yk

I'm considering using Hotwire for a Paris hotel for an upcoming trip in September, as I have a credit on my HW account.

I have looked at BetterBidding, but the hotel list there is very limited, mainly 4* hotels. Some zones (eg Gare du Nord) don't even have any hotels listed.

Has anyone here used HW for Paris hotels, esp for 3* hotels? I'm hoping there are people here who used HW but didn't post their results on BetterBidding.

WillTravel

I'm glad to hear you got a credit, presumably for the HI Regents Park experience.

I posted on BB about how if you do a selective Google search for Hotwire and the city you want, restricted to the tripadvisor.com domain, you can often find hotels listed that are not shown on BB.

For example, I can see by doing this that Hotel Republique des Halles was booked on Hotwire by someone.

yk

WT - but your method will only limit to hotel reviews that the reviewer mentioned using Hotwire for their hotels, right?

A few months ago, rkkwan posted a thread here about how to use the tripadvisor ratings (listed for each hotwire hotel) to figure out which hotel it is; by matching the # of reviews, tripadivsor rating, and last date of review.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35126329

His method works best in a town/city that has relatively few hotels as one can go through every hotel one-by-one.

However, it won't work for Paris as there are over 1000 hotels listed on tripadvisor!

travelinwifey

Priceline is generally cheaper than hotwire, and Hotwire has a more liberal rating system. For Priceline info go to www.biddingfortravel.com and look at the zones and hotel possibilities before bidding. I generally bid 20% less than Hotwire rates when the hotel can be identified.

WillTravel

For parts of Paris, Hotwire has
better-defined zones, plus yk wants to use up the credit she got.

If you do the trick with the dummy Hotwire vacation packages, and do the trick I mentioned with searching the TripAdvisor site, and also look at the BB list, and do a minimal cross-check on TripAdvisor, I think you've done everything possible to figure out the hotels in advance.

Also, I think Hotwire hotels tend to also be tour group hotels, so that's another possible approach too (but exhausting).

travelinwifey

Also if you do the Flight + Hotel option using your travel dates you should be able to match icons for hotels via Hotwire.

Is the credit more than a few hundred dollrs? Because perhaps PL may be cheaper in the end but you need to do extensive research on the zone and past winning bids.

Hotwire is tricky because sometimes they do not offer a significant discount on accommodations. There are also multiple European websites that discount, plus airlines sometimes have pretty good "hotel only" deals. You should do a lot of searching to make sure Hotwire is still a deal, even with credit.

yk

I have tried to use the package trick to check for the hotel, but the hotels that came up didn't match the ones listed for "hotels only".

I did the google search, by typing in "hotel review hotwire" and searched in the tripadvisor domain. Only a handful of reviews came up.

I'm only needing a hotel for one night, and the credit on HW should cover most of the cost.

I still have 3 months before we leave, so I'll wait a little to see if the 4* prices come down.

travelinwifey

Good luck

WillTravel

I tried this Google search. Of course, a lot of the links returned are not helpful, but it's a bit better than some.

http://tinyurl.com/3so9gs

WillTravel

Another thing with the package trick is that you have to try different date combinations, and even different departure airports. These can make different hotels appear.

yk

WT- thanks for the link & tips. I'll have to slowly pore through the google links.

Joseph7820

No, but I recently stayed in Paris at the Mercure Suffren Tour Eiffel Hotel. It was very nice with a few nice restaurants nearby and a 2 or 3 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower.

atp2007

Several years ago, we booked a room at a small hotel in Paris thru a travel site in California. After several email exchanges it looked like we had the room size and price set and they sent me a voucher. When we got to Paris the hotel owner swore that while he had gotten the request, it was never confirmed. Coincidentally he had the exact same room available for the same price. Once home the Calif. company cancelled the credit card charge and expressed their regret that the reservation had not worked out. It occurred to me that the hotel owner had ripped them off, the way we paid for the room, he didn't have to pay the Calif company any booking fee. It didn't surprise me that this would happen in Paris always some type of hassle.

buzzjane

Be careful! I took my grandson to Paris 2 years ago. I tried booking with HW. The downside of it is that you really have no protection with them. They booked me a really seedy hotel in an area (domestically) that was so dangerous we did not dare get out of our car and go to the room, and I am not one who scares easily. They stood firm and only through phone calls to the manager of the property, did we get a refund and found a safer place to stay. In view of that, you might look at Expedia or other sites. They found me some very decent places, but in Paris, you can get stuck in a sweat-box and it is still rated 3 stars. There are bad neighborhoods and it is a big city, think about having some recourse if they do stick you somewhere awful. Our 4star hotel was off behind Notre Dame, but was very convenient to the Metro...however, the Metro closes in the evening and you could get stuck walking. We tried to get back to our Hotel during the Futbol finals that summer and it was like a scene from an old Frankenstein movie! You could not get a bus or Metro as they just decided to shut down. You could not get a Taxi if you threw yourself in front of one. The walk back to the Hotel took us about 2 hours and even the Gendarmes were sending us in the wrong direction, and we had a passable knowledge of the language. My real concern was for my grandson (aged 11 at the time). We did get some compensation through Expedia and had a 24/7 phone number on our cell to call to arbitrate. I know that is not true of Hotwire and basically they don't seem to care about any problems you might encounter, so you may get what seems to be a good price, but in a bad situation will cost you in some other way and particularly now with the dollar to Euro ratio. Protect yourself first, then look for bargains.

bozama

Atp2007,, your last line was a dumb as they come.

May be if some of you booked your own hotels by looking up reviews and reading guidebooks you wouldn't have so many problems. Picking hotels in a foriegn city by this lottery system seems a bit odd to me, and I don't think you come out ahead money wise, and I know you don't come out ahead atmoshpere wise, getting mostly big chain hotels, or worse smaller but dodgy places in outlying areas( they always say " central Paris" but
often are not.

And for your information, Paris is in France, not America,, so the rooms are SMALL since they haven't ripped down buildings that are often 100 or more years old to make mega block Trump Towers,, your hotels are likely not purpose built but often converted apartments etc. Many do not have elevators, or a/c. Its called being different..

There is a nice American Hilton right by the Eiffel Tower for those of you who want to go to Paris , but not really stay in a foriegn type place,, LOL Hope you have money or points though.

As for the ladies unfortunate experience with the metro, well, I rarely take my 11 yr old out that late, but I understand it was a special event, but, knowing that, and how much you all seem to love your football over there, what you encountered shouldn't have totally surprised you. I have heard the World Rubgy Games were absolute mayhem also .. certainly not the normal.

YK,, if its only for one night just use your points,, I mean how bad can one night be.