Priceline Hotel: 2.5* Detroit (Airport DTW) Metropolitan Hotel

[mrxow]

Did not take $38. Did not take $30 for 2*.

Stayed once before. Room just ok. Lobby nice. Not close to restaurants, kind of down a side street from main hotel zone, but serve food in hotel which was ok and reasonable considering the portions.

$12.45 taxes and fees

[thereuare]

Not close to restaurants...

More of a reason to drive the 40 minutes to Ann Arbor for dinner :)

[mrxow]

Actually, I did drive to Ann Arbor the last time I was there. Nice town.

To clarify, it is plenty close to restaurants if you have a car. But walking would suck. It's just a place to crash for the night to me, so it is adequate and I didn't go for a higher star level and better location...

[mrxow]

I am stuck because of weather and ended up in this hotel again. I got a peek at the hotel's paperwork sent to them by PL. I bid 40 per night, for 3 nghts, but the paper said the total the hotel got was $117. They had not taken a $38 bid previously and I never tried $39. Maybe they would have taken $39, and PL pocketed an extra buck a day?

I also wanted to mention that this hotel charges an energy fee. It is $2.75 per day, I think. I don't know if other area hotels do the same or not, but you might want to call them and find out to determine what to bid and whether it is worth bidding 2.5* only to save a couple of bucks when you are going to be hit with an extra charge at this hotel.

[lknight27]

I also wanted to mention that this hotel charges an energy fee. It is $2.75 per day, I think. I don't know if other area hotels do the same or not, but you might want to call them and find out to determine what to bid and whether it is worth bidding 2.5* only to save a couple of bucks when you are going to be hit with an extra charge at this hotel.

Exactly why IMO I'd never bid 2.5 star for this area. This hotel was recently downgraded from 3* back in October and for obvious reasons. At any rate though, you can easily get a 3* for $40 - $45, so I would not bother bidding below 3*. I recently got the Embassy Suites which is a 3.5* (upgraded from 3*) for $45 a night, so again all the more reason why getting stuck at this hotel is not worth it. While the lobby is nice, that's about it for this place.

[mrxow]

Hey, didn't realize somebody else actually commented on this. Perhaps bidding 3* is the way to go in this zone, ESPECIALLY AFTER THE STORY I AM ABOUT TO TELL...

I know this might end up being a long post, but stick it out - it will be worth it...

So I have stayed a few times at this hotel. One long stay was when I was stranded there the first time ever that Las Vegas airport was snowed out. I am self employed and didn't mind so much, but I was stuck in this place for a few days in December a few years ago.

So I stayed in this place several times. It had some high points and some low points. But the price couldn't be beat. Yea, for a few bucks more, perhaps you could stay in a significantly nicer place. Generally that would be enough to bid 3*. But after my story, I wonder if anybody on here will bid less that 3* EVER AGAIN!!!

I am a little bored at the moment. I knew I needed to make this post at some point, but just haven't gotten around to it. But here it goes...

You wonder why, sometimes, we get the deals we do on Priceline...

So... I was flipping through the cable channels a year ago or so. Stopped on one of those true crime shows. I would have kept on channel surfing, except I happened to notice they were talking about Detroit airport. Then they showed a picture of the outside of a hotel lobby. It looked awfully familiar. Then they showed a picture looking down a hallway. It looked awfully familiar, too.

I didn't change the channel.

This hotel has two wings. One seems more assigned to people involved with events there. The northern wing is closer to the ballroom areas, so I figured that was more likely to be assigned to people who are involved with meetings or parties or whatever. I was always given a room in the southern wing. I think both wings have 3 floors. From my recollection, I was assigned the third floor on all occasions but one. I think on one reservation I had a second floor room.

I didn't think anything of this. Often people with mobility problems - older - request ground floor rooms. Having no such issues, a 3rd floor room was great with me. I did notice a lot of airline personnel at this hotel. but they seemed to be largely assigned to the second floor of the south wing.

So, I am watching this true crime show. And they are talking about a serial killer. And they are showing pictures of a hotel I recognize. But they are identifying it as a Hilton, I think. I have no idea what it is called now, two years later, but whoever owns the "Metropolitan" hotel didn't build it. Unless it is a front company for Hilton or whoever owned it ten years ago.

Anyhow, some crazy MOFO attacked an airline stewardess on the north side of the third floor of the south wing of this property about ten years ago. The cable TV show had pictures of the crime scene. These were not remade pictures. I recognized the furniture. I recognized the view out the window to the north wing (closer to the banquet rooms). They showed pictures of the bloody bathtub where the guy tried to clean himself off.

They showed a picture from the entrance of the room with her dead, slashed body laying on the bed with the furniture I recognized and the view out the window that I recognized.

I am not sure if I stayed in that room or not. They gave the room number - 357? something like that. If I didn't stay in that room, I stayed in the room next door. Honestly, I think I stayed in the exact room on one occasion.

After that show, I realized why the flight crews were always going to the second floor. I bet they know all about what happened up there on the third floor, south wing, north side.

They talked in the show about how they thought the guy hung out in the stairwell. They thought he looked through the stairwell window and waited for the stewardess to open her door and rushed out and pushed his way into her room before she could shut the door. And that was the end of her.

I remember using that stairwell. The ice machine on the 3rd floor was out of order. I went to the second floor ice machine, down that stairwell, to get some ice.

Like I said, though, it turned out he was a serial killer, and somebody who heard about this murder recognized some similarities to the murder of his mother a number of years previously. My recollection is that they were able to catch the dude(I am from CA) who was responsible. Not sure about that. Not sure of the year of this event - think it was about 2000.

But the point is, I got assigned to that "area" of the hotel on 80% of the reservations I had there, at least. Unfortunately, people are killed or off themselves intentionally (suicide) in hotels all the time. And locals know about it. And I am sure it has some effect on reservations at these properties. But we priceline users have no control of where we end up. Sometimes we apparently end up where people "in the know" are too freaked out to stay.

Personally, I am fine with it. If that makes a hotel cheaper for me, it is all good in my estimation...

But it is ia good story, right? Anything similar on this site?

:)