Hotwire
reviews and complaints

Today, I was unceremoniously left stranded in Las Vegas by Hotwire and their scamming tactics and a shady car rental by the name of Nu Car Rental. I got a flight delay of 3 hours, which caused me to arrive late to Vegas. Low and behold, Scam artists Hotwire “has a policy of 4 hours” in order to reimburse my cancellation. Hint; it seams like its always “one hour too short” of being able to do good by their patrons. And as for the Car Rental company; well…they close their offices at 6:00 PM..in Vegas, on a Saturday.

Serves me well for ignoring the old saying…You get what you pay for. Do yourself a favor and find somewhere else to bring your business to. They sure dont give a damn once they charge your credit card…Im sure as hell wont allow these thugs to see another cent from my hard earned.

I spent hours on the phone and couldn't get any customer service in the US, kept getting re-directed to the Philippines and their response is like a tape recorder. We were doing 2 reservations for car rentals at 2 airports (SFO and LAX) and the first one that got confirmed had SFO for pickup but the dates and times that we will be flying into and out of LAX. Somehow, the 2 reservations got mixed up. I was told by the hotwire manager in the Philippines that:

1) There is no US based customer service or support. I sure hope for a business like Hotwire where most of its business is based in the US, that they do provide domestic support so if anyone knows how to get someone from the US, please post

2) They can't fix or change anything on the reservation. I called the car rental company and they said that they don't get paid until we pick up the car so basically, Hotwire will keep our money without providing any service. I sure hope this is illegal in this country

On Sep 09, 2022 I looked for hotels near Washington DC and found an option for hotel showing options of Sheraton, double tree, Hilton as option. Once I completed the form and submitted my payment I got "Clarion Inn" which I have never heard off. To me this is cheating since you provided probable option of Sheraton, Hilton, Double Tree and gave a completely different one. I wife refused to stay that hotel. As a result you didn't checked in that hotel even after paying the price.

August 29,2022

To Whom It May Concern:

Two days ago, August 27, I realized that I had made an error when I input my last name on the Hotwire form while making an airline reservation. I called Hotwire immediately to update the information. I was transferred four times and spent about one and half hours on the telephone. I was told that Hotwire would contact the airlines involved and the matter would be resolved in 24 hours. I was also told that my itinerary and e-ticket would be corrected. I was also told that only the airlines involved could make the change.

Well, nothing happened so tonight I called the airlines directly. The ticket is from United airlines but includes flights on Lufthansa. Both airlines told me that only the travel agent who booked the flights could do the name change. So, I called Hotwire back. The person who answered by call spoke English with a heavy foreign accent and seemed to have trouble understanding me. In addition, the background noise on his end (I could clearly hear another agent speaking to another customer) made a bad situation worse. I repeatedly asked to speak to someone else and he told me there was no one else to speak to. He had difficulty finding the itinerary and did not understand me when I tried to give him the information he was asking for. He finally found the information and when I told him I needed to change the name of one of the passengers, he put me on hold and then came back and told me that I couldn’t make any changes until 72 hours before the flight. He said since my flight wasn’t until November 13, I should call back on November 11. That made no sense to me.

I again asked to speak to a supervisor and after about 15 minutes of going back and forth, he finally said he would transfer me. The person he transferred me to had an even heavier foreign accent and it was impossible for me to continue a conversation with him, so I just hung up.

Both Hotwire and Expedia have telephone numbers that just disconnect when you try to reach anyone at there corporate headquarters.

So, I still have my problem. I have now spent several hours/days on this with no resolution. I don’t think it unreasonable to expect a US company to have customer service representatives who can communicate in English.

This is my information. The itinerary number is [protected]. The United confirmation number is ALL962. The Lufthansa confirmation number is 4FSJLA.

The information that needs to be corrected is with the first passenger’s name. It is listed as Sharon Lee Goldstein. It needs to be changed to Sharon Lee Gilman Goldstein.

If this cannot be resolved, I will contact my credit card company and ask them to reverse the charge for all three tickets that are on the itinerary.

