Hotwire Review

I've never used a site like Priceline or Hotwire before, but when we were planning our trip to Universal I decided I needed a hotel room and my Wyndham resorts were all booked for the holidays. My sister-in-law suggested Hotwire which she had used to book her hotel room, and since I didn't want to drive back and forth I decided to investigate this site.

The site is easy to navigate. You can book hotels, flights, cars and even cruises. Tell them where you want to go and when and hit the search button. I wanted to be near Universal Studios so I put that in the location area and two different areas popped up for me to pick. I tried both for the heck of it. It was then I realized that the names and addresses of the hotels are hidden. Only when you agree and book it with a credit card number do they reveal the name and address. I wasn't so keen on that, but my husband reminded me of the many hotels we had paid a pretty penny to stay in that turned out to be a dump.

I refined my search with the box that allows you to select what star hotel you want to stay in. I fiddled around with a three star hotel and higher and later changed it to a four star hotel and higher for the heck of it. A list of hotels popped up ranging in price from $44 to over $100 a night. The $44 hotel came with a "thumbs up" rating that said 90% of the people using Hotwire recommended the hotel in reviews provided. The reviews give you a rating of the condition of the hotel, the quality of service, the room comfort, room cleanliness, and an overall satisfaction rating. This hotel had a 4.5 rating and everything written about it convinced me to take a chance and so I booked it.

The hotel was the Rosen Plaza Hotel five minutes from Universal Studios. It was huge with ten floors and a lobby the size of Rhode Island. There was a bar, a small store, a restaurant, and a Starbucks in the lobby. Our room was clean with two beds and a refrigerator. The only downside was that I had to pay $13 to park my car each day which increased my daily rate, but was still cheaper then the normal rate I would have paid at a 4.5 rated hotel. We didn't do anything at the hotel but sleep, however, there was a fitness center and a pool there we could have used. The bed was comfy, the flat screen TV provided me with Sunday night football, the shower was hot, and we had plenty of towels.

I would highly recommend using Hotwire just from my first experience with it. The green thumbs up symbol is a good place to start. I have found that the flights are cheaper for the holidays and I've heard that the car rentals are best as well. It is going to be the first place I check for bookings from now on.