Hotwire. Com Is This a Good Idea for Anonsmoking Family of 4 ?? - Conneaut,OH

I've also used Travelocity and Expedia. We cannot be near a smoking room, let alone in one. I've been very fortunate with both sites. Many times, I simply look for the room I want and if you call the place directly you can ask if they have a 'managers special'. In some cases, you may even find the room you're looking for, but, for less.

No, Call the hotel you want to go to directly and talk to them. Most of the time, you will get a better rate directly from the hotel or the hotel website.

Don't expect to pay $50 for a $200 room... Be reasonable. Sometimes a discounter works but be careful. You get what you pay for...

I deal directly only with hotels and airlines (weekly basis), I will say, if you are at a hotel on a and discounter someone comes in to inquire about a room who is a frequent member... the discounter is bumped because you are not a regular member staying at that family of hotels.

Case in point, last week, hubby a diamond member with Hilton family of hotels, stopped in a location to inquire about a room. Because he is a diamond member, he got a room. The guy that was next in line, was told "I am sorry but we deal with our members before we deal with discounters" and they put him in a different hotel, same family but not as nice.

Just be very careful and make sure y ou have confirmations with names, numbers times of your calls, etc.

I worked in hotels for a long time and I can tell you that I would personally stay far away from all sites like orbitz, hotwire, priceline etc. Your best bet is to call the hotels 800# and ask for the best avail rate ( they refer to it as the BAR rate) that is usually the cheapest rate you are going to find. If you are going to stay several nights I would say ask if they have any multi night specials. Several chains are 100% smoke free. I know for sure all Marriott hotels have been smoke free for more than 5 years.

I always go to Hotels.Com when we need one. They have cheap rates and great reviews.

I have never used hotwire.com, but have had wonderful results with priceline.com . I would assume they are very much the same. And if you are unhappy with the room you can ask to be moved to a different room for no extra charge.

I hope you have a good experience!

What I have done with hotwire is as soon as the reservation has been made, I call the hotel to confirm that the room size and smoking prefernces have been honored. Once, the motel insisted that a one queen sized bed would be fine for the three we had in our party. That the request for something better would need to come from Hotwire. I called Hotwire and they immediately intervened so we got the room we needed. You could always try dialing the 800 number for Hotwire once you have made your selection online, and finalizing the reservation over the phone. That way if there were no more nonsmoking rooms you would not be charged. Their policy is that the room has to accomodate the number of guests you specify on the reservation. We have always been satisfied with the rooms we got, and most were better than we could have afforded otherwise.

I use priceline the most, but have used hotwire and NEVER have I had a problem with either one.. My non smoking preference has always been honored and number of beds honored.

Heck I have not been in a smoking room since the 80's..

Just make sure you are requesting everything you need each time you do a selection.

I haven't used hotwire, but like Lisa, have used travelocity and expedia very successfully. Once with expedia we got to the hotel and it was awful. I called expedia and told them how bad it was and they found us a new, very nice place right away without any hassles or extra fees. We are a non-smoking family of 4 as well, so we are always very particular about that requirement too. Have fun travelling!