I was looking for a rental car for my upcoming vacation in Florida - I checked the prices on Orbitz and saw a link on the top of the page saying FOR DEEP DISCOUNTS CHECK OUT HOTWIRE.
I clicked on the link and found myself at Hotwire - which is an Orbitz subsidiary. All of the information about where and when I wanted the car was already filled in to the form as I had just filled in at Orbitz.com. Orbitz had quoted a price around $350. Hotwire quoted $328 so I went with it.
But when I received my confirmation all of the information was right except the beginning date. It had been July 18th to the 29th - now it was July 19th to the 29th. I called Hotwires customer service number and they semed very friendly they explained that they could add the extra day - and when they did - the price jumped to $418!!
I said that it was ridiculous that I should have to pay $90 for an extra day. They said that in the five minutes I had called the rate had jumped - I asked for a refund and was told of course that they were doing me a big favor in helping me in any way and that this was a special one-time refund repurchase I could have or stick with my original deal.
Since my booking was with Avis (through Hotwire) I then visited the Avis website out of curiousity and found I could book the SAME car on the SAMe days DIRECTLY FROM AVIS FOR for $368!!! ($299.40 $69 for all taxes and fees).
DEEP DISCOUNTS??? What a RIP-OFF!!! You can do better on the web directly!!! I thought they had a guarantee of some sort that they offered the lowest price - of course they don't - but they do offer more restrictions than Avis would have.
NEVER DEAL WITH HOTWIRE. Look for a better deal paying retail on your own!!!
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