Hotwire.com Review

Background
My family likes to travel. And, when we travel, we like to have all of the luxuries of home. With small children, we now find ourselves opting for home rentals instead of hotels where possible. It costs a little more, but it is worth it to have a living room, DVD player, private pool, option to eat-in, etc. It also really helps with nap time-- you arent trapped. So, this has reduced our usage of www.hotwire.com. (Unfortunately, we cant get home rentals on hotwire. ;() However, we still use it often!

Using Hotwire to accommodate our travel
In the past, when childless, we used hotwire.com a lot for hotel reservations. We could often get a 4 star hotel for sometimes up to 50% off. Think Westin for like $80-$100 per night. Likewise with airlines. When we didnt care about traveling in the wee-hours of the night, we would book on hotwire.com and often get a great bargain. Most times up to $50-$70 off the price if purchasing directly.

Now that we have small kids, we use hotwire.com mostly for rental car bookings. We have an upcoming trip scheduled and we needed a car that fits 4 adults and 2 kids. Generally a car that size is NOT CHEAP for the week. I looked on Avis, Hertz and others and found the car we wanted. It was over $1,000 for the week. I went on hotwire.com, selected the same category of car, and got it for $250. Now, that's a bargain!

How it works
Hotwire.com is kind of like priceline. You do a search, specify the class of hotel or car that you want, and it tells you the current going rate. You can not, however, select your vendor or the specific hotels. Example: You know you will get an SUV, but you dont know if it will be a caddy and from Hertz. Likewise, you know you will get the flight for $200, but you dont know if you will go at 2am or 2pm and if it is on American or United. So, you need to be flexible to use the service. 

Consider hotwire.com in your search for travel if you have flexibility. You can often catch some really great deals. It is risky on flights, but less risky on cars.

Tip: Check on the comparison websites to see what general flight times there are for the dates you want to travel. This then let's you know the real risk you may encouter.