Buffy

I bid $70 for a 3.5*+ hotel in the zones of Crystal City, Arlington, or Alexandria East / Old Town and got the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Old Town Alexandria. The price per night according to the hotel website at the time of booking was $130. It was nice enough and location was acceptable, but a bit far from the metro and parking was $20 a day. I was in town to visit a friend in Crystal City, so that was my #1 zone of choice, but I had no success there for anything under $100 (3.5* at the lowest), so expanded out to Arlington with still no luck, then Alexandria East, where I got lucky for $70. I made a total of 11 bids in different combos of zones and prices and eventually used up all bid combinations and had to have my husband bid too, so this was for sure the best deal I could find.

Earlier today I bought a Priceline Express Deal for a 2.5* hotel in Lima, OH for $56 and got the Wingate. Priceline's normal rate for this hotel on my dates is "on sale" right now from $99 down to $85. I was expecting the Comfort Inn or something else of a lower quality than the Wingate, since most other hotel sites besides Priceline list the Wingate as 3* instead of 2.5*, and in Lima, OH 3* is as good as it gets. I didn't use the PRICELINE link through this forum to book because I didn't join this forum until after booking and therefore didn't know about the link :-/