TravelGuy

Your Offer Price: $32.00 Total Rental Days: 7 Subtotal: $224.00 Taxes & Fees: $64.11 Total Charges: $288.11 $513 total on Avis.com $443 lowest on Expedia (Dollar) $352 on Hotwire Got this for someone else who was hoping for a Cadillac De Ville. As luck would have it, Avis' luxury car is a Cadillac De Ville or similar, so their wish may very well come true.

If she wouldn't mind driving, how about renting a car (cheaply, through Priceline preferably)?

On second thought, you should probably add 5-10 minutes or so to my estimation of the cab ride. Most people don't drive like me - although those crazy Washington Flyer drivers do come close. :)

I believe that Washington Flyer used to have a direct bus shuttle between IAD and DCA, but it was discontinued years ago. Now, in addition to their cab service to all points, they offer a bus shuttle to the West Falls Church Metrorail station only, which takes 25 minutes. From there, you would take the Orange Line, then have to transfer to the Blue Line to National Airport at Roslyn (add another 40 minutes to the shuttle time + waiting for connections). It would be $8 for the shuttle, then $1.85 for Metro ($2.75 during peak am/pm rush hours). The cheapest alternative would be to take the Metrobus Route 5A from IAD to the L'Enfant Metrorail station for $3, which would take about an hour. Add another $1.35/$1.40 for the Metrorail, and 10 minutes + connection time. The Washington Flyer is a lot more comfortable than the Metrobus though (quite nice actually - have used it several times), and may well be worth the extra $5 or so to you. Also, the Metrobus has only 1 departure per hour from IAD. Super Shuttle would be about $22, and as metioned above, there could be a lot of hidden waiting time involved. A cab will take about 35-40 minutes (longer for rush hours) and set you back at least $50.

The bottom line is that I think you'll probably get something within a safe walk to a Metro whichever zone you bid on, except that I'd be the most leery of the CC/CH zone generally.

All the 4*hotels that have come up in all the zones mentioned are within walking distance of a Metro. Some are right at the Metro, others a 2, 3 or 4 block walk. I would feel very safe in the Georgetown/Foggy Bottom zone, safe in Downtown/White House, and safe for the most part in Convention Center/Capital Hill, but paying more attention to my surroundings. Hard to say specifically though, because, for example, the most likely hotel to come up in the CC/CH zone is probably the Grand Hyatt, where the Metro is right below. I would feel completely safe with that, maybe safer than walking to one of the Georgetown/FB hotels, even though the latter zone is generally safer. I would probably be the least worried about walking around in Dupont Circle/Woodley Park.

The Radisson is a solid 3* hotel with extra large rooms, and very close to Dupont Circle. The Metro is an easy walk. It's showing $229 on both Orbitz and Radisson.com for a corporate rate suite, but Hotels.com has $160 for a "standard" room. It might be worth a try to see if Radisson.com would honor the lower rate as part of their lowest rate guarantee (in which case they would take 25% off the Hotels.com rate, taking the price down to $120), but the rooms/rate quotes very well may not be deemed to be equivalent. If you would like to continue with Priceline and would like to stay in the same vicinity as your friends, you may want to consider 3* in the Dupont Circle/Woodley Park zone (all the 3* hotels in that zone are good). Or, if any 4* in a good area near a Metro would be preferable, any of the other zones within DC would work: Downtown/White House; Convention Center/Capital Hill; Georgetown/Foggy Bottom.

I forgot to say that 4* in the Downtown/White House zone would be another good option to consider. The JW Marriott has been coming up a lot at $70 or so - a very good hotel centrally located to the Smithsonian museums and with easy access to Metro. In sum, I would say that if you want to be very close to the National Mall and museums and don't mind an exclusively urban setting, go for the Convention Center/Capital Hill or Downtown/White House zones. If you'd rather put a little distance between yourselves and the office buildings, but still be very close to the action, try Dupont Circle/Woodley Park. The Embassy Suites would be nice in that it would give mom/dad and daughter private sleeping quarters.

If you're interested in a 4*, I think that Dupont Circle/Woodley Park is a very good choice. You get an urban vibe blended with somewhat of a residential feel - the excitement of being in town, yet the peacefulness of being a bit removed from it. If you're interested in this zone, I would definitely use Priceline. The price range for a successful bid at 4*'s should be $80-110. There are two 4*'s that have come up in the Dupont Circle/Woodley Park zone, the Westin Embassy Row and the Omni Shoreham. The Westin Embassy Row is a swanky, pretty formal hotel with a great location on the embassy lined portion of Massachusetts Ave., just before where the downtown office buildings begin. It's just a short walk from the Dupont Circle Metro stop. Dormant on Priceline for the last couple of years, it has been making a reappearance lately. The Omni is a large, very good hotel with flourishes of elegance, although fairly old school and somewhat convention-like. It's in Woodley Park, a primarily residential setting, but with restaurants and cafes, and still quite close to downtown. The Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro stop is just a half block. The hotel has unusually large, very well appointed rooms (I believe around twice the size of the average hotel room.) Another good 4* option would be the Convention Center/Capital Hill zone, further downtown, closer to the Smithsonian and National Mall. (But IMO it gets rather dead down there after the workday has ended - and here you are smack in the middle of the downtown office buildings.) However, the Grand Hyatt comes up often in this zone (for $69/70), and would make for an excellent stay. One last idea: Embassy Suites Downtown. $149 on Orbitz. *But* $171 on embassysuites.com, so you should be entitled to their lowest rate guarantee upon booking on embassysuites.com first, then showing them a print-out of the Orbitz rate. According to the info on their website, it looks like they'll match the Orbitz rate and give you a $50 Amex gift certificate. So you're looking at $133 for a two-room suite, plus free full breakfast for 3 people each day with free drinks and snacks at the daily manager's reception in the late afternoon. Nice deal!

