Hotwire.com Review

Hotwire.com is a vacation travel web site that helps customers find discounts on their vacation related needs. This web service is useful for travelers who are more flexible with their travel plans and are willing to tolerate a little bit of uncertainty in order to obtain the lowest possible price.

Web Site Commentary:

Hotwire.com offers many travel services. Flights, Lodging, Vacation Packages, Car Rentals, and Cruises are offered for sale here, with several different ways to narrow your search and find exactly what you want.  

I have used Hotwire.com on and off again since first signing up for this service a few years ago. From my experience, I have found that airline flights are the area where the best deals are most often found. Hotwire.com competes with many other travel web sites, but Priceline.com is the one it is most often compared to. In many areas, Hotwire.com is better; in other areas, Priceline.com is slightly better.

With flights, Hotwire.com works a little differently than Priceline.com. First of all, you need to understand that there is no bidding at Hotwire.com. When you search for a flight, you are presented with a list of possible prices for your chosen departure and destination cities. This is the only data you can see. You don't know the time of your flights or the airline (Based on my experience, most Hotwire flights are morning flights) for either departure or arrival. You have to accept the offer before you know this information. And, most importantly, once you press the button to accept an offer, there is no turning back (similar to Priceline.com). You have now purchased the flight displayed on screen, regardless of the times or price.

The price that is offered is good for two hours. You can leave your pc and make other plans while you decide on what to do. The original offer will remain in place for two hours. After that point, you have to search again and hope that the flight you wanted is still being offered. This is a nice feature, and it's something you don't find in other web services. With other web sites, you have to be very quick to make up your mind or the seats will be sold to another traveler within minutes.

Speaking of seats, Hotwire.com has certain other limitations that could make it unsuitable to specific travelers. First, you do not get the option to select your seating. Second, you cannot get credit for frequent flyer miles. Also, keep in mind that if you make a purchase via Hotwire, your options at the airport will be limited. You cannot switch flights and ask the airline for an earlier flight, even if there are seats open (unless, of course, you are willing to pay extra money). Because the purchase was made via Hotwire, your priority is lower than with other customers.

Hotwire.com is not as useful as Priceline.com for hotel purchases. The mechanism works the same way as Hotwire's search for flights- the price is displayed without the hotel name (but you do get to see the quality rating and amenities of the hotel). But the prices are not as competitive for lodging as with flights. You can often find a better deal elsewhere. Hotwire.com offers the user one way to narrow down the possible hotel choices: selecting a location of the city to search from a map. This way, you at least know that, if you accept an offer, the hotel you end up with will be in the general vicinity of where you want to stay. I really like this map feature. It's something offered in only a few other web sites and it adds a visual element that makes the site more user- friendly. I can quickly look at the map of a city and narrow down the acceptable areas.

Bottom Line Viewpoint:

Overall, Hotwire.com is a very good web service for finding bargain deals on flights and fairly competitive deals on other travel services. There is, of course, a degree of uncertainty when you use a service like this because you don't really know what you're going to get. For this reason, Hotwire.com is not a good choice if you need a flight that will arrive at a more definite time (like for a conference, or work- related event) or if you need to stay in one, specific hotel location. But if your travel plans are more flexible, then Hotwire.com can save you a bundle on travel, particularly on flights. Logon and see for yourself just how inexpensive flight travel can be, with Hotwire.com.