Hotwire | How To Reveal Hot Rates
Everyone loves a great hotel deal!
But, no one loves a gross hotel…
Right?
My spouse and I take a three or four-day road trip once per year, and besides only that, we tend to travel a lot.
We’ve stayed in amazing hotels, and some terrible ones too.
The tough part about booking hotels?
It’s hard to find a balance between reasonable prices and reasonable accommodation.
Sure, most of us would love a night at the Ritz Carlton, but most of us aren’t willing to pay that much.
Last year, we found a hotel in Santa Clarita, California we totally loved.
We got really discounted pricing because the hotel was under renovation.
This year, we REALLY wanted to stay there again. We loved the hotel, the amenities, and the general location.
Since the renovation was over though, the prices jumped significantly. The rooms were more than we were willing to pay.
With a little research though, I managed to reveal Hotwire’s Hot Rates (their hidden deals), to get amazing deals and book the hotel we liked.
WHAT ARE HOTWIRE HOT RATES?
Sites like Priceline and Hotwire offer secret hotel deals.
After entering details like the dates you’d like to book and the number of guests, they’ll provide offerings like these ones:
You’ll notice though, the hotel names are missing.
To reveal the hotel name for either listing, you’d have to book it first…
In other words, to get a Hot Rate, you’d be booking before you know where you’ll stay.
Yes, you’ll know the rate, the guest rating, the class of hotel, and the general location, but no…
You can’t choose a specific hotel.
WHY BOOK A HOT RATE?
Hotwire boasts room rates up to 60% lower than full retail. While I’m sure booking prices that low, do exist, our recent Hot Rate bookings (one in Oregon and one in Calfornia) were roughly 20% less than full retail.
In any case, booking Hotwire Hot Rates will save you a ton of money.
You might be wondering though…
WHAT’S THE CATCH?
There’s not necessarily a catch, other than you might really want to book a specific hotel (one you’ve stayed in before), or you might need really specific amenities in the hotel or close by.
Whatever your need, secret hotel deals through Hot Rates make these kinds of ‘wants’ exceptionally more difficult because you can’t see which hotel you’re booking…
Until now!
To learn more about saving money, read:
HOW TO REVEAL HOTWIRE’S HOT RATES?
As I mentioned before, we really wanted to stay at a specific hotel on our most recent road trip. Specifically, we wanted to stay at the Hyatt Regency Valencia in Santa Clarita.
The problem?
Last year, low prices. This year, high prices.
But, we really wanted to stay there.
Hotwire’s Hot Rates are always changing. So, a Hot Rate available today might be gone tomorrow. Since a Hot Rate for the hotel we booked isn’t available (on the date I’m writing this), I’ll use another hotel as an example.
Here’s how you how you can reveal Hotwire’s Hot Rates.
Step One: Visit Hotwire
Go to: Hotwire.com
Step Two: Enter Dates and the Location of Your Stay
I entered:
- The location (Santa Clarita)
- The dates (checking in on Nov 28, checking out on Nov 29)
- And, the number of guests.
Step Three: Click Find Hotel
Step Four: Choose a Hot Rate Offer
In this case, you’d likely choose a Hot Rate based on the star rating (the more stars, the better the hotel), and the price. Of course, finding something in the location you want is likely important too.
For this example, I chose the Hot Rate listed first.
Although there’s little information offered, you are provided with three REALLY valuable tidbits:
- The Location
- The Number of Reviews (via TripAdvisor)
- And, the Original Price Per Night
Step Five — Match the TripAdvisor Reviews With Other Hotwire Hotel Listings
You can see that this hotel has 296 reviews in TripAdvisor.
Type Command + F (for those using Mac’s) or CTRL + F (for those using PC’s), and type in 296 (the number of reviews) in your find function.
If you’re viewing via apps or mobile, or you just find the above too difficult, manually scroll down the Hotwire search feed and look for other hotels with 296 reviews.
And, voila!!
I come across this:
This is the Hotwire Hot Rate!!
To be sure, I check a few more things:
Is it 2.5 Stars? Yes.