I made a hotel booking for a holiday in Barbados on Hotwire for the period 31st August to 4th September 2022. The price I received for the entire booking was $443.66 after the application of a coupon Screen20. I contacted hotwire to have another person added to the confirmed booking that was already paid for. They said that they cannot modify the booking, however they could advise how i can recreate the booking correctly. They instructed me to cancel the booking and recreate it. I asked if the coupon could be used and they indicated yes. They said that when they cancel the booking they can issue a credit back to my card however this will take three days, or they can create a hotdollar credit which can be used immediately to recreate the booking on their website

I selected the immediate credit. However when i attempted to recreate the booking on the app i recognized that though the price was the same, the credit was not available on my account. I tried to recreate the booking on the website instead and learnt that not only are the prices completely different to the app, but the coupon could not be used. The difference in the price on the website and the price on the app was significant. Furthermore i could not access the credit unless i book with the higher priced website.

Also i was not allowed to use the credit, resulting in a further increase in price.

I contacted the helpdesk for one solution to a relatively simple issue and now i am forced to leave my money in the hands of this company for up to one year.

This is unsatisfactory. I feel as though I have been hoodwinked into handing over my funds to this dead end. Now i have to book all over again from scratch.

On Wednesday, August 10, 2022 I booked a hotel in Portugal through Hotwire for the dates of August 17 to 23, 2022.

My credit card was charged and when I received the confirmation and clicked on the map to get directions to the hotel I was shocked to see that it pulled up a hotel in Mexico - and not in Portugal as sold and described.

I googled the name of the hotel and there was no such hotel in Portugal.

This is the hotel information provided on the Hotwire site and email.

Azucar, Monte Gordo, a Member of Design Hotels

Carr. Nau/p Rica Km 83.5

monte gordo

Monte Gordo, PT 93588

Portugal

[protected] | Map

I called Hotwire and after being on the phone with them for some time, they called the hotel in Mexico to "check" if they could get permission for a refund because trips booked through Hotwire are non-refundable. I said they had better refund me as it was their mistake.

I asked for compensation and was offered a measly $15 for the inconvenience of having to call them, having my credit card billed $1000+ for a week until the refund goes through and for losing out on other deals as they were gone by the time I got off the phone with them.

Today is August 12, and despite my frustration with Hotwire I went and booked another hot rate deal with them for the same dates and guess what - the same hotel in Mexico was given to me! They had not removed it from the site!

Repeat yesterday's communication as I called them again and I was told I would be given $15 for today's "inconvenience" and this time $1476.35 for the exact same dates and hotel charged to my Visa and refunded - but will take a week to clear. So my card has nearly $2500 on it for Hotwire and I have no hotel.

Tonight I went to book AGAIN and for the last time with them and the second $15 credit was not there...I chatted this time and then got cut off and had to start again and after about 45 minutes was told that no, I was not getting another $15 for the second booking error they made. In fact not once did they take responsibility for the error or leaving it on the site after being informed about it

The service was terrible, scripted and they don't give a crap.

Refunds have been issued for both reservations but I have been told it may take up to a week to see the refund. Meanwhile my card if full of false Hotwire bookings.

I informed them that I would be reporting them to consumer protection organizations.

In Canada it is illegal to misrepresent in advertising and in travel too. I took the TICO course and even a photo misrepresenting is illegal.

They sold me a hotel on a different continent, twice in 2 days.

I have uploaded photos of the two different reservations - see the reservation #s:

August 12: [protected]

August 10: [protected]

Any help you can provide to hold them to task and step up and remove the false and misleading offering would be appreciated so that this does not happen to anyone else.

I booked two rooms for a trip in downtown Milwaukee, WI on July 23, 2022. When I arrived to check-in I was told that they overbooked and canceled my reservation with Hotwire two days prior. I called Hotwire and they apologized and tried to find me another reservation. They even looked for one room instead of two, but everything was booked. Finally, the rep told us that the only option we had was a hotel by the airport. We decided to book the reservation for two rooms and they immediately refunded me a credit for the difference. On our way to the airport I called the hotel and was told that they also overbooked and canceled all reservations for that day. I contacted Hotwire again. I was told that there was absolutely nothing that they can do because the entire state was sold out. My only option was to find my own hotel, no matter the cost, with the same star rating, and they will reimburse me the difference. While still on the phone I found a hotel room with the same star rating. The manager I spoke with told me I just need to message a copy of the receipt to them for reimbursement. It’s now 12 days later and I haven’t received a refund. I was told that the refund is in process. The refund is the full amount of the room I stayed at. I called and explained to them that I originally paid for two rooms and should be refunded for one of them. I was told that they only process refunds for the same amount of rooms from the original purchase. I’m out of the money I paid for the second room. I guess I should have slept in my car? I spent 3-4 hours of my trip on the phone and looking for an alternative hotel. We missed our dinner reservations. I spent four hours the following day messaging with their customer service regarding the refund. I wasted so much of my trip dealing with Hotwire. I will never use them again.

