Hotwire: Last-Minute January Deals
After a flurry of deals dropping last Fall, all has remained relatively quiet on the Hotwire and Priceline Express front when it comes to Disney resorts. Until now!
But First, A Warning
You may see some Priceline Express deals from February through April for Caribbean Beach, Bay Lake Tower, and even some All-Star Movies deals at the very end of April. Bay Lake Tower is a very rare resort for hidden deals, and you’ll likely notice right off that the prices of those deals are not very good. The Caribbean Beach and Movies deals look decent at first glance – but if you compare the final Express Deal costs after fees and taxes to Disney’s direct discounts right now, you’ll find that Disney beats those hidden deals.
Pop, Coronado, Yacht Club, Oh My!
Back over on Hotwire, you’ll find some hidden Hot Rate deals for these resorts through the end of January – and these offer significant savings. In fact, you can see in this comparison chart, these deals will save you $90 – $110 per night over Disney discounted rates. If you happen to have an active annual pass, they even save significant amounts over the deep 40% off AP rate!
By the way, these comparisons all assume the hidden deals are for standard rooms. There were clues the last few batches of Yacht Club rooms over on Priceline Express were water view rooms. We also had a few reports from people that verified our suspicion after checking in. While I wouldn’t count on that happening all the time, it would be nice to find yourself in a water view room once you check in.
THE FUTURE REMAINS BLURRY
Before I go ahead and present the current Calendar of Deals: I have heard from several people looking for deals in the upcoming months and sadly January is all we’ve got for now. But, in the current situation I think we might be able to count on deals rolling out over time so I suggest everyone keep watching. We’ll always post good deals here as soon as we find them.
A $5 Tip, A 6% Rebate
If you search and book from the Hotwire app, you’ll likely save around $5 per night compared to using a desktop browser. (The prices shown below are app prices.)
And, if you use the coupon code NEWYEAR21 on bookings greater than $100, you can shave another 6% off those low rates. (That would effectively bring those $68 Pop Century deals to less than $64 per night! Wowza.)
Spotting Resorts
For your seeking pleasure, here are some examples of the resorts to help you identify them more easily on Hotwire.
The Calendar
The calendar of deals will give you an overview of what you might find on Hotwire in January. Take the amounts shown with a grain of salt, as they can change a bit from search to search.
If you’ve booked any of these deals or have any questions, let us know in the comments!
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After a lot of time on with their chat, I was told to try using another device. I logged in on my ipad app and it worked! In the meantime, one of the chat representatives credited $15 to my account (only usable on the website), so I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.
Well, that’s annoying. I haven’t heard of any other issues, but all of the booking sites have their own varying levels of weirdness. Hopefully they figure it out for you!
This is fantastic information. Has anyone successfully booked with the APPDEAL15? I made it as far as determining I had the right resort, tried to buy, but the transaction didn’t go through, and I got a message saying the code had already been used. I’m back & forth with their customer service about it. Wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them.
This is so awesome I wish I had the guts to take the chance on my June trip!
I’m looking at using the Hotwire app, found a 10% off code for first time booking via the app.
Hi John,
Looking at these deals, it looks like I could save about $173 off my current Pop stay at the AP rate, or $80 off of that same stay upgrading to Coronado Springs. How confident can we be in the “Book Soon!” box that says “The last person got Disney’s Pop Century Resort” (or Coronado Springs)? Having not booked through Hotwire in the past, but loving the idea of savings, I guess I’m just a little nervous to hit the buy button with a current reservation in place.
Also, I noticed that the NEWYEAR21 coupon code is not working. Thought that would be good for others to know.
Hi Bryan, I don’t give the “last person got…” hints any thought: on Priceline Express they are almost always wrong when the hidden deal is for a Disney resort. On Hotwire they seem to be a little more accurate, but I haven’t done any analysis on them.
As for how sure we are on the resorts: you do want to compare all the factors, on Hotwire the most important are the star and guest ratings, location, and then use the review counts, sub-guest ratings and any mandatory (resort) fees to help break any ties if 2 resorts have everything else the same (but they often do not.)
Also, using review counts is helpful because you can compare any listed on a hidden deal (if they appear) to the ones on a non-hidden deal further down in the results. However, Hotwire plays massive games with review counts – I find they jump around all the time when I update my database.
In Bonnet Creek, the ONLY 3* resorts are the All-Stars, Pop, and Art of Animation. (Oddly Hotwire also has Riviera as a 3* resort, but I’ve never seen any deals for it.)
