I got ya. I'll be honest, they have never failed me. But if you want to know the hotel you're getting before you pay, then hit up hotels.com. That's my other outlet.

Tell you what I do with Hotwire, though. They'll tell you the names of the hotels in their star categories. I just did a GOOGLE search of those hotels in the area to see if they all are on par with what I want. I used it last Summer and landed a hotel at Sawgrass (it's a PGA Tour hotel) in Jacksonville, FL and got a lake front room with private shuttle to private beach for $98/night. It was a Marriott hotel. Later, QD.