"I rented a car for a weekend to visit my mom. She passed away the day before my trip. I called to add more days to my rental. They said they would not add more days to my rental. Then I asked to cancel my reservation so I could make a new one for more days, they also denied that request. No refund, no more days and will not cancel my reservation. Apparently this is the way they keep your money. Worst customer service ever. They don’t care if it was a death or not. They would not do anything to help. I will never use Hotwire for anything no matter what the price. Total SCAM!!!!!"
"Hotwire advertises for their “Hot Deal”!that with their reservations you’ll be reserving with a major company like Alamo, Budjet, Enterprise, etc...Upon payment they reserved us with Advantage Car Rental who also has poor reviews as well. Speaking to customer service and management was a complete waste of time and management told me to “use it or lose it” in regards to them not honoring what they advertised. I won’t be using Hot Wire ever again and I wish more people would come forward with their similar situations and expose them for the scam company that they really are."
"Booked two rooms through Hotwire.Trip was cancelled.Tried to cancel reservations but recorded message is all you get.No cancellations.They sure hide that little detail well.
No more Hotwire for this guy!"
"I booked my hotel and had a conformation for a hotel near the phoenix airport with an airport shuttle, with the airport shuttle being the most important feature of the hotel to me, because my car rental did not start till the following morning. I later received a call from hotwire stating that my hotel was overbooked and that my reservation was cancelled. I was then presented with two options. The first was that I could get a refund, or my second option was that I could have hotwire book a new hotel for me. I chose to have hotwire book a new hotel for me because I was driving to the airport, so I couldn't do it myself, and still needed a hotel when I got to Phoenix. I explained to the Hotwire customer service agent that I needed a hotel with an airport shuttle because my car rental was not scheduled till the next morning. She then asked me if the Four Points Sheraton at 6850 E. Williams Rd. in Mesa would be ok, to which I responded, "As long as they have an Airport shuttle, and can pick me up." She then indicated that they did, and proceeded to book my room. I am not familiar at all with Phoenix, and I didn't have any access to the internet while driving, so telling me the address of a hotel has no meaning to me. My only concern was that the hotel could pick me up at the airport. Much to my surprise, after picking up my luggage and calling the hotel, they informed me that they were located in an entirely different area, and serviced an entirely different airport. I then called hotwire to have this situation resolved. After waiting on the phone for 30-40 minutes while the hotwire representative pleaded unsuccessfully with the hotel to pick me up, I was told that I needed to catch a taxi to the hotel and back the next morning (a 30 minute drive each way), and that it would be refunded by hotwire. I asked why I could not simply be changed to a new hotel, and was given the excuse that it was already the next day, and if my hotel was changed, I would not be able to check in till 3 p.m. the next day. This however did not really make sense, because it was still before midnight in phoenix at the time. I was instructed by hotwire to submit my taxi receipt by email, and I would be refunded in 7-10 days. Instead of being refunded however, hotwire changed their tune and emailed me back saying they would not be able to provide any compensation. "
"I tried to make a purchase for two hotel rooms.
When i completed the payment (via Paypal) the website informed me there was an error, and I didn't get any confirmation, HOWEVER, despite the fact that there was no transaction, Hotwire did out a hold on my Paypal account.
I then called your customer service. The representative (who was FAR from being helpful and courteous) informed me that it was a glitch on your system that had an issue contacting hotels and that THERE WAS NO CONFIRMATION AND YET I NEED TO CALL PAYPAL TO GET MY MONEY BACK (!!!).
I then spoke with PayPal who informed me that only Hotwire can free the authorization on my money.
PayPal sent Hotwire a notice but they ignored. I keep contacting them and keep getting the same useless canned response (more or less "call us so we can explain our policies").
I've also submitted a BBB complaint and they don't respond.
As of this moment (14days after) they are still UNLAWFULLY holding my money for services they didn't provide."
"DO NOT USE HOTWIRE.COM FOR ANYTHING.!!!
