Hotwire is a leading discount travel site that specializes in offering significantly reduced prices on various travel services, including airfares, hotel rooms, car rentals, vacation packages, and cruises.
What Hotwire Does
Hotwire partners with major travel providers to fill unsold inventory such as airline seats, hotel rooms, and rental cars. This collaboration enables Hotwire to offer its customers deeply discounted rates that are often not available on other travel sites.Key Features and Functionality
Airfares
- Hotwire provides airline seats with no booking fees. The Airfare Savings Hub helps travelers find the best deals by suggesting alternative dates and airports, ensuring the lowest available prices.
Hotels
- Hotwire offers 4-star hotels at 2-star prices, often with savings of up to 60%. If a customer finds a lower price for an identical booking, Hotwire will pay the difference.
Car Rentals
- Partnerships with top brands like Budget, Hertz, and National allow Hotwire to offer deeply discounted car rentals, starting from $13.95 a day. All rentals include unlimited miles and are prepaid with no hidden fees.
Vacation Packages
- Travelers can customize vacation packages to over 150 destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Cruises
- Hotwire enables users to find cruise deals worldwide on more than 17 different cruise lines, including detailed information on port and destination cities, ship reviews, and 360-degree virtual tours.
Additional Tools
TripStarter™
- This tool uses historical airfare and hotel pricing data to help consumers determine the best time to visit their favorite destinations. It also provides weather, local event, and attraction information.
Trip Watcher
- Keeps users informed about the price status of trips they have flagged, offering better control, value, and flexibility through email alerts and the personal Hotwire “My Account” page.
Travel Value Index
- Created in 2006, this index ranks destinations across the United States to identify the top value vacation spots using extensive data from Hotwire and third-party sources.