9. Hotwire: Best Hotel Discount Site
Hotwire tops the charts for best hotel booking sites when it comes to secret deals and discounts. It’s a great way to find high-value hotel deals because it sells off hotel rooms that have gone unsold. Basically, hotels don’t want people to know that they have unsold rooms going for super discounted rates, so when you perform your search, you don’t actually see name of the hotel.
However, you will be able to see the hotel reviews, ratings, neighborhood, amenities, and TripAdvisor ratings, as well as the exact hotel the person before you booked (for example, “The last person got the Holiday Inn Toronto Downtown Centre”). If you’re not super picky about where your hotel stay is located, then is a great option.
Plus the mystery of it all is kind of exciting, isn’t it?
Hotwire also has an excellent map view, and although this is typical of most hotel search engines, this one is particularly using for honing in on the location of your particular hotel without actually knowing what the hotel is. You can also find cheap hotels by filtering by price point and other options.
A word of warning, however: sometimes the price advertised in the search results isn’t the cheapest. Although I booked and paid for a hotel in Boston via Hotwire, the hotel accidentally charged me for the room when I checked out. The price difference was actually cheaper directly with the hotel! When I complained to Hotwire, they reimbursed me the difference immediately. But the whole thing was a little bit shady.
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Pros
- Offers the best deals on secret, high-end hotels
- Hotels don’t want you to know they’re selling off their unsold rooms, so you’ll get highly discounted rates
- The mystery of it all is just plain fun!
Cons
- Doesn’t have a rewards program for frequent travelers
- Sometimes it’s cheaper to book directly with the hotel
- You might be disappointed with your hotel stay