Priceline Hotel: 4* DC (Dupont Circle-Woodley Park) Omni Shoreham

[Mark L]

Hotel: Omni Shoreham

Date Booked: Sat, 12/06/08

Dates: Tue, 12/09/08 - Sat, 12/13/08 (4 nights)

Price per night: $80.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $55.48

Total: $375.48

This was a combined PRICELINE / HOTWIRE bid, both booked through this site (I think). See my Hotwire Hotel Purchase in the Hotwire forum for details on Monday night's stay at the Hilton Washington and Towers.

Background

(Skip this if you don't care)

This was my first experience with either PRICELINE or HOTWIRE, and I am amazed how well it worked!

I live right next to the Hilton in Adams Morgan (a few blocks from the Omni), and my wife and I needed a hotel for Mon-Sat during renovation of our condo. We didn't want to spend a lot, but we didn't want a craphole either. We looked on the normal sites (Expedia, Travelocity, etc) and the best we could find that didn't look ghetto was the Travelodge in Old Town Alexandria. The place itself isn't too nice, and would have been a long commute for me to work, but at least it was cheap ($72/night), clean, and in Old Town. All the other hotels less than $100 were either in areas with nothing to do (non-Old Town "Alexandria", College Park, Cheverly, etc) or seemed really sketchy (Silver Spring Motel 6, New York Ave).

So, I was about to resign myself to Travelodge when I remembered Shatner! I started searching around for tips and came across this forum. I read through the tips and previously successful bids, so after about an hour of debating whether to do it or not, I decided to bid. I needed a hotel in two days, so I was nervous because I thought they have back to you in 24 hours, not 15 minutes. We didn't need anything fancy, but I saw people were getting the Omni and other 4* at like $70/night, so I decided to go for a 4*. What the heck, right? So, I decided to bid based on what other people had won.

Unsuccessful Bidding

Dates: Mon, 12/08/08 - Sat, 12/13/08 (4 nights)

Note: At the time, Mount Vernon, Springfield, and DC Suburbs had nothing higher than 3*.

$85, 4*, Dupont Circle / White House

$90, 4*, Dupont Circle / White House

$80, 3.5*, Dupont Circle

$90, 3.5*, Dupont Circle / Mount Vernon

$80, 3*, Dupont Circle

$80, 3*, Dupont Circle / White House

$90, 3*, Dupont Circle

$90, 3*, Dupont Circle / White House

$80, 2.5*, Dupont Circle

$80, 2.5*, Dupont Circle / White House

$85, 2.5*, Dupont Circle

$100, 3*, Dupont Circle

$90, 2.5*, Dupont Circle

I found that if I went back to the site and started a brand new bid, it would often let me bid on the same exact thing I had already done but at a higher price. The results always came back instantly, too. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

Somewhere in the middle of the above I decided to actually research the prices and found that all of the 4* hotels in Dupont Circle and White House were either unavailable or at least like $400/night, and even 3* were at least $300/night. So, I realized my bidding wasn't going to work.

I then checked Hotwire and found a 2* for $96/night in Dupont Circle, and 3.5*+s for something at least $130/night. I wasn't going to spend over $100, and definitely not $96 for a Hotwire 2*. I thought I was going to have to stay in Travelodge.

Great Success!

But one hotel showed the price per night, and Monday/Tuesday were much higher than the other nights. So, I thought maybe I'll just get rid of Monday. Boom! Hotwire showed a 4* in Dupont Circle for $89/night! Looking at the amenities, it looked like the Omni. Perfect! If HOTWIRE had it, maybe PRICELINE did, too. So, I bid the following:

$80, 4*, Dupont Circle, 12/09/08 - 12/13/08 (4 nights)

... and I got it! Maybe I could have gone lower, but oh well. I'm happy with $80/night at the Omni.

The plan was then to stay at the Travelodge for Monday night, then at the Omni for Tue-Sat. We could rough it for one night.

High Five!

Before booking, I decided to check HOTWIRE for the heck of it. Boy, was I glad I did! They had a 4* for $86/night! Looking at the amenities, it looked the same as the Palomar, or the Hilton Towers without tennis. Either way, I couldn't go wrong. I tried Priceline to get a better deal:

12/08/08 - 12/09/08 (1 night)

$70, 4*, Dupont Circle

$75, 4*, Dupont Circle / Mount Vernon

Both were declined, and I needed to go to bed, so I just booked the HOTWIRE $86/night rate. It ended up being the Hilton Towers. I would have preferred the Palomar, but I'll take the Hilton.

Lessons Learned

In DC during the winter, Monday and Tuesday are the expensive nights, and weekends are cheap. If you have to stay the whole week, and you are willing to break up your stay, you may be able to get a great deal by staying in multiple places. This might suck if you were on vacation, but if you just need a clean place to crash, think about it!

Also, I signed up for the Omni Select Guest program for free on the Internet, so now'll get Wi-Fi, a newspaper, and some other extras - Free!

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Congratulations on your success(es)!!

Looks like you did very well and are happy with the results... sounds like it will work out well for your temporary relocation (and close enough to your condo to check on the progress daily! :) )

Thank you for sharing your wins with the board and using our PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

Enjoy your stay(s) and good luck with the condo renovation.. i'm sure it can be a stressful time.