Priceline Hotel: identify 3.5 hotel, alexandria and old town

[winnie]

I have just found a deal on hotwire for my family of:

5 adults, 4 children, 3 rooms

05/28/2005 to 06/01/2005

65$ a night

amenities listed are: restaurant, pool fitness center, business center

A review comment says "Parking was convenient and easily accessible."

Does anyone have any idea which hotel this is? The sheraton? or the Hilton?

Also, I'm rather particular about having internet access - wireless is preferable. But, the amenities description do not include the internt connection icon, from which I assume there's no internet connection. Can that be true of a 3.5 star hotel? I checked on both hilton and sheraton sites, and they both offer internet connections.

I then went back to hotwire and checked all the hotels in the d.c. area, none of them had the internet connection icon. So, is this simply an error, that the internet icon is not listed among the amenities?

help! Its had trying to find a good deal for this sized group.

[TravelGuy]

I think it's probably the Hilton Mark Center. I would suggest a 3* Priceline bid in the Alexandria/Pentagon zone starting at $34 before using Hotwire, as that hotel has come up on Priceline for that low. It's really a 3*, but 3.5* on HOTWIRE due to their inflated ratings. Unlike the 2.5* hotels, 3*'s often don't have free Internet.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Sorry, I must have missed this post the first time around.

Keep in mind that Priceline only guarantees double occupancy, while HOTWIRE allows you to search for up to quad occupancy, which would ensure that you have enough beds for everyone in your family.

For the price difference that Travelguy references i think it's worth the 'risk', but i would sooner take the HOTWIRE offer if you have to start raising your bid significantly.

As far as internet access goes, it's becoming more and more prevalent at hotels at all star ratings, but it's not guaranteed at any star rating. Depending how much internet use you need, i have always been able to research/find places with inexpensive or free access nearby.

If you go with the above please use this HOTWIRE link to begin your purchase, if you'd like to try priceline let us know and we'll suggest a strategy to follow.

[TravelGuy]

I just tried Hotwire and it's coming up $127 now. It's also showing sold out on hilton.com for those nights, so I think it's probably back to the drawing board on this one. I've seen winning bids for sold out hotels before, and a winning bid of $34 at ths hotel when the rate at hilton.com was apparently as high as $299, but I think 3 rooms would be really pushing it.

[winnie]

All

thank you for your help. Its been very useful.

Things got further complicated in my case, when I realized that 2 of the 3 rooms I need, had to be booked for only 3 days, and 1 room for 4 days. At that point, I called Hotwire, and they said I'd have to make 2 separate bookings. And if I did make 2 separate bookings, there was no guarantee that all would be at the same hotel.

This was an eye-opener: I had been thinking that the deal advertised on Hotwire is strictly for one hotel. But apparently that may not be true, though I still dont understand how that would work.

I have now researched the Hilton Mark website, and there are parking fees. (A hint to everyone to remember to look for parking charges when you book a hotel deal.) Besides which breakfast is not included. And as TravelGuy said, the deal is now upto 127$. I think is not worth it at this point.

Another thing I have learnt was that the hotwire star rating does not match the true hotel rating.

This forum has been very useful. I plan to regularly check on it, for all my travel needs. What a good idea!

Thank you!

[TravelGuy]

Having had time to do a little more research, I see that travelweb.com and Hotels.com both appear to be still selling rooms for the Hilton Mark Center, so it looks like there are still rooms available out there, just not in Hilton's system. Although it's probably a longshot, you might want to put in a bid of around $34 on Priceline for 3 rooms for 3 days, and worry about the one room for the last day after that. The parking situation there was addressed in this post.

Another thing I could suggest would be the Holiday Inn Express in Springfield, VA. They're offering a rate of $83 for your dates, which includes a good breakfast. Springfield is a rather bland area, but it's just about 12 miles from DC. It looks to me like a good option for a large group looking for a good deal - and you could book whatever number of rooms you wanted for whatever dates. Tripadvisor reviews look favorable, and they have free parking, an outdoor pool and a Metro shuttle!

Lastly, I didn't mean to suggest earlier that Hotwire's ratings are always inflated, just that they tend to be. :)

[winnie]

I am finding things getting too complicated at my end!

So, I'm thinking of making a bid on priceline for just my family alone - 2 adults and 1 child.

Again, here is what I need:

Dates

05/28/2005 to 06/01/2005

Would love to have:

indoor swimming pool

free/paid wireless (preferably free of course)

free parking (I read your previous post, so I think that should not be too much of a problem)

breakfast included

How can I specify these choices when I make a bid?

Or, at least how can I get to a good deal that has a good chance of including these?

I plan to follow your advise and make a bid for 34$ for 3* Priceline bid in the Alexandria/Pentagon zone. What should I expect the final rate to be? Or, should i start a bid higher? I obviously have never used Priceline and would appreciate your help, as always.

Can I ask my family to make separate bids on priceline too? You mentioned priceline caters to double occupancy. So if I book 1 room for the 3 of us, is this a problem?

Thank you.

[thereuare]

You can't specify those amenities... you are bidding soley for a double occupancy room in the zone and at the minimum star level you choose.

If those amenities are important to you then HOTWIRE may be a better option.

As far as the double/triple occupancy issue, it could be a problem depending upon the hotel's occupancy level. It usually works ok, but the hotel's obligation is to give you at least a room that can accomodate 2 people.

The opaque services 'work' because users get deeply discounted prices in exchange for giving up certain controls over the exact hotel they will get and/or the amenities that the hotel will have. So you'll have to determine what type of balance you want to strike between cost and your desires:

Priceline - usually the least expensive, but usually the least amount of control

HOTWIRE - usually more expensive than Pricline, cheaper than direct, but let's you know the amenities offered beforehand which also often helps you figure out the property before purchase

HotelDirect - most expensive but you chooose exactly what you want

[TravelGuy]

If you decide to take a chance on Priceline given how expensive Hotwire is for your dates, I would put in that bid of $34 for Alexandria/Pentagon and just see what happens. The total amount will be shown on the screen before you click to bid. If rejected, add the Springfield zone and bid $38. It's a longshot, but why not? I probably wouldn't go up that much in bidding for this zone because there's a Sheraton that could come up (although not at $36/38), which I don't know anything about.

I'd also consider Priceline's Alexandria/Mt. Vernon zone because there is usually free on-street parking somewhere around all the 3*'s that have come up in that zone. Free parking is easest to come by in this zone relative to the other Virginia zones. You may very well be able to find something somewhere in the range of $45-55 there.