Priceline Hotel: 4* DC (Convention Center-Capitol Hill) Grand Hyatt

[shammes53]

First of all, let me say how glad I was to find this website! Great advice and information for getting the most out of bidding for hotels. :) We are a family of 3 (son 7 years old) and are taking a trip out east this summer and visiting D.C. is part of our agenda. We have firm dates picked out and I did a lot of research on where to stay when there (had to be close to Metro and have a pool) Six years ago we visited the area (without our son) and stayed at the Omni Shoreham and loved it! BTW, we were staying free becuse of a sales contest my wife won at work. This trip it would have been nice to stay there again (or somewhere similar), but checking rates at all the usual places I found rates a little out of sight. It's high season and I realize rates will be that way, so I finally settled on booking a room at the Courtyard in Rosslyn. Looked like a nice place, had a pool, high speed internet and close to the Metro. I booked through Marriot and got a guaranteed reservation that I would be able to cancel and not payable up front. I had considered booking through Priceline (I do all the time for the Minneapolis area), but was afraid of what hotel I might end up being booked at. After finding out about BetterBidding (not sure how I stumbled on it), I went to work reading the different forums and getting a good idea how to "work the system" and obtain a desirable hotal at a great price! Here's how it went: After finding out the Omni was a hotel I might likely get as a 4* in the Woodley Park area, I decided to try for it. Checking another source, it looked like the Westin was not available during the dates I needed, so I knew I had a good chance to get the Omni (with a winning bid) So following the advice posted on the forum I tried it (but wasn't successful)

Chose Dupont/Woodley Park at 4* bid $60, no good. Did not change star rating throughout process.

added Alexandria/Mount Vernon bid $65, no good.

added Alexandria/Pentagon bid $75, no good.

added Arlington and bid $85, not accepted and closed browser to started over again.

Decided to try another area for a 4*, saw that many people got great rates downtown (especially the Grand Hyatt, which looked pretty good) The bidding proceess:

Chose Downtown/White House and Convention Center/Capitol Hill

started bid at $65, no good.

added Alexandria/Mount Vernon bid $70, no good. Did not change star rating throughout process.

added Alexandria/Pentagon bid $80, no good.

added Arlington and bid $90, which was accepted :) Grand Hyatt Washington 4* WOW!!! ($309 most sites)

Your Offer Price: $90.00

Number of Rooms: 1

Number of Nights: 3

Travel Insurance: $15.00

Subtotal: $285.00

Taxes & Service Fees:

$47.13

Total Charges: $332.13

Decided to go with the insurance, just in case and will soon cancel my Courtyard reservation, so glad I found this website! Thanks everyone for all the great advise (sorry about the long post) Happy bidding all!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Glad to hear you were able to use the information here to get a great deal in the DC area. I think lots of users have stories similar to yours... a little nervous at first, but they give it a shot (usually on a one-nite stay, figuring 'how bad can it be for one nite). Then they see the savings involved and are hooked!

Congratulations on your win and enjoy your trip to DC.