I have a concern on a past booking, the hotel gave us assurances that we will be able to get back our full refund but has not happened yet. We were unable to stay at the hotel, cos they had no rooms available, they were undergoing renovation and had no proper rooms available for the 6 adults, 2 rooms requirement as booked thru Hotwire website. Hotwire customer service responded on chat they they were unable to reach the Wildwood Snowmass at Snowmass Colorado & eventually responded on email that they are unable to issue the refund.

Booking Details:

Stay Dates - May 28,2022- May29,2022.

Hotwire Itinerary#[protected]

Hotel confirmation# [protected], [protected].

Hotel Phone [protected]

Booking Total $346.12 (USD inc. tax)

$50/room, $100 Deposit was also not returned despite not staying.

I had to book alternate stay immediately for that night for my family costing me a lot more. See attached receipts.

I request your help to get my full refund back and considerable penalty to the property for the inconveniences caused.

Regards Chaitanya Krishna.

The cancellation policy Hotwire has in place does nothing but take advantage of consumers. We spent over $600 to have a car reservation for a trip we were planning but we had a life changing event that took place and had no choice but to cancel our trip. Hotwire is taking advantage of that by not offering us a refund or cancellation. This is completely unacceptable, I will never use their services in the future and will tell anyone and everyone I know to stay away from Hotwire! I’m currently looking into starting a class action lawsuit to make them change this policy.

I purchased a motel through Hotwire. I booked the motel. Once booked I called the motel to let them know I would be arriving around 9pm. I arrived to the motel and no one was present in the office. I was stuck in scary and unsafe parking lot with my young family. Hi was petrified. There was a notice on the door stating to go miles away to the flamingo motel to check in. I chatted through the Hotwire application letting the service representative know I was frightened and could not travel to another location at 9:30 at night. Hotwire tried calling the office and Also could not reach the office. With the inability to reach the office I was offered a credit of the entire amount less 20 service charge. I obviously agreed as it was what I had requested. I was offered and accepted the $135.50 hot dollars. I called a week later asking to use the dollars and was told I never accepted the deal. Hi was again on the phone and was offered the same deal. I was then told they would reach the motel. Again, hotwire could not contact the motel directly.

I got a response through Hotwire saying that the motel says they were present to review me and my family even though Hotwire themselves couldn’t contact the motel when I was at the motel. The motel and Hotwire toll my $155.50 for a motel that was not open to register me and my family. Do not book with Hotwire. They practice in fraudulent business practice. A motel took my money and even though Hotwire also could not reach them on two occasions. they agreed with the motel manager that they were open that evening I tried to check in on June 24, 2022. Even though Hotwire could not contact them. Hotwire is colluding with a fraudulent motel. Where would I have gotten the name of the flamingo motel-the sign directing me to go at 9:30pm. Complete and utter fraudulent business practice.

Hello everyone,

My name is Javier and I wanted to share one of the worst customer service experiences of this company. I booked a car on the web to pick up at the Amsterdam airport on July 15 and return it on the 16, I was arriving from Madrid on the 15 in the morning and I had to go to the Hertz desk. My surprise is that on Thursday the 14th I felt bad, and I took a covid test and the result was positive the next day, I called KLM and they changed my plane flight through the test as proof. Then I tried to contact Hertz and they told me that I should contact Hot Wire, I called twice and no one answered the phone, most likely because the time difference with Europe is wide, and I decided to send an email to the address [protected]@e.hotwire.com which is where I had my confirmation and that nowhere in the email notifies you that it is an automatic email or nowhere does it notify you that it cannot be replicated like other emails from other websites that put "noreply" clearly says. Obviously, no one answered me and today I expected someone to do so and nothing. Finally, through the chat I was able to contact someone, and they told me that I had already lost my 175 euros for one day's rent for no show.

