{"id":1012,"date":"2013-08-25T21:34:07","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T04:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2013-08-21T21:34:31","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T04:34:31","slug":"tips-hotwire-better-bidding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/tips-hotwire-better-bidding\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for Hotwire Better Bidding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/forum\" target=\"_blank\">Hotwire discussion forum<\/a>, customers new to Hotwire are often not aware of some of the tricks and tips for Hotwire better bidding. \u00a0Here is a list of the top 10 tips for travellers looking to save money on their Hotwire hotel reservations.<\/p>\n<p>On a technical note, as you probably know, making a Hotwire reservation does not actually require any &#8216;bidding&#8217;. \u00a0However, thanks to Priceline and their unique <em>Name Your Own Price<\/em> bidding system, the phrase &#8216;bidding&#8217; has become synonymous with booking opaque hotels. \u00a0In fact, websites like BetterBidding and BiddingForTravel have popularized the term &#8216;bidding&#8217; for Hotwire even though no actual bidding is involved.<\/p>\n<h2>Top Ten Top For Better Bidding on Hotwire<\/h2>\n<p>1. \u00a0Hotwire hotel reservations are non-refundable and cannot be changed or cancelled. \u00a0Although Hotwire can save you between 15 and 40% on your hotel reservation, its simply not worth it if you think you might have to cancel your hotel reservation. \u00a0Avoid using Hotwire unless you are absolutely certain you will not have to cancel your hotel reservation.<\/p>\n<p>2. \u00a0Hotwire is a great alternative to Priceline in situations where you need a room to accommodate more than 2 guests. \u00a0Unlike Priceline, you can specify up to 4 travelers per room and are guaranteed to get a room that accommodate the specified number of guests. \u00a0Although not usually a problem on Priceline, I usually recommend travelers in parties of 3 or more play it safe and use Hotwire as an alterantive to Priceline.<\/p>\n<p>3. \u00a0Use Hotwire when you need specific hotel amenities, such as free parking, breakfast, swimming pool, wifi or airport shuttle. \u00a0Since Priceline does not list amenities (except Priceline Express Deals), most travellers are better bidding on Hotwire instead of Priceline for guaranteed amenities. \u00a0I typically use Hotwire when travelling with my kids (and thus prefer hotels with a swimming pool, free breakfast) but use Priceline when travelling solo and do not care as much about such amenities.<\/p>\n<p>4. \u00a0Hotwire is more expensive than Priceline on average. \u00a0Unless there is a particular reason for avoiding Priceline, I recommend travellers give it a try before booking on Hotwiire. \u00a0Use the Hotwire price as the maximum (less 10 to 15%) for your Priceline bids. \u00a0You might be surprised &#8211; sometimes you can get Priceline rates at deep discounts to Hotwire.<\/p>\n<p>5. \u00a0Before staring your bidding, check other websites such as Expedia, Travelocity, etc. \u00a0You might find a deal as good or better. \u00a0In other words, Hotwire is not always cheaper and it pays to shop around. \u00a0If the price elsewhere is close, I always recommend that travellers go for the hotel with the most flexible cancelation policy. \u00a0I usually prefer a savings of 10% minimum or the risk is simply not worth it.<\/p>\n<p>6. \u00a0Be aware of Hotwire hotel ratings. \u00a0It is widely believed that Hotwire hotel ratings are &#8216;generous&#8217;, meaning their ratings are sometimes higher than consensus from other booking engines. \u00a0In fact, I did a comparison of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/hotwire-hotel-ratings\/\">Hotwire vs Priceline hotel ratings<\/a> and found that quite often, Hotwire tends to having higher ratings than Priceline for the same hotel. \u00a0I<\/p>\n<p>7. \u00a0My number one tip: \u00a0You can usually reveal Hotwire hotels using the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/hotelinventory\/\">Hotwire hotel list<\/a> for the city you are travelling to. \u00a0The hotel lists are created by Hotwire forum members who have posted their winning bids. \u00a0It is essentially a list of known hotels, and there is a good chance you will get that hotel or one like it.<\/p>\n<p>8. \u00a0After you\u2019ve purchased a hotel, help others by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/share.php\" target=\"_blank\">posting<\/a>\u00a0your winning bid. This is extremely helpful for everyone who uses this site. It makes a better Hotwire bidding community and I cannot stress enough how helpful this is to fellow travellers.<\/p>\n<p>9. \u00a0Use the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/forum\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hotwire discussion forum to ask any question you might have<\/a>. \u00a0The forum is full of additional Hotwire better bidding strategies, tips, and advice. We&#8217;re several thousand fans who love helping fellow travellers.<\/p>\n<p>10. \u00a0This website (www.hoteldealsrevealed.com) has lots of great articles for additional hotel bidding help. \u00a0Check out this section on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/hotwirestrategies\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hotwire help articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the top 10 tips for Hotwire better bidding.  Included in the top 10:  how to reveal a Hotwire hotel before bidding, when to avoid booking your hotel on Hotwire, and tips to ensure you are always getting the lowest hotel rate possible when bidding on Hotwire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,43],"tags":[122,117,49,124],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-better-bidding-for-travel","category-hotwire","tag-better-bidding","tag-betterbidding","tag-hotel-lists","tag-hotwire-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hoteldealsrevealed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- html is corrupted -->