Right now, the only 3* resort with a 4.4-guest rating is Pop. (AoA is 4.3.) Also, none of the All-Stars are open at all right now. So, if you see a 3* 4.4-guest deal in Bonnet Creek, pretty much has to be Pop.
Coronado right now is a 3.5* 4.3-guest resort. Wyndham Bonnet Creek also has the same ratings. Two ways to tell them apart would be to note the crossed-out price on the possible CSR hidden deal, then scroll down in your search results to find a non-hidden deal. That price will likely be $1 off from the crossed out price. (Could be a few dollar more of a difference, but I haven’t seen it happen in a long time.) The other way is to compare the sub-amenities. If you look at the CSR hidden deal example I included in the post, note those amenities and then go to Coronado’s Hotwire page and compare them to the ones shown at the top of the reviews.
A little comparison detective work can go a long way. 😉
Thanks for the heads up on the promo code expiring. I just tested it yesterday! Drats. But, always be sure to check the Hotwire home page for new ones. Looks like APPDEAL15 takes $15 off in the app, and WEBDEAL10 takes $10 in a browser. Not nearly as good as 6% off, but Oh, well.
Question – I’m an AP holder that is considering doing the HOTWIRE thing to save $$$ on a booking for Jan 30 – Feb 6. I saw your updated post with the February info to (thank you!)
Can you please tell me if I get a HOTWIRE deal for that time period, am I able to then to to MDE with a confirmation number, do the check-in stuff online, etc?
Most important – if I go via HOTWIRE, am I able to book all days for park reservations (7), or am I still stuck with the (3) days as an AP holder? I would technically be booked onsite.
Thank you!
Hello! Yes – once you book you’ll get a confirmation number that is linkable to MDE and the reservation will act as any Disney resort stay behaves.
I haven’t paid attention to the park reservations details myself, but if they are allowing on site guests 7 days and AP holders are limited, my guess is Yes, the on site stay would increase your park reservations to the full stay. I’ll check with others to make sure my answer is correct!
Hi John,
Thanks for the feedback and checking with Hotwire. I checked Hotwire’s website and it’s not very clear, from a customer point of view. Any help would be great.
They have released the same deal in February, at least the dates I searched. Thanks again
Hi Jon, I should have phrased my sentence a little better there… I meant “If I were you I’d reach out to them…”
I don’t want to quote you an incorrect Hotwire policy and cause you can issue if they don’t adhere things. I don’t have any direct connections at the booking sites, I’m just a geeky guy trying to find deals for people. So much flux with policies these days, you are better off getting the info from the horse’s mouth. 🙂
Hi Jon,
I did hear a lot of reports back at the start of the year where the booking sites allowed non-refundable deals to be refunded, but I really haven’t heard anything definitive on their policies since.
I don’t think we over here can speak for what those companies will do – I’d reach out to them and see if they have a specific policy that applies to your question.
Hello, your posts are awesome. If you contract COVID (trip was scheduled during your quarantine period) how does Hotwire handles this , especially with it being a hot deal? Am I completely out of luck?
It’s the only thing holding me back from booking an early February trip!
Good catch on the app!
If you play around with the “Draw” function in the Hotwire app (see icon on top right of window), you’ll find you can zoom in to the suspected resort on the map and draw a rough circle around it with your finger.
If you guessed the correct resort the search results should filter down to just your hidden deal and any non-hidden deal for that resort. (In cases where there are multiple resorts side by side like the All-Stars you might need to play around with the circle you draw to get it just right. Any overlap can affect the resorts shown.)
One thing I also noticed in the Mobile App is that the map location pin will *sometimes* show you the exact location of the hotel, including Pop and Coronado. This seemed to be dependant on how close-in the reservation was.
Stayed at Pop using Hotwire back in August 2020 and paid $74/nt. Rate was lower than the AP discount and so I cancelled with Disney. I don’t care who I book through as long as I get the lowest rate. Just checked for our upcoming Feb 13-17th stay but no low rates found. I’ll check back.
We saw these rates *last night* and jumped on a stay at Pop. Used the techniques to pick the right hotel and got it. Thanks for all the updates and keep them coming. These kind of rates are hard to pass up.
Those Coronado Springs rates seem to be lower than the rack rates in 2002. And that’s not adjusted for inflation.
A Pop rate of $80 all-in is, in inflation-adjusted dollars, roughly what we would’ve paid for a value resort in 2005?