Yes, the Westin is the only 4* in downtown Providence. Also, there are no 4*'s in any of the other zones listed for Providence, so they are all free rebids.

Here's what Frommer's has to say about the Westin. Having looked around in that hotel earlier this year, I would definitely agree.

2.5* Holiday Inn Express Old Town 3900 Old Town Avenue San Diego, CA 92110 $51+$11.95 taxes & fees = $63.95 $129 on ichotels.com Amenities: Airport Shuttle, Pool(s), Complimentary Breakfast, Laundry Facilities Stopped after failed $40 bid on Priceline to avoid substantially increased risk of getting "upgraded" to Courtyard Old Town (too close to the highway).

Yes, I did post it. I'll be there a week before you.

Thereuare: Yes, I see what you're saying. However, my experience has been that the government and/or AAA rates aren't alway listed on the hotel websites. Their appearance seem to be a function of occupancy rates, which is useful information. Generally it seems that when the hotel is close to being sold out, there may be only one rate displayed - if low occupancy, many rates. For example, with the Best Western Coronado, they give a government rate for 8/24-26, but *not* for tonight, 8/8 (and likely many other relatively high occupancy dates). So the dates with the government rate listed are most likely substantially lower occupancy, which *might* mean a good or lower than usual PL rate (assuming they participate on PL), because they might very well be more aggressively looking for business.

I've never seen a 3* come up in Coronado, but Priceline does offer it. One possibility might be the Best Western, which is showing a government rate of only $110 for my dates - so $41 may be within striking distance.

Holiday Inn Harbor View $92 on ichotelgroup.com $51 on Hotwire Finally saw this come up on Hotwire after looking on and off for the last couple of months and making a couple of PL bids up to $45. First bid of $38 for 2.5* Downtown failed. Added Coronado @$41. (A tiny chance I could have been upgraded to 3* in Coronado, but I was open to a surprise.) Check-In Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Check-Out Date: Thursday, August 26, 2004 Your Offer Price: $41.00 Number of Rooms: 1 Number of Nights: 2 Subtotal: $82.00 Taxes & Service Fees: $16.18 Total Charges: $98.18 I like the vibe of this place - unpretentious, surprisingly nice rooms, unique design, great views, walk to Little Italy - and half the price of the Manchester Hyatt.

I'd like to try the Candlwood next time I'm up there. I suspect it's a little nicer than the DoubleTree and Courtyard.

I would concur that it's the Candlewood Suites. If it's on HW, it's most likely available on PL too, and for substantially less. On PL Candlewood Suites is 2*, so if you'd like to shoot for that, just skip 2.5* and drop down to 2* if 3* doesn't work. Although there's a chance you could get upgraded to 2.5*, all the PL hotels that have come up in Jersey City are decent IMO (having stayed in 3 out of 4 of them). I see Hotwire has CS for $66 on your dates. If bidding on PL, I would suggest $50. The lowest prevailing rate at ichotelsgroup.com is $120.

My pleasure.

Ok, ok, I just checked on MapQuest and it's 1.2 miles to the Strip (3 minute drive), so I guessed wrong. :) For me anyway, that would be about 20 minutes or so walking. I've never actually walked it myself - although I've seen people doing it. Maybe the Tuscany is actually a better value come to think of it given the larger rooms, but the $49 at Gold Coast for that weekend is pretty striking as well. P.S. You can get the Riviera on Orbitz for a few dollars less - $76.

As far as the quality of the rooms of all the choices given, I think Tuscany Suites would be the hands down winner. As mentioned, they also have a casino. It would be about a 10 minute walk to the Strip at Bally's (which is a prime location on the Strip). Using Travelaxe, I see it available for your dates for $75, booked through The Reservation Company. With the monorail open, the Sahara and Riviera might not be that bad location-wise, but you're probably taking somewhat of a gamble on room quality and service. The best value I see from Travelaxe is Gold Coast for $49, booked through Places to Stay. This is an off strip hotel & casino, fairly vanilla, but directly across the street from hip, trendy Palms. I would guess also about a 10 minute walk to the Strip. They also have a free shuttle to the Barbary Coast, it's sister property with an ideal Strip location. As you can see from the reviews, people seem to be quite pleased with it. I try to get to their buffet when in town, which I consider to be the best for the money.

I would suggest making a fully cancelable backup reservation somewhere if you haven't already. As inventory on Priceline changes all the time, you could keep bidding every 72 hours and something may very well turn up eventually. The last thing I can think of is that Santa Cruz does offer 2* bidding, so depending on your requirements, you may want to consider that. (Maybe a lowball bid for a 2*?)

Yes, but don't forget I'm a little whacky (just a little) :) , pretty easy to please and fond of bohemian neighborhoods. I've just posted a tip for those wanting to avoid getting the Radisson because of its location and other potential pitfalls. (I've known about this for a while, sorry I didn't do it earlier.) I thought the Radisson worked fine though, and hope it does for chantomc too.