Hotwire

Hotwire: Discounted Hotel Rooms

A travel website offering discounted hotel rooms by hiding hotel names until after booking, allowing hotels to sell unsold inventory and offer lower rates.

What is Hotwire?

Hotwire is an online travel agency launched in 2000 that specializes in offering discounted hotel rooms, rental cars, and airline tickets. The company is able to secure deals and offer lower prices by hiding details about the specific hotel, rental car company, or airline until after the purchase is complete.

For hotels, Hotwire negotiates discounted room rates with hotel chains and individual hotels that have empty rooms they want to fill. Hotwire hides the hotel name, allowing hotels to fill last-minute vacancies without undercutting the rates they've published elsewhere. Once booked, Hotwire reveals the hotel details to the purchaser. This opaque pricing model works because many travelers place more importance on getting a good deal than knowing the exact details in advance.

In addition to discounted hotel rates, Hotwire also offers a traditional travel booking experience for those who prefer more transparency upfront. Users can search for rental cars and flights while seeing all the details about the company, vehicle type, airline, etc. before booking. The tradeoff is that these transparent bookings do not come with the same deep discounts.

Overall, Hotwire is ideal for flexible travelers who want to save money and don't necessarily need to know where they'll be staying before locking in a good rate. The opaque Hotwire model allows hotels, rental car companies and airlines to discretely fill last-minute vacancies without impacting their published price points.

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