed-out price. In order to “confuse” you, Hotwire will average the prices of all the hotels in the neighborhood within the same star level to report the “original price”.

CONCLUSION

I should have called this post “Shatter the Mystery of Hotwire with this One Easy Trick” but then I’d be accused of clickbait. In this case, though, it really is this case you can shatter the mystery of blind purchases on Hotwire with the one easy trick I have outlined above. Just note that it works in some cities and not for others…or perhaps some browsers and not others. Please see the discussion below.

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About Author

Matthew

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 120 countries over the last decade. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BBC, Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, Toronto Star, and on NPR. Studying international relations, American government, and later obtaining a law degree, Matthew has a plethora of knowledge outside the travel industry that leads to a unique writing perspective. He has served in the United States Air Force, on Capitol Hill, and in the White House. His Live and Let's Fly blog shares the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs and promotions, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel. His writings on penandpassport.com offer more general musings on life from the eyes of a frequent traveler. He also founded awardexpert.com, a highly-personalized consulting service that aids clients in the effective use of their credit card points and frequent flyer miles. Clients range from retirees seeking to carefully use their nest egg of points to multinational corporations entrusting Matthew with the direction and coordination of company travel.

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21 Comments

  1. Santastico Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 9:48 am

    Good catch but I guess Hotwire will change their system after this post. 🙂 BTW, in my experience hotels booked using Hotwire, Booking.com, Hotels.com, etc… won’t give you any points or stays.

  2. Trey Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 9:57 am

    Where are you seeing the exact number of TripAdvisor reviews for the hotrate hotel? I see ranges – such as 501-1,000 reviews – but not the exact number. Thanks!

    • Matthew Reply
      January 23, 2018 at 10:19 am

      I just used this in Zurich. What city are you trying?

      • Trey Reply
        January 23, 2018 at 10:30 am

        I just test tried it with Atlanta

      • Eddy Reply
        January 23, 2018 at 10:44 am

        I just tried Barcelona and Geneva and don’t see any TripAdvisor information for the opaque hotel listings.

        • Matthew Reply
          January 23, 2018 at 10:59 am

          I don’t know if it is due to my Safari browser, but Barcelona just worked fine…

          Barcelona

          So did New York:

          New York

          • Eddy
            January 23, 2018 at 11:40 am

            Switched browser and it worked! Thanks.

          • Trey
            January 23, 2018 at 8:20 pm

            This is incredibly odd, but I’ve figured out the trick. When I searched using private browser in Safari, I got the specific numbers, but when I didn’t, that particular line in the search results was omitted entirely.

    • michael Reply
      January 23, 2018 at 10:30 am

      I see the same thing, 501 – 1000. Santa Marta Colombia

  3. Mike L Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 10:12 am

    I have another tip. Hotwire reservations ARE cancelled as long as they have the hotel’s permission. The way you do that is to call the hotel and explain that you need to cancel – get their permission to cancel (make sure you take the name of the person you spoke with). Then call Hotwire and ask for an exception, tell them you called their hotel partner and they agreed to the cancellation and provide the name of the person you spoke with. They will put you on hold while they call the hotel and ask that person for permission. They will then be able to cancel the reservation and you’ll get a refund.

    Also, they send out emails with discounts when you subscribe. The discounts include taxes & fees, meaning if you get a $20 off $100 promo, it just has to be $100 AFTER taxes & fees (for example $82 hotwire rate + taxes & fees = $101, so you’d be able to get it for a total of $81 after the discount).

  4. Nigel Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 10:25 am

    All hotels (at least in New York City) just show a range. I.e. 501-1000 reviews, 1001-1500 reviews etc… Perhaps this trick (which is pretty cool, by the way) only works in particular markets such as Zurich.

  5. Zippy Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 10:54 am

    I originally checked Toronto and when I saw the ranges they were pretty high so I thought that maybe they only used it on those hotels with a significant number of reviews. To test this theory I looked up Aberdeen Scotland figuring it was a small market but should still have enough hotels to have deals. The same, only ranges (this time much lower than Toronto).

    Now that I check Zurich I still only see ranges, the current hot deal for President’s Day weekend has a range of 101-300. I think that your trick has been “fixed.”

  6. MeanMeosh Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 11:04 am

    Another data point – I just pulled up San Francisco, DC, and Miami using Firefox. I see the exact number of reviews. Not ranges. Perhaps it is a browser thing, or some are just getting a preview of the next “enhancement” that hasn’t been fully rolled out yet.

  7. Curtis Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 11:14 am

    I used to do the same thing with Priceline, but pretty sure they didn’t provide the number of reviews. You could narrow down the hotels by stars, and in smaller areas with less hotels it was pretty obvious where you’d get to stay when comparing to the list of hotels with those stars that you could buy rooms for outright.

  8. Trey Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    Hey folks – I replied to this effect above, but when I searched using a private browser mode in Safari I got the exact number of hotels, whereas when I searched using the non-private browser mode, that line in the search results was omitted. I do have to second the comment earlier that I hope this isn’t picked up on by Hotwire and adjusted for. Of course, many times now when I click on a hot rate hotel I get the “last person who booked got the _____” message, so I’m not sure how much they’re safeguarding that info.

  9. avi Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 8:27 pm

    Cool tip. Any tips on how to find out what rental car company it will be with hotwire?

  10. Jeff W Reply
    January 23, 2018 at 11:58 pm

    With this info, I would then reach out to the hotel directly to see if they’d match it. They’ll still end up ahead vs if I made the booking via Hotwire.

    I usually reach out to hotels directly when traveling internationally…less so when domestic. And say that I was considering booking on a third party website, but thought I’d contact them to see if they would offer any perks for booking directly. That has worked quite well, and means I’ll get point for booking directly.

  11. Tvedten Reply
    January 24, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    I just tried Microsoft Edge and saw the exact number of reviews.

  12. Julian Reply
    March 18, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    If you use Mozilla (Firefox), it even lists an option that says “Your hotel is guaranteed to be one of these 4″…. lol so you just pick by the rating. Very nice! Thanks.

  13. Julian Reply
    April 23, 2018 at 9:38 pm

    It seems this no longer works on my computer. Anyone still using this trick?

    • Matthew Reply
      April 23, 2018 at 11:07 pm

      Still works for me using Safari browser.

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