Upgraded: Ideas for bad Hollywood movies
Downgraded: Congolese carry-on inspections
Headline: “Crocodile on plane kills 19 passengers“… I immediately had visions of a crocodile biting its way through the passenger list. But the truth is more unfortunate. A crocodile hidden in a carry-on bag gets loose, people panic, plane goes out of balance, aircraft crashes. Very sad. And preventable.

Downgraded: Cruise ship pricing
The cruise ship lines are taking a page from the airlines and going a la carte with their services, slowly but surely whittling away at the “all-inclusive” pricing plans that were the hallmark of cruising. Sure, there have been upcharges for shore excursions, but now you have to pay up for certain meals, services, and options. Looks like easyCruise‘s fully-a-la-carte model may not be so farfetched after all. (Thanks, Bill!)

Upgraded: Cross-selling of Hotwire inventory on Expedia
Expedia is now widely selling Hotwire’s hotel inventory as “unpublished rates.” Like on Hotwire, the hotels won’t be listed by name, just by star-level and city zone. Since Expedia and Hotwire are part of the same parent company, I’m surprised it’s taken this long.

Upgraded: The last frontier of domestic inflight wifi
Aircell’s Gogo service has launched inflight wifi within the state of Alaska, for those traveling on Alaska Airlines. For now, the service only exists between Anchorage and Fairbanks, and Alaska Airlines is giving it away for free. It’s slated to be complimentary until the entire state is blanketed with signal availability.

Upgraded: Traveler seat-selection stereotypes
The folks at Hunch have found significant personality and life-experience differences between those who prefer aisle seats vs. window seats. It’s based on poll data. ME, I prefer the window seat, not just because it makes napping easier, because I never tire of looking out the window and staring down from 35,000 feet. And yet, my vita reads much more like the aisle passenger’s. Call me an outlier.

For some time, there have been message boards that throw a wrench into things: BiddingForTravel (for Priceline only) and BetterBidding (for both Priceline and Hotwire) expose the actual names, dates, and rates of the properties that participate. Now, a new site has launched to cut through the clutter and help consumers pinpoint the name of the hotel they’re actually buying on Hotwire:

HotwireRevealed is the brainchild of programmer Pim Linders. Linders has come up with a simple and — dare I say — elegant solution to the “which hotel is this?” question. It’s effectively a searchable database of Hotwire participating hotels. You choose the state, city/zone, and optionally tick the stars/amenities that Hotwire is listing in its search results. HotwireRevealed decodes it, giving you the name of the hotel (or hotels) that match those criteria. Here’s a partial screenshot:

It’s not a perfect system — the site depends on user submissions for its data. But I compared their findings to the hotels I’ve stayed at via Hotwire, and they were all correct.

The data are all US-based, so no luck if you’re looking for other countries’ hotel results. And the usual caveats with any “decoder” site apply: Star ratings may change, amenities may be listed differently, and the data isn’t exhaustive.

Plus, given the potentially trademark-infringing name of the site and the probability that it didn’t cull all this data from its own users’ experience (I wouldn’t be surprised if they scraped the posted findings from the aforementioned bulletin boards) and this is one resource that may not last very long. (It’s been online since April 2010.) While it lasts, put it in your toolbox.

Related:
- Upgraded: Hotwire lets you choose your bed type
- Hotwire’s 4-star surprise, or how I enjoyed a wildly-overrated room
- Travelocity adds discounted opaque hotel booking option
- Hotwire hotel search (aff)

Now, Hotwire partially overcomes this problem by letting you choose your room type. It’s not available for every hotel in every city. But it’s still an interesting twist on the opaque model. (It’s been available since late November. Somehow I missed this.)

Here’s a screenshot of the initial search results, indicating bed choice as a possibility:

And here are the options, on the next page. The price was the same for either option (though I am left wondering if hotels that feature this option charge a premium for it):

I haven’t seen the option on many search results pages, so it’s seemingly limited in its rollout, but it’s an interesting improvement on the opaque model.

Longtime readers of this site know that I’m a fan of the opaque booking sites (Priceline and Hotwire in particular) for finding great lodging deals when I’m traveling on my own dime (and not using points). And while there’s always an element of risk in booking a property without knowing the name and location, I’ve learned to embrace the “comfort” of knowing the star-rating and the approximate area of town where I’ll actually be spending the night. However, in my most recent use of the site, Hotwire really misrepresented the rooms it was selling.

