Hotwire in Europe

No, sorry, Frank - I've not heard of it - - what is it and what does it do?

Frank,

If you mean Optical Fiber to the home, i think we in the USA are lagging behind.

My first job was working in the fiber industry and a few years before our plant closed they were talking about Fiber to the Curb, Home..ect. that was 10 years ago.

i know that the fiber is out there buts for some its still dark.

happy trails.

Oh, I see, Ray.

My house has fiber to the box - the community distribution box on the street, about 2-10ths of a mile away and copper wire to the house with a fiber modem and then N router in a modern house. I get between 39 mega bits and 50 mega bits per second down and around 24 or 26 mega bits per second up. Streaming HD shows is easy. Just caught up on Masterchef.

Hotwire is a booking engine, like Priceline, Expedia, etc. With Hotwire you can designate what area you want, star level, and so on, but you don't know the name or location of the hotel until you book. I've never used Hotwire. I've used the Priceline 'name your own price' option in the U.S., but not outside the country.

I thought hotwire was what you did to steal a car.

That too Dave!

I've used priceline bidding and lastminute top secret hotels in London, but haven't used hotwire. I've mainly used them when I had a one or two night stay. I haven't used either in other cities. I only use priceline when I can narrow down the location to a relatively small area and in many places in Europe, you can't do that. Location is important to me.

Some of the hotels I've gotten in London include Park Plaza Victoria, Harrington Hall, Kensington Close Hotel, and Millennium Baileys. Try checking betterbidding.com or biddingfortravel.com for the pkaces you are interested in.

Last summer, I tried it for a hotel in Europe. It worked just like in the US and the hotel, location and price were all satisfactory and I'd do it again. I generally search hotels and their related websites and book directly. However, comparison shopping is useful and sometimes I've found better prices at booking.com, hotels.com and with careful thought, hotwire.com.

Yes, used Hotwire for a Paris hotel in January. Very satisfied.

I have used Hotwire twice in Paris. Last time was in March. Works well. Just have your confirmation print out with you.

So, it isn't fiber broadband?

OK, so if anybody cares to reply - how does what I get in England with fiber to the neighborhood and copper wire compare to what you get across the pond?

I've used Hotwire a few times to book hotels near Gatwick and Heathrow (and for Boston as well!)...I've been happy with the results...feel like I got a good deal on a nice hotel.

Opps, sorry about that Nigel, forgot about the international flavor of the board. We have had both copper and now fiber optic. It is really a function of the age of the neighborhood. Obviously the newer areas are serviced by fiber optic and the older neighborhoods are slowly being retrofitted. We moved to a new house last year so we now have fiber optic to the house.

I used Hotwire last year to book a hotel in London and was very pleased.

if the hotwire is the booking engine, no, i didn't even know about it until now.

but i will look at it for this trip and see what they can offer.

happy trails.

I have read that if you put Hotwire's blurb about the anonymous hotels on offer into Google you will come up with the name of the actual hotel. Apparently they borrow their descriptions from the hotel sites.

I had not heard that but it makes some sense. There is a website that will tell you the mostly hit based on prior experiences of other users. Currently I have misplaced that web site but I will find it somewhere.