When a store has a sale in most cases it is for merchandise that has been sitting around for sometime and now it is time to get rid of it, the same with car dealerships etc. Hotwire claims that they are a clearing house for hotel rooms. Their ad states that hotels give Hotwire unsold rooms to sell. But what I don't understand is how does a hotel know what rooms will be unsold 4/5/6 months down the road. So perhaps Hotwire is given rooms at hotel to sell at a discount even though the hotel does not know how many unsold hotel rooms will be months into the future. There is a site in Australia that does actually sell unused hotel rooms, but they only get them 30 days prior to the arrival date. Anyone have a plausable explanation for Hotwire and the way they do this or is it all just advertising hype?