Hotwire.com trying to pass a less than 1 star hotel for a 3 star hotel.

I took my boys to Houston to get out of town for a few days. I decided to book a Hotel via Hotwire.com since I had good luck with it previously. The downside of Hotwire is sometimes you get a less than desirable room. In Dallas, I got a room at the Wyndham which is a nice hotel but the rooms are usually near the elevators and all you hear all night is the roar of the elevator. I had figured for a quick trip to Houston. I had planned to got Galveston but could not find anything for under $149 a night and that included these "Mom and Pop" dive hotels that usually cost around $50 a night. I have family in Houston I could have stayed with, but did not want to impose on them. I checked Hotwire and they had a 3 star hotel for $65 a night. I figured this was a pretty good deal and I almost did not book it since the Radisson was offering their hotel deal for a few dollars more but had free hot breakfast. When you are traveling with 2 boys, a hot breakfast at a hotel can save you money. I decided to book the Hotwire hotel for 2 nights and wound up with a Econo Lodge. I would like to know when Econo Lodges started offering 3 star accommodations? I do have a travel agent license and I am quite familiar with Hotel ratings. At best, Econo Lodge is a 1 star. I had a birthday party for my Cousin's daughter in New Braunfels where I was going to get to see all my cousins and my aunt and uncle. I went to the birthday party and left for Houston about 2:30PM. I get to this hotel which is near Nasa and it had changed Hotel names a few times. My GPS had it listed as a Quality Inn and Suites. I go to check in and the two ladies working behind the counter did not seem to know what was going on. They give me my room and they proceed to tell me it is a Smoking room and it is the only room they have available. I explain I have 2 kids and my kids have allergies. The smoking room would not be acceptable. They told me I would need to call Hotwire to dispute the charges since they already charged my account. I immediately hand them back their hotel key. I did make a point to go see just how bad of a "smoking" room it was. It was on the back side of the hotel in the "ghetto" section. There were a few shady looking folks also staying in the same area. I grabbed my MacBook, used their internet and booked the Radisson near the airport. I check in at the Radisson and it much nicer than the Econo Lodge. The room is much bigger, plus the amenities were a lot nicer. I proceeded to call Hotwire and waited on hold for 20 minutes. I finally get a rep who is very rude and inconsiderate. She berates me and explains when I clicked on the accept button on their site, I was agreeing to their terms. I politely explain that I was offered a 3 star hotel for $65 and Econo Lodge is not even a 1 star hotel. She told me they had reps who had visited the hotel physically and it warranted at least a 2 1/2 rating. That is still not the 3 star that they offered me. Secondly, this hotel was not even a 2 1/2 star because 2 1/2 star hotels usually have a restaurant attached to it and this one did not and they usually offer hot breakfast and this hotel only offered a Continental breakfast. I had explained that I was a licensed travel agent and would put my license on the line that this hotel was not even a 2 1/2 star hotel. The rep basically told me I was screwed and hung up on me.

First of all if you are going to shaft customers like that, why even have have a customer service department? She could have given me the benefit of the doubt and offered me some sort of credit. She could have said, "I am sorry to hear that sir. I can offer you a credit on your next stay using Hotwire." She could have even offered me a gift card for a free meal somewhere and I would have probably given them the benefit of the doubt. What is interesting is that I noticed that Hotwire was recently sued because they were doing the same thing, offering 3 star hotels and "bait and switching" with 1 and 2 star hotels. Here is the link:

http://consumerist.com/5011873/hotwire-facing-possible-class-action-lawsuit-for-selling-2+star-rooms-as-3+star

and here is another unhappy Hotwire customer

http://www.cruisemates.com/ forum/viewtopic.php?t=591775

I am going to dispute the charges with my bank and will never use Hotwire ever again. I will also make it a point to tell folks not to use Hotwire either because it is only going to save them headaches later. I can only imagine what would have happened if I was traveling overseas or perhaps out of state? I might have not been so lucky finding another place to stay for the night. It is like the old adage says, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

Fox Rent a Car Austin

I had planned to rent a car for my trip that I was recently taking, so I did not put that many miles on my car. I checked around and found that Fox was the cheapest. I was going to rent a full sized car for 1 week. The 1 week rate was $178.87 which included all the airport taxes. It was still cheaper than most car rental places. I get an email from some guy at a @aol.com email domain. I am thinking he is either the owner or one of the managers at Fox confirming my rental. I then get an email from this guy telling me I do not have UNLIMITED miles as the website stated, I have 200 miles a day since I am not flying into Austin. I email him back asking him for clarification and he says because I am not flying into Austin, that he would only give me 200 miles and this was standard practice. I told him to please cancel my reservation and I would be renting elsewhere. I tried calling Fox directly to make sure they canceled the reservation, and the girl on the phone told me she was not able to do that, that I had to do it myself. The reps that work for Fox are totally clueless and customer service is not one of their strong suits.

