sam_goh

Hi All,

Am trying to go between VRBO and hotwire for a family of 4 (2 kids 10 & 5) for a Venice and Rome vacation.

Hotwire allows you to put in the number of guests, which I am doing 2+2. I know that rooms are really small in Europe, but will there be the case where I show up and there isn't enough bedding or I get charged extra even though I did put the correct number of guests in?

SK AAR

Most likely yes. You booked a room for 2 and when 4 pax shows up for check-in, you may be charged for additional quests and/or rollaway bed.

Forget about Hotwire and Priceline in Europe! These may still work in the US with great savings (but mostly for last minute bookings by now) but in Europe there will not be significant savings and the booking fees to HW and PL are quite high. You should book via conventional online channels like hotels.com, booking.com, Expedia.com etc and use some of the many current (flash) sales available for e.g. Accor hotels, Hilton etc.

GUWonder

Hotwire for four guests has worked for me even in Copenhagen; but that requires booking the room by listing four guests at the time of making the search and doing the booking on Hotwire.com.

When I've put four persons into Hotwire bookings and got confirmations for such, it has always worked out for me on arrival.

When having more than two guests in a room, I avoid Priceline "opaque" bookings and go for Hotwire "opaque" bookings because of your kind of concern. It has always worked out for me with Hotwire hotels. Priceline NYOP (opaque) bookings with four guests in mind is a huge gamble and fails more often than not when it comes to PCLN NYOP hotels in Europe; it even fails in the U.S. sometimes.

If Hotwire confirms a room listed for four guests, then it should work out. It has always worked out for me.

Priceline, however, is a different story.

WillTravel

If you book a room for 4 with Hotwire, confirm with the hotel regardless. Some people have reported hotels that seemed clueless about this, and so you should work it out ahead of time exactly what type of room you will get.

Alex71

I've used Hotwire quite a bit in different European countries and never had a problem when booking a room for four. Typically, we ended up with a chain that lets kids stay for free, such as Mercure or Holiday Inn Express. Usually, they have a fold out sofa bed for the kids. It was always already set up with extra beddings.

When you book a room for four, you will get a room for four.

As GUWonder said, only book rooms that are explicitely sold for four people since most rooms will only sleep two. Don't use Priceline in Europe with the hope that you can negotiate a room for four when arriving at the hotel.

Savings were usally around 10% compared to booking directly through the hotel, but we had cases when the hotel website did not show availability for four and it only worked through Hotwire.