How is it possible that, having notified them by mail, sending the positive covid test and knowing that it is not my fault, they are not able to send me a voucher or rent the car again for next week, as KLM has shown me? they have excellent customer service by the way.

My confirmation number is Hotwire itinerary # [protected], above all to show that I'm not lying.

Please do not buy anything with this web page, which from what I am seeing on the internet has a very bad reputation for customer service, I will certainly never from Europe to buy anything with them. Please share it and thus we avoid more deceptions/frauds of this web. Right now that covid is still active, this type of problem will happen to more people and we need companies that, in addition to raising prices, care more about customers in this case than because of covid they are unable to fly or do other things.

I repeat, I did everything in my power and nothing, nobody from the company wants to help me.

Thank you and regards,

Javier

Back in June 2 Miami Airport - Paid for a rental car with my Australian credit card on line. They accepted the money in less than 5 sec. When I went to pick up the car (a lady in front of me was complaining about Hotwire service and policy already!) they did not accept my credit card so I could not pickup the car. I rang Hotwire and after a few minutes talking they agreed to refund me the money(almost 1 month rental) that was back in June 2nd. It’s now July 15 ( I have rang repeatedly since my first conversation) and I am still waiting for a refund! I

I was assured that I was getting a refund over the phone and by email. So would I use this company ever if given a choice? Answer- I would prefer going to Vegas and wasting my time and money on my terms.

You can keep my money Hotwire. ……I think you need it more than I do with all the complaints I have since read about you

Hotwire double charged me for a hot rate hotel reservation. I booked the Griffin hotel in Williamsburg, VA one night 7/15. The Hotwire website kept declining my debit card so I paid with Apple Pay and that went through. A few days later I saw I was charged twice out of my bank account $195 by Hotwire. I immediately contacted customer service, who said they tried to check with the hotel for a refund, but they did respond. They issued a credit in the form of HotDollars minus a $20 cancellation fee. I spoke with them over text and then called asking to talk to a manager or supervisor, that a credit was unacceptable because it was an error on Hotwires website but they refuse to reimburse my money back into my account.

Hotwire runs scam with their partner hotels in which they"rent" rooms that aren't available. All of the reservations are nonrefundable and when you arrive you are presented with a room that is not the one that is advertised. In our case the room and the photos did not even exist.

We reserved a room at the garden hotel in Zagreb Croatia through hotwire. The room reserved was promised to be a king -size bed plus an additional bed. The hotel does not even have this type of room. The hotel uses hotwire as a front since they provide a sense of security and appearance of a legitimate business, but in essence they are just a payment processor for a bait and switch operation.

I have provided hotwire with photos of my reservation, the bed description etc. and they have refused to refund my payment. Hotwire is an unscrupulous operation that relies on deception and fraud. Another tactic employed by hotwire is that they allow the purchaser to specify the room selection, and in fact charges a premium when requesting a specific room, yet the confirmation receipt states that no preference for room selection had been made. At this point, the purchaser cannot dispute the confirmation receipt as the payment is already nonrefundable. Hotwire by way of their AI textbots prevents claims or complaints from being heard by an actual person.

Hotwire scams are not limited to overseas! If you rent a hotel through them anywhere expect to find it and substandard conditions. Hotwire exists to fill substandard hotels. I've use their service before on numerous occasions and should've known better to use it again. I stayed in hotels that are in the middle of being refurbished and have all the construction equipment and noise associated with that. A horrible company, run by horrible people

did not receive a confirmation email(still have not) regarding a reservation i made. was unable to look up because you can't pull up a reservation with the itinerary number, you can only use the email address. entered email address and site said no reservations associated with email address. so i made another reservation. i received the confirmation email for second reservation. i out of caution, called to verify what's happening and to confirm there's no first reservation. they, of course, located the first reservation(by itinerary number and not email) and said both were non refundable and therefor I have to pay for both even though both reservations were for the exact same date and location. Ionly had the number because i made the reservation on my phone and had a difficult time. i was worried it didn't go through. when i couldn't locate it on my account or pull it up, i made the second reservation.

Got an email that said my in airport car rental rate had dropped to a level I was happy with. After booking it says my supplier is ace rental car and I have to take 2 shuttles to get their. When I complained that this is false advertising they gave me the all sales are final speech. If there is a lawyer out there who would like to make this a class action I will be your lead plaintiff. A company as big as Hotwire is doing this deliberately and is aware of what they are doing. I had to take a taxi to airport as shuttles were infrequent and overcrowded.