We are celebrating our 10th anniversary and using some savings to go on our 1st trip together since our 6 year old was born. We find that we can get a 4 star resort on the beach for x rate. We have never done anything like this and are not sure so my husband calls to speak to someone to get some clarity and comfort in this decision. She representative says she can select beach over the phone and we cannot do that over the internet. Explains the bookings can by a westin, hyatt, hilton etc.. All great 4 star resort/hotels. It is a non-refundable charge and we are okay with that b/c we understand what we will get. Well we get our hotel and it's not on the beach and its a 3 STAR RESORT. My husband has been on the phone for almost 3 hours and been disconnected twice and still NO REFUND. I WILL NEVER EVER BOOK ANYTHING FROM THIS WEBSITE AGAIN. We even spoke to a rep who agreed we should get a refund and oh no the phone was disconnected again... "
"Absolutely disgusted with their Customer Service. After booking a room for 2 people, I double checked to make sure it was for 2 bedrooms as Booking does not verify. I needed separate beds after a surgery. The hotel had none available. I immediately called Hotwire.com customer service. They were not willing to help and were unempathetic to my situation. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THEM AGAIN"
"Dishonest and Misleading
Hotwire rated Days Inn Logan (447 N. Main St., Logan, UT 84321) as a 2.5 star hotel, while all other booking site rate it as 2 star hotel. Without knowing Days Inn can be rated as 2.5 star hotel, I booked their "deal." I wrote to them immediately after booking, and they replied to me that they "standby their rating." I called their customer support the next day and got the same answer. Even worse, their supervisor lied by saying that Kayak and Tripadvisor rated the hotel as 2.5 star. It turns out that both sites rated Days Inn as a 2 star hotel. Virtually, all other site rated Days Inn as 2 star!!! Please be aware that Hotwire intentionally raises their star rating to trick you book their so called "deals"!"
"Horrible customer service. Made car rental reservations and needed to cancel it after finding out a week in advance that my trip got cancelled. Called customer service only to find out that I am screwed , no cancellation of any kind allowed . First rep, after giving me the good news and me asking to speak with the supervisor, put me on hold for 15 minutes, and I waited and waited before I realized she wasn't going to connect me with any supervisor. I called back only to be told by the supervisor, "tough luck" you should have read your contract more carefully.
I will NEVER use hot wire again. I am out $225.00 simply because I used this horrible site."
"Hotwire is the worst. Everything about them are lies! Stay away from these people! They will tell you anything so you will book with them. These people are horrible. Employees are not trained. I will never never use hotwire again."
"I paid for a 5 star hotel in England and it turned out to be a room in someones home. A barefoot lady answered the door, yelled at me for arriving late & showed me my room. Of course I left but Hotwire.com refused any refund. Avoid this company, they are theives and should be in jail."
"We just got totally ripped off by Hotwire. First of all, the "4-Star" hotel they promised at around $100 turned out to have terrible reviews. Mostly that the rooms were very dirty (including one customer that found dirty panties in their room). Luckily, we thought, we had purchased trip cancellation insurance. Wrong. The trip insurance turns out to be just a rip-off. First they tried to say it had to be medical reasons (which it says nothing about on hotwire's page), then they said their system was down and it would be 24 hours until the insurance kicked in (after check-in time at the crappy hotel we could have gotten for nearly the same price directly with the option to cancel). SO, we are stuck with the reservation in a hotel we do not feel comfortable staying in. After the frustration of dealing with hotwire and its affiliated insurance company, we decided to cancel our trip all together. Losing out on the $135 we paid to hotwire altogether. We will never use this site again, nor will we advise our friends/families to use hotwire. Use Priceline or any other service for a much better experience. "
"I have been purchasing airline tickets and renting cars with Hotwire.com for 4 years. They are my first travel site I start with when looking for travel deals. I have never had any problems with tickets or rentals and I have been very satisfied every time."
"i just purchased two hotel nights with hot-wire because i have over night layovers in prague. they were the red tagged discount ones that don't give you the name of the hotel till after you purchase. i made sure to select that it needs to have an airport shuttle. after purchase i looked up the hotel and they did not have an airport shuttle only a description of how to get there including costs and travel time by bus and walking (forty mins by bus, train, then walking). i notified hot-wire and they gladly refunded both nights because of the misinformation. they are very good and i definitely would shop there again"
"AVOID THESE GUYS! Blatant fraud being committed. I booked a hotel with them for a vacation. They give you a list of many of the features of the hotel, general location, their star rating... All of that was fine; however, they also give you the TripAdvisor customer rating which in this case they said was a 4.0. Based upon their description and the rating there were only 2 possible hotels and while my wife and I had a preference for 1 of them, we would be content with either of them, especially for that price. Well after you pay they show you which of the hotels it is and to my surprise it is a completely different hotel. I look at the hotel and it fits most of the description, but it is located right next to the airport and has quite a few complaints about it. Most importantly it only has a 3.5 TripAdvisor rating, not the 4.0 they advertised. I called them to state that they were misleading people by displaying an inaccurate rating and basically they could care less. They say all they care about is the number of stars they give it, not that they are lying about the customer feedback! I will be contacting my credit card company about the fraud that has taken place to try to get a refund from them. Shouldn't be a problem since I have print outs of their description of the hotel and the description from TripAdvisor."