While blind-booking site Hotwire doesn't reveal a hotel's name until you book it, detailed informati

While blind-booking site Hotwire doesn't reveal a hotel's name until you book it, detailed information provided on the site about the property gives you a fair picture. You can use these details about a hotel's star rating, amenities, and location to reveal the hotel's name, with the help of independent websites like Bid Goggles , Hotwire Revealed , Bidding national rental car for Travel , and Better Bidding .
My fave tool is Bid Goggles (bidgoggles.com) , a pet project by some travelers and computer programmers. After you've targeted a promising deal on Hotwire , copy the mystery hotel's amenities, star rating, and neighborhood into the Bid Goggles tool (open in a separate browser tab or window). national rental car The site matches the Hotwire description with the description of similar hotels that other travelers have visited.
For example, I recently helped a family member book a room in Pittsburgh for a wedding. I fired up Hotwire and quickly locked in on a "four-star, national rental car downtown Pittsburgh area hotel" with a $131 a nightly rate. Hotwire listed this hotel's amenities as including a fitness center, a business center, high-speed Internet access, and spa services. I went to Bid Goggles and punched in these details about the property. The site predicted that the hotel would be either the Renaissance Hotel or the Omni William Penn Hotel . I went ahead with the booking and lo and behold it was the Omni William Penn.
Both sites are far, far from perfect, though. Nobody has a magic decoder ring that can reveal every one of Hotwire's listings perfectly national rental car every time. But the sites provide close-enough guesses. In the above example, Bid Goggles had predicted the Omni William Penn and the Renaissance Hotel. I looked at the websites of those hotels and was pleased with how they looked and their general location national rental car that I felt confident that even if I didn't get either of those hotels I would get a hotel that was fairly similar. The process boosted my confidence that I was doing right by my relatives when planning national rental car their trip.
The information about successful Hotwire bookings is more comprehensive and more frequently national rental car updated at the Bidding For Travel forums and, to a lesser extent, at Better Bidding . But there's a trade-off: Those forums require more patience national rental car to use than the other sites.
Have you had some big hotel wins on Hotwire? How do you know when the price is right? Share your tips in the comments. We can't all travel as much as we'd like to, especially during these uncertain times. But if we pool our knowledge together, we can help each other save big bucks and travel better.
October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February national rental car 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August national rental car 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007