I used Hotwire to book a nearly last-minute single night’s stay in Madrid on our recent 11-day trip through Spain. It was the final night before our flight back, and, to be honest, we really weren’t too picky about location or amenities. It was going to be a crash pad, plain and simple. So I checked Hotwire and found a 4-star hotel in the center of the old city for $69. Under 50 euros for a 4-star? Sold.

Hotwire provides the star-level, a partial list of available amenities, and a map indicating the area where the hotel might be. And the winner was:

Whenever I book a room this way, I immediately go to two sites. First, I find the hotel’s own website — in this case, the Apartamentos Turisticos Principe 11 — and I check the TripAdvisor reviews. Both screamed: “This is not a 4-star accomodation.” Heck, the Apartamentos’ own site proclaims their 2-star status.

A classic problem of the star-based rating system is that it doesn’t mean the same thing from one site to the next, or from one country to the next. Some countries have government regulators who determine a property’s number of stars, but also their classification (hotel vs. pension vs. vacation rental vs. hostel, etc. etc.). The problem in this case is that the 4-star classification has no relation to Hotwire’s own internal description of what a 4-star property is supposed to be. They offer examples of brands that could be, or at least represent the quality level of, 4-star hotels (Hyatt, InterContinental, Omni) and a description of the amenities you should expect at each star level. Here’s a screenshot of the latter:

No way was this a four-star. Not even close. It had a decent bathroom, it was quite spacious, and while its decor was minimalist, it still eked out some charm, with high ceilings, thick wooden shutters, and a tiny balcony that faced onto a busy but attractive side street. But it lacked just about every other characteristic of a four-star hotel. No onsite restaurant or bar. No fitness center. No upscale furnishings or bedding. If we were staying longer, sheets would be changed weekly. Etc.

And yet… we liked it.

For starters, it was a deal. $69?! For central Madrid? I’ve stayed in far worse hotels at higher prices (roadside motel in Grand Island, Nebraska, I’m looking at you!). No, it wasn’t the Ritz, but it was clean, and it had a nice vibe. The staff working the tiny front desk were friendly and helpful. The location was fantastic. The kitchenette was fully-stocked, if we had wanted to make a meal. The marble floors were clean. And the view onto the street was charming. It felt like we were crashing at a friend’s apartment, rather than staying in a hotel. And, again, it was only ~50 euros a night.

So, while this wasn’t luxury, and while we still enjoyed it (especially for the money), it still bothers me that Hotwire is selling these apartments as a four-star hotel. This was a big misrepresentation.

A few photos from the room, after the jump.

Both agencies are promising that the fees will be on hiatus until May 31, 2009. But bringing the charge back may be tough: Back in 2007, Priceline and Hotwire dropped their booking fees “temporarily,” and they still haven’t brought the fees back.

That leaves Orbitz as the lone holdout among the biggest U.S. travel agencies. So when will Orbitz, the biggest holdout, throw in the towel on fees?

Consumers should welcome the rollback of these add-on booking charges. But this episode shows how brutal the online travel marketplace is right now. If online travel agencies want to collect a surcharge, they’re going to have to get creative, and earn it. Simply offering price comparisons and a few online alerts — which are free elsewhere — won’t cut it. And Travelocity, Expedia, Priceline, and Hotwire have admitted that.

Sure, Orbitz may counterargue that they provide value-added with their price guarantee, but since that service is of relatively limited value, I wouldn’t pay a premium for it (though maybe it’s worth the $6.99+ gamble for someone else…)

Travelocity is even poking a stick in Orbitz’ eye by copying their “Price Assurance” model and bringing it to vacation packages under the name “PriceGuardian.” If someone else books the same package as you, and the price has dropped, you get a check for the difference. Yeah, good luck with that.

What we may see is a shift to voluntary fees for add-on services, much like the airlines are going a-la-carte themselves. Want a price-drop guarantee? Pay a few bucks up front. Want text message alerts? A few more bucks. That I could see happening. But the standard one-size-fits-all fee is history at the mainstream agencies.