hotwire

hotwire

I have two complaints regarding hotwire. I reserved a rental car in the reno airport to travel to Tahoe. We arrived on the last plan to arrive in reno before the airport was closed due to a heavy (the heaviest in 80 years) snow storm. The rental car was not fitted with chains that were mandatory on the drive from Reno to Tahoe. The rental car did not have chains for the car.

They indicated that I could drive locally and purchase chains for the rental car. Since I had no other choice (no taxi's due to weather). I took the rental car to the the places that the avis representative indicated may have chains for purchase. I was told prior to taking the rental car from the facility to bring it back if I could not find chains. After 2 hours of looking for them at 3 autoparts stores and Walmart, I returned back to Avis and was told I could not get any refund for the rental car because it was pre-paid through Hotwire. I reutrned the rental car anyway since I could not use it to get to Tahoe because there were no chains for the tires. Hotwire refuses to refund any money.

The second issue is that on the same vacation, I had booked a sleigh ride. The reservations indicated I should call the facility 24 hours in advance to confirm booking. I did that and was told due to the severe winter storm the trails which the horses traveled on was inaccessible. The horses did not go out that day and would not go out for a few days until the path could be cleared. I expected a refund from hotwire. I had not canceled the reservations the facility indicated to me that they would not be going out. I cannot seem to get a refund.

I called both the facility which could not remember what they said on the phone on January 8th for the January 9th reservations and hotwire emailed me indicating no refunds for cancelations. I was extremely bored in my hotel room which had no tv (cable out) and almost no services due to the weather (shuttles canceled), skating rink closed, etc. and would have definitely gone on a sleigh ride if it had been going out. I would never book through hotwire again!

Nancy Bu

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