Does it have 296 TripAdvisor Reviews? Yes.
Does the location match? Yes.
Does the original price match? Ok, no, not completely. The Hot Rate’s original price says $136, and the Hotwire regular listing says $139. I’m not sure why, but it seems that sometimes the original rate posted on the Hot Rate and the one posted in the revealed hotel just don’t match.
In any case, it’s easy to see that the Hot Rate offered at only $94.00 per night, costs $139.00 per night otherwise.
In this case, a 31% savings.
WHAT IF I CAN’T FIND A MATCH ON HOTWIRE?
The hidden Hot-Rate hotel isn’t always easy to find this way. If you come across a Hot Rate, and can’t find matching review count within Hotwire…
Jump over to TripAdvisor.
Let’s say that our example hotel (the Comfort Suites) didn’t show up in Hotwire’s search.
To reveal the hotel another way, I’d visit TripAdvisor, entering exactly the same information, including the location (Santa Clarita), the dates (Nov 28th — 29th), and the number of guests.
I either use Command + F, or CTRL + F, and enter the same review count from our Hot Rate offer, which, in this case, is 296 reviews, then I’d press ‘enter’.
Again, highlighted will be anything on the page containing the numbers 296, but I’m specifically looking for a hotel with 296 reviews.
Here’s what comes up for me:
Again, I can see the reviews match what’s shown on Hotwire’s Hot Rate. They both have 296.
And, the four green circles (or the rating by guests) match too.
And, finally, to triple check this is the same as the Hot Rate offering, I’d click on the Comfort Suite Hotel listing in TripAdvisor, and there I can see it’s rated as 2.5-star accommodation, which is also the same as the Hot Rate.
Here’s one more example:
Here’s Another Hot Rate Deal…
And, here’s the info found by using Command + F, and entering the number of reviews, 1,117.
Again, to be doubly sure I have the hotel identified, I cross-reference the info on TripAdvisor.
This time though, after entering the same info (dates, location, and guests), I’m unable to find a match for 1,117 guest reviews, so instead, I enter the hotel name into TripAdvisor (the one I believe to be right) from Hotwire — The Hilton Garden Inn.
A number of hotels pop-up including The Hilton Garden Inn.
I find the reviews are 1,118 (only 1 different) as someone likely submitted a review in the time I was conducting my search.
I can be relatively certain that the Hot Rate, in this case, is the Hilton Garden Inn.
I quickly check the star rating within TripAdvisor to ensure it matches what’s shown on the Hot Rate listing.
And, it does — they’re both 3-star hotels.
So, rather than paying $128 advertised on Hotwire, or $128 through TripAdvisor, I’d book the Hot Rate, pay only $111, while knowing exactly which hotel I’m booking.
And yes, Hotwire is showing this hotel to be discounted at 59% (with a full price room rate of $268), but according to my calculation, you’d pay roughly 13% less than the advertised price.
As you can see, the deals range. But no matter what, the pricing is better than any other listings I’ve found.
ASIDE FROM THE HOTEL’S IDENTITY, ARE THERE ADDITIONAL BENEFITS TO REVEALING A HOT RATE?
Yes, revealing the hot rate allows you to read customer reviews, and determine the exact location, which helps you determine if the hotel (and its location) will suit your needs.
You’ll be able to determine hotel amenities too. Things, like whether there’s an on-site restaurant, a gym, and other important details.
A FEW THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND
Keep your eyes on your currency. If you’re looking for a good deal and are cross-comparing room rates among numerous sites (like Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Kayak, and Priceline), you need to ensure you’re comparing apples to apples. For example, my Hotwire is set for USD, so I need to compare with TripAdvisor.com rather than TripAdvisor.ca. Otherwise, I’m comparing US Dollars to Canadian Dollars.
This method obviously isn’t foolproof. It’s likely that one hotel has exactly the number of reviews as another, so your match might be wrong.
Remember You’re Taking a Bit of a Gamble When Trying to Reveal a Hotwire Hot Rate.
Can you share any other ideas for getting great rates on hotels?
