This is actually a 5 star hotel and no, we didn't stay here. I just thought it was nice is all...When we we booked our recent jaunt to Montreal I spent a lot of time researching hotels downtown, trying to find the right combination of clean, convenient and reasonably priced. Initially it looked like we would be lucky to get away with $150/night once the taxes were in. I thought we could find a better price without having to stay at a roach motel.
During one of my late night insomnia sessions, I stumbled across hotwire.com. They claimed we could stay at a 4 star hotel in downtown Montreal for $99/night. The catch is they don't tell you which hotel you will be staying at until AFTER you have already paid for it. I was nervous yet intrigued.
I called their 1800 number and asked the same paranoid questions they probably have to deal with every day: What if I don't like it? What kinds of hotels are on your list? Why can't you release the name prior to purchase? What if something happens and we don't go? They patiently told me that the service works by selling off unsold room inventory in a group of hotels. They can't tell you up front which hotel you will be staying at because they are not allowed to publish those deals: why would anyone agree to pay regular price if they saw they could save 50% on Hotwire?
I decided to take the plunge and risk our stay to these strangers. Immediately after the booking, the agent informed me we would be staying at the Delta Centre Ville. I of course went directly to Delta's website to see how much their regular rates were. $189. We were getting a $189 a night room for $99? It sounded too good to be true.
We arrived at our hotel with no problems. They had us booked in a room with two double beds (Hotwire can't guarantee the room type, just that there will be enough room for as many people as you are booking for), but reservations cheerily upgraded us to a room with a King size bed at no extra charge. What? Didn't they realize we were budget customers paying 50% less than everyone else? I was not expecting an upgrade on top of the great deal.
Our stay was excellent and there were no surprises. We were walking distance from everything, had free wi-fi in the lobby and a wonderfully comfortable king sized bed.
For once, what seems too good to be true is actually... true!
www.hotwire.com
During one of my late night insomnia sessions, I stumbled across hotwire.com. They claimed we could stay at a 4 star hotel in downtown Montreal for $99/night. The catch is they don't tell you which hotel you will be staying at until AFTER you have already paid for it. I was nervous yet intrigued.
I called their 1800 number and asked the same paranoid questions they probably have to deal with every day: What if I don't like it? What kinds of hotels are on your list? Why can't you release the name prior to purchase? What if something happens and we don't go? They patiently told me that the service works by selling off unsold room inventory in a group of hotels. They can't tell you up front which hotel you will be staying at because they are not allowed to publish those deals: why would anyone agree to pay regular price if they saw they could save 50% on Hotwire?
I decided to take the plunge and risk our stay to these strangers. Immediately after the booking, the agent informed me we would be staying at the Delta Centre Ville. I of course went directly to Delta's website to see how much their regular rates were. $189. We were getting a $189 a night room for $99? It sounded too good to be true.
We arrived at our hotel with no problems. They had us booked in a room with two double beds (Hotwire can't guarantee the room type, just that there will be enough room for as many people as you are booking for), but reservations cheerily upgraded us to a room with a King size bed at no extra charge. What? Didn't they realize we were budget customers paying 50% less than everyone else? I was not expecting an upgrade on top of the great deal.
Our stay was excellent and there were no surprises. We were walking distance from everything, had free wi-fi in the lobby and a wonderfully comfortable king sized bed.
For once, what seems too good to be true is actually... true!
www.hotwire.com
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2 comments:
Another place where I do my reservations is www.travelzoo.ca. I stayed at the 5-star Fairmont in Montreal for $119/night. With travelzoo, you can easily cancel your reservations whereas Hotwire and Priceline have a strict no-cancellation policy (with specific exceptions ofcourse).
Yes, good point, Travelzoo rocks too! And I agree the whole no cancellation policy is scary indeed.
I think Travelzoo is better for a variety of options: flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, packages, etc but Hotwire is great for getting unpublished deals on hotels. Realistically I'll probably use both. I've been using Travelzoo for awhile and can get quite distracted in their top 20 deals. Sigh...
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