Priceline Hotel: longterm stays and free breakfast

[prh]

This is a first time post for me!

I'm about to start a job just north of Washington, DC, but have not yet sold my house. I'm considering staying in a hotel for what might be several weeks (sometimes going back to the house for weekends), and hoping that using Priceline can help make this affordable. I can be flexible where I stay, basically anywhere in the metro DC area. Any suggestions? Is this a bad idea? Should I try bidding for a week at a time? multiple weeks at a time? couple days at a time?

Also, since I'll be living out of a hotel for a while does anyone have any suggestions for getting places that are more likely to provide breakfast? To me it looks like 2* and 2.5* places are more frequently extended stay type places. I'm figuring most 3* places probably only provide breakfasts for a pricey charge.

Thanks for any help!

prh

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

It's an idea that makes sense if you calcuate the costs and compare them to how much rent would cost in the area. The advantage of a hotel room is that you don't pay 'rent' for the days you go back to your house, as well as no cable TV bill, electric bill, telephone bill, etc, etc. As well, breakfast will sometimes be included, somebody will come and clean your room and make your bed each day (except at extended stay type properties), and you'll sometimes even get a free newspaper. The downside is that you may have to change hotels if you can't obtain a hotel for a full week (or longer) and you may hit a nite every so often with difficult availability (for example, if you were still 'living in hotels' around the presidental election... but this may be mitigated given you're ability to stay outside the immediate DC area itself)

With that said, i would first try for a week (not inlcuding the weekend if you intend to go back home that particular weekend) so that you can try it for a few days before committing to antoher week... you may end up loving it and try to do it as long as possible (even after you sell your house) OR you may find out that you don't like it would prefer to settle in one place.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Let us know your first set of dates, minimum star rating, and maximum budget and we'll try to advise accordingly.

[mrxow]

How far is the house? Is it just you or are there others?

I have a lot of experience with this, though it is on the west coast.

Maybe people who read this can help with a list of hotels and star levels that generally offer free breakfasts. Then you can check that against the hotel lists for the zones you are interested in.

I know La Quinta sometimes does. Embassy Suites. Summerfield Suites. Hampton Inn. Townplace Suites offers something small. Springhill Suites.

If it's just you and you get an Extended Stay or Homestead or any other place with a kitchen, the money you save eating some things in your room would pay for breakfast.

With fees on longer stays you might get something under 40 bucks a day total. If you don't need it every night, you might be able to do it for about a grand a month.

[prh]

Thanks for the tips.

Re mrxow:

The house is about 4 hours away, so not too bad. Leaving the family at home.

My main concern was about availability. In other words, should I expect that at least one or two weeks a month I won't be able to get a good deal? I'm hoping that flexibility in location will help get around this problem (as suggested by thereuare).

I'll see how it goes and post my results.

Any further advice is greatly appreciated!!

prh

[thereuare]

Since you're staying outside DC i would think you'd be "ok" most of the time, but hard to say without looking at all the specific dates and for how long you will need to do this.

Once you determine the details of your first stay (dates, zones, maximum bid, minimum star rating, etc) let us know and we will suggest a strategy for you to follow.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[mrxow]

Not being able to get a room just doesn't ever even enter my mind. So many times I have grabbed something last minute when I needed it. I suppose DC might be different at certain times, but I don't think you'd have problems frequently.

Extended Stay lists 10 hotels in DC. Homestead lists 9. All are potential participators in the PL bidding system. There seem to be others at the low star levels, too, though not a lot has been reported.

From the hotel list, there seem to be a lot of 2.5 and 3 star options, too, if that is more what you are interested in. Might have to pay a little more, but you might like the accomodations a lot better.

In Orange County, California, where I have done most of my bidding as an interim living arrangement, we have the fortunate circumstance that at the lower levels, most zones only have Extended Stays or Homesteads, so you pretty much know what you are going to get. It doesn't appear DC is that way, but in some zones it might be. I think ESA and Homestead would be fine for one person. Two is pushing it, sometimes. Just a little small.

If you are going to try for lower star levels, you might want to do some short test stays to see what comes up. If you can figure out some places you like and think you can count on getting them, maybe do some longer stays so that the fees get spread out over more nights and your average nightly rate can go down.

[prh]

If you are going to try for lower star levels, you might want to do some short test stays to see what comes up. If you can figure out some places you like and think you can count on getting them, maybe do some longer stays so that the fees get spread out over more nights and your average nightly rate can go down.

Thanks for the tip. I didn't realize that the fees are total rather than nightly. I'll keep this in mind and I will certainly choose long blocks of time when possible.

prh

[mrxow]

PL changes around its bidding structure and I haven't done lots of multiple night bids in a while, but when I did, it seemed that fees for 2 nights were more than fees for one night but less than fees for 2 nights booked separately. They wrap the taxes in with the fees and don't break it down any longer to intentionally make it harder to discern what they are doing now, though. If I have time later I will do some test partial bids and compare the fees at certain star levels for various numbers of nights, subtracting out known bed tax based on bid amount and see what kind of correlation I can find. I do know that when I bid for one night, even when the accepted bid is in the low to mid thirties, the overall cost is around $50. When I used to bid for a week or more at a time, the same accepted bid per night generated a cost per night more near $40.

You have to consider, too, that bidding more nights in blocks can preclude you from winning a particular hotel if they have no inventory in the system for one of your nights. The chances of this happening might be higher with each night longer your stay becomes.

Longer stays mean less hassles, though, too, especially if you end up in a kitchenette and have some food in the refrigerator. You might want to carry a cooler in the car, but that is still a pain. Certainly don't want to do that all the time and if you aren't sure you are going to have the same refrigeration capabilities in your next room, it's hard to buy something you won't use all at once and needs to be refrigerated or frozen.

[thereuare]

I didn't realize that the fees are total rather than nightly

The fees, on a per nite basis, will be a little less for a multiple nite stay than an individual nite stay... but not by a large factor. (although $1-$2/nite can add up on a 2 week stay)

For example, a one nite stay may have a PRICELINE fee of $7, while a two nite stay a fee of $13.50, a three nite stay a fee of $20.35, etc, etc.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[mrxow]

I just did some test partial bids in a zone I know with one hotel at 1 star. I didn't check the city bed tax, but I think it is 10%.

They wanted 11.35 in fees for a one night bid, 16.01 for 2 nights, 20.67 for 3 nights, 25.33 for 4 nights, 71.92 for 14 nights.

So if the bed tax is $3.40 or so, they want $7.95 to make a bid for a night and add about $1.25 per night for each additional night. So you save $6.70 per night by including it in a longer stay versus bidding for it individually. That could be over $100 a month for what you are talking about doing.

[prh]

Thanks for looking into this! I'll keep you posted on my experience.

prh

[smartcookie]

Also, check deals on www.travelzoo.com once in a while. They post new deals every Tuesday. There may be a cheap promotion going at one of these types of places with a breakfast etc.