Priceline Hotel: 2.5* DC (Whitehouse-Downtown) Courtyard Embassy Row

[Castarah]

Hello,

We are looking for a hotel in Washington DC for the period 12/13/05 until 12/20/05 (7 nights), and we were checking the betterbedding forum for information.

We've read your tips about the different hotels and zones about Washington DC. We saw that the experience is that most hotels have an easy access to the metro. We were wondering whether that's also true for 2.5* hotels (or that it is just for 3 and 4* hotels)?

We are thinking about the zones Convention Center - Capital Hill, White House - Downtown or Dupont Circle - Woodley Park. Location is most important for us (since we don't have a car), after that the price and at last the number of stars.

We have some difficulties in deciding what our maximum amount is per night, because we have no idea what normal prices are for those areas in Washington for this time of the year. We would, of course, like to have a price as cheap as possible (since the other alternative is a hostel).

Hopefully you can give us some information about that, and maybe also some bidding tips.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[thereuare]

I would start by finding out the rate you would get a hostel, since that will likely be your alternate plan. From there you can determine how much you'd be willing to pay in order to 'better' your accomodations.

We also just launched the PRICELINE MAPS for Washington DC which may help you geographically.

[Castarah]

We tried the following for 12/13-12/20 (all were rejected):

Dupont Circle:

4* 50/55/60/65

3* 45/50/60/65

2.5* 55

White House:

4* 50/55/60/65

3* 45/50/65

2.5* 50/55

Convention Center:

2.5* 50

(for both Downtown and Dupont Circle we tried to bid only for the weekend, 12/15-12/20 and 12/16-12/20, 2.5* for 50$)

Is there any advice you can give us? For example is it more wise to split up the dates, and if yes where to split it up?

[thereuare]

I would start by finding out the rate you would get a hostel, since that will likely be your alternate plan. From there you can determine how much you'd be willing to pay in order to 'better' your accomodations.

As mentioned previously, if you start with and provide information on the above we will be better able to assist you.

[Castarah]

We thouhgt it would be clear from the above mentioned amounts.

A hostel would cost somewhere between 50 and 70 dollars (tax included).

We are willing to pay more for a hotel room, but not more than 80 dollar (tax included).

We also thought that it would be possible to get a hotel room for the rates we already tried, because we checked what other people got for their bids, and it seemed reasonable. Furthermore, we checked what the normal prices of those hotels are, and because for some of them they were not that high (99 up to 130), we also thought that it would be possible to get a room using priceline for the rates we tried.

[thereuare]

...we checked what other people got for their bids, and it seemed reasonable.

Your bids are not within the generally accepted price ranges for these zones. Rates are also date specific, so what somebody else won for a given stay may or may not be applicable to the dates of your own stay.

There are one or two hotels that you do have a chance at, but you're not really bidding systematically and you can do better, which is why we originally asked you to provide some information so that we could provide a strategy for you to follow.

When did you last make your bids above?

[Castarah]

We made all the bids today (Wednesday Dec 7th).

We did not do the bids in the order we set in the post.

We first tried the 4* hotels in both areas.

Afterwards the 3* hotels

And when that did not turn out to work we tried the 2.5*.

[thereuare]

I would try the following tonite:

12/15-12/20

Select 2.5* White House-Downtown...

Bid $47, if rejected add Dupont Circle...

Bid $50, if rejected add Convention Center (assuming this zone is ok with you, which it appears above that it is)...

Bid $52.

Let us know how the above goes.

If the above fails, post back a little before 72 hours when you're eligible to bid again (and wait for an updated strategy before bidding).

[Castarah]

All the 3 bids were rejected, unfortunately.

Thanks for giving advice about which strategy to use.

We did not know that the strategy was that important, otherwise we would not have used all the bids so easily without providing you with more information so you could help us bidding.

[Castarah]

So all the bids were rejected...

Do you have any advice what to do next?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[thereuare]

Assuming price is most important....

Select 2.5* White House-Downtown...

Bid $5, if rejected close browser and re-access priceline however you did previously.

Select 2.5* Dupont Circle...

Bid $55, if rejected close browser and re-access priceline however you did previously.

Select 2.5* Convention Center...

Bid $55, if rejected close browser and re-access priceline however you did previously.

Select 2.5* White House and Dupont Circle...

Bid $60, if rejected close browser and re-access priceline however you did previously.

Select 2.5* Whilte House and Convention Center...

Bid $60, if rejected close browser and re-access priceline however you did previously.

Select 2.5* White House and Dupont Circle and Convention Center...

Bid $65.

The above will take you up to what i believe is your maximum $65 bid.

I would start with your complete stay and then bid the following dates (it will take awhile so make sure to set up a Priceline profile to seep up the process):

12/13-12/20

12/14-12/20

12/13-12/19

12/15-12/20

12/13-12/18

12/16-12/20

12/13-12/17

Any questions feel free to ask.

Gook luck and let us know how it goes.

[Castarah]

All were rejected until:

12/15-12/20 Whitehouse-Downtown for $60 (didn't try $65 at all, though)

We got the Courtyard Embassy Row

Thanks a lot for your help! We really appreciate it.

P.S. Do you have any advice on how to bid for 12/13-12/15?

and do I have to start another thread for my winning bid?

[thereuare]

Glad you got a nice piece of the stay taken care of.

No need to start a new thread for the win as i've edited the title of this one to reflect your win (and this way others can see the bidding history and process involved in you receiving it), but please do start a NEW TOPIC for the balace of your stay as this will enable us to reflect the property won for the remainder of the stay in the topic title of that thread.

I'll add though that i think you'll need to increase your maximum bid somewhat to find success for the remaining two nites.