Tried to book a hotel in Miami with HOTWIRE on March 15 and because I didn't receive a confirmation (Itinerary number) on my email address, I call on March 21 and the lady who answered my call said the reservation was not confirmed and the charges on my credit card would be canceled within 10 days or so. The charges were not canceled and when I called again today April 11, 2022, I was told a different story: my reservation would have been confirmed and I would have to pay for it regardless of not getting a confirmation whatsoever.

Hi,

I had a reservation through Hotwire for a car rental for April 4,2022. We paid $50 to Uber from Cruise port to the rental location. When I arrived at the location with my reservation, I was told they had no cars for me, and that there were none available anywhere in Miami. I asked how they could give my car away if I had a reservation, no one could really give me a good answer.

We were then forced to get an Uber from Miami to Sarasota (3 1/2 hours away). Total for that was $335.26. In total I spent $385.26 on Ubers for a car rental that was supposed to be $97.32. I want to be reimbursed the difference between the car rental and the Ubers.

We were literally stranded on the sidewalk in the middle of Miami with our luggage and no way to get to Sarasota. This is NOT acceptable. A reservation through Hotwire obviously means nothing!

My niece was moving from Indiana to Georgia. Her car broke down in SC. She was by herself, very scared, crying, in a truck stop where almost everything was closed, no hotels or motels nearby. Her insurance company couldn't get a tow truck to pick up her car. We were in Florida and didn't know anyone that could help. We finally found someone to tow her car. Since she had to get to Georgia the whole family was trying to come up with some way to help. She was 1 hour from Columbia,SC airport and after we got her car to a little car shop we decided to rent a car for her since it was going to take a couple of days to fix her car. We didn't want her stranded. Immediately I googled the airport for rent a cars and Hotwire popped up. I found a car, without any thought or reading the fine print, I made the reservations for her. Less than 30 minutes later, the mechanic was able to fix her car and assured her she would be fine driving it. We were elated. Immediately I attempted to cancel the reservation but I couldn't figure out how to so I called them and my day went from bad to worse. Evidently I reserved a Hot Deal and there were no changes or cancellations. I texted with 2 employees, called 3 times, finally spoke with a supervisor to request information on how to write a letter to someone above a supervisor and was informed that I was not getting a refund and she was terminating the call, and hung up on me. I understand policies but there are exceptions to every rule. Couldn't they offer to refund 2 of the 3 days that were charged? Should I be charged taxes and fees when we didn't pick up the car?

Thank you.

Warning, do not book a flight through Hotwire.com.

On Thursday, May 9th I booked a flight. As soon as I finished, my husband reminded me of a prior engagement. I should not have booked it while under duress. We had to put down our beloved dog that morning.

Immediately I called the customer service number for flights that is listed on the website [protected]).

The first person I talked to put me on hold for about a 20 minutes, then told me that she was not trained to do cancellations and transferred me to another department.

That agent took my information, put me on hold for a total of over 45 minutes. Then finally said that she was from Expedia not Hotwire and proceeded to give me the exact same number to call that I called originally, along with another number which turned out to be totally automated for hotel and cars only.

I went back to the website and found 2 different numbers to call. One was hotel and car and the other was automated.

I called the original number back. All the agents were able to pull up and see my flight information but either were not trained or did not have authority to cancel my flight. I was transferred over 8 times and put on hold for a grand total of over 3 hours.

Due to obligations that evening and a sleep schedule that I am not awake and alert until after 3pm, it has been past the 24 hour period.

I am certain that anyone reading this can see that Hotwire was just giving me the run around hoping that I would give up and they would not have to refund my money.

I have had no problems with other companies canceling and refunding my money within the 24 hours.

I have tried again today 3/10 to call the same number back and the message says that there is an hour hold time and gives the option for a call back. I put in my number but I really don’t have any high expectations.

So I got the call back and was asked to be put on hold while they work on my situation. I said that I want to talk to a manager. Was put on hold for about 12 minutes then told that it would be about an hour wait to talk to supervisor. I waited another 20 minutes and was told that it would be an hour to two hours to talk to a supervisor. I left a call back number.

This is totally unacceptable.