If you are going to rent a car with Fox, I would avoid them at all costs. They are cheap for a reason. You basically get the quality and service you pay for. I would go with a more reputable company like Dollar, Alamo, Budget or Avis. Ironically, I did rent with Enterprise and ended up paying about the same as I would have with Fox and got UNLIMITED miles. I will report how the rental goes when I get back from my trip.

My Wyndham hotel stay in Arlington TX

I own two online travel websites as well as being a Referring Travel agent. I primarily got into it because I wanted to save money on my own travel. I had to book a hotel room close to Grand Prairie because my cousin's house was going to be full. I first checked my 1st travelsite.

http://www.travelwithbill.com

I could not find anything higher than a 2 star hotel for under $60 a night. I then checked my 2nd travel website.

http://www.minutetrip.com

Once again, I could not find anything under $60 a night. I have used the Hotwire website before and had good results. I have gotten the Candlewood Suites twice before for less than $50 a night. Candlewood does not have a pool but it is a extended stay suite which is nice. The one up in Arlington is very nice. I noticed on Hotwire they had a 3 star hotel for $52 a night. I decided to go ahead and book that hotel. To my surprise, it was the Wyndham which is right next to Six Flags and the Baseball stadium. I have stayed at the Wyndham last year. The hotel is more like an office building. The pool is nice and they do have a restaurant and bar. I am a Wyndham By Request member, so I figured I would use my card to check in. Because I had booked my hotel via Hotwire, they would not let me use my By Request card. That is a tad bit silly because other hotels, including Airlines will let you use your frequent flyer or frequent stay card even if you booked your hotel or flight online. I then proceeded to ask them if they had free WiFi. At the bare minimum I figured in the common areas, free WiFi would be good. The lady told me no and told me it would cost $12.95 a day. I then told her I needed a roll-away bed for Josh. I was told it was $15 a day. I then asked, "Do you at least have free breakfast?" "No. Breakfast is served in the restaurant at $12.95 a person." she replied. I got the key and went up to my room.

My first impressions of the room? First of all, the room was right next to the elevator. I could hear the elevator go up and down all night. Secondly, the walls were paper thin. Josh wanted to go get some ice from the ice machine and there was a couple having sex down the hall. That is not good when you have curious 9 year old boys who are wondering what all the noise is. The cable tv in the room was fuzzy. If you moved the TV, it would clear up. You would think a hotel of that size and being a 3 star hotel would have digital cable. There was a desk with plug ins for the internet; but once again, you had to pay for it.

If you are even considering staying at the Wyndham, do not. I have had better stays at "budget" hotels such as Motel 6, Days Inn and Super 8. It did not bother me that they did not have free breakfast because that is the whole point of traveling, you go out to eat at someplace you have never been before. Of course, other hotels are starting to offer hot breakfasts with eggs. The La Quinta up in Kerrville has waffles. I brought my laptop with me, figuring I could use the internet to check for places to see and do around Dallas while I was there. I did not want to use my cousin's computer because I figured that would be rude of me. You would think a fancy 3 star hotel would at least have free WiFi for their guests. Just as a suggestion, they could have had a website where customers could order room service or order gifts to send home, flowers, whatever. It is not like they would not make money off offering free WiFi. This hotel was far from a 3 star hotel. I have stayed in 1 and 2 star hotels that were a heck of a lot nicer than the Wyndham. I would maybe give this hotel 1 star, 1.5 stars tops. Even checking the ratings for this hotel did not help. I would advise not using Hotwire because you are basically getting a hotel room blind. Given, that is part of the fun. It is a gamble and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. What was even more insulting is when I checked in and whipped out my Travel Agent ID, she could have cared less.The courtesies they give Travel Agents are at their discretion, so they do not have to do anything. How am I supposed to recommend a hotel to clients that can not even live up to being considered a 3 star hotel?

The next time I head up to Dallas (even go out of town and need to rent a room at a hotel) I am going to go for a extended stay suite. At least that route, there is a stove and a fridge where I can at least feed my child before heading out because you know how cranky kiddos get when they have not eaten.