Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - How much Hotwire made off my 3-day $25/night Homestead room

I thought I would share this billing screwup since it gives an insight as to how much Hotwire really makes off a hotel booking.

I booked w/Hotwire a 3 day $25/night stay which, when paid for ($86.95 total), revealed itself to be the Homestead Studios, Sunnyvale (Orleans Dr). No problems with the stay, but I just got my card statement with a $68.37 charge from the hotel.

I called the hotel and asked what the charge was for, and they said my CC# was so similar to the Hotwire CC# that mine was charged by mistake. Hmmmm. So now I've paid twice.

In any case, the hotel bills hotwire $68.37 and hotwire charges me $86.95. My taxes and booking fees according to hotwire were $11.95. I'm not going to try the math on this one to calculate hotwire's net--just wanted to share it!

Does Hotwire itemize the hotel tax and booking fee? If they itemize the tax, and you know the hotel tax rate for the city, you can figure out what they probably paid for the room. This seems to be the case for Priceline, which I have used a few times. (Haven't booked anything through Hotwire yet -- just have gotten quotes from them.)

Kathy

This is a problem I've had with Priceline and Expedia (when they had a similar service) too, the hotels just can't seem to get it right. Usually a call to the hotels accounting department will straighten things out.

I had the same problem (first time for me after probably 100 nights) with a Priceline booking in Austin two weeks ago at NCAA Swimming. There was a brand new clerk at the front counter (she made it a point to tell me it was her "first day"), and sure enough it appeared on my VISA when I checked the account on line a few days after departure. It's already been credited back after a call to the hotel. (I had a $20 Wellesley Inn room in north Austin.)

We had the same problem in Long Beach at Pac 10 Swimming. Although I drove down, my friends flew down and had a Priceline car rental with AVIS. It appeared on their credit card, too, and a phone call took care of it.

As long as you're going to have new employees at hotels and car rental places, I guess there will continue to be mistakes.