Priceline Hotel: 3.5* DC (Dupont Circle-Woodley Park) Marriott Wardman Park

[CrazyOne]

Your Offer Price Per Room, Per Night: $160.00

Subtotal: $320.00

Taxes & Service Fees: $55.69

Total Charges*: $375.69

Booked just now, 3/19/09 11pm eastern.

This was a wild ride. I picked the wrong dates myself this time (as opposed to last time I was bidding DC, when someone else was traveling and others picked the extremely difficult hotel dates). I thought earlier in the week these dates were looking okay, but I must have been thinking of some different days that I had also been looking at. Not much useful below $250 or so in the areas that are more convenient so when I nabbed a $255 AAA rate at the Omni Shoreham, given the going prices for everything for these 2 nights, that sounded pretty good as my fallback booking. That gave me until Sunday, when I would have to make a final decision on canceling or not.

Did some 4* bidding yesterday in Dupont, Foggy, etc. Nada. Late last night I was falling asleep and looking at EasyClickTravel which had a rate at the Marriott Wardman Park for $170-ish. At that point it said Available, but I was sleepy and didn't want to commit yet to potentially losing a night's rate as a cancel fee. Looked at that again this morning, switched to Request. Argh!

Went back to my 4* after 24 hours, nothing, of course. I bid up to about $205 with Dupont at one point. Kept on poking around the usual other sites. Monday night was definitely cheaper, with weird things, like a $219 at the Hilton Embassy Row, but nothing there on the Tuesday night, and I really wasn't excited about switching mid-stay, though it probably would have saved a little in this case. I had been eyeing up bidding 3.5* in Dupont but didn't really want the Hilton Washington. I had discovered the Churchill was showing full. I knew the Hilton Embassy Row wouldn't come up, full on Tues. But yesterday the Hilton Washington still had rooms. Revelation a little while ago, Hilton Washington had gone full, leaving only the Wardman Park among actual past hits still having some capacity. Ah, it was worth a chance now even if I did somehow get the Churchill or Hilton Washington or a new hotel that we haven't heard of. (Upgrade to 4* is always fine in this zone.) I figured on getting zilch again right up to about 200 bucks. $150, nothing. $160 and we have a winner, so it's within $10 of the ideal bid at that moment, close enough for biz trip.

Price-wise it certainly would be better to travel on the weekends, given the rates you guys are getting, but for these particular dates at this late moment I am happy (and I saved my small company some $$). I've wanted to stay at the Wardman anyway, having stayed essentially across the street at the Shoreham and enjoyed the spot. Should be fun, or at least as fun as this trip can be. ;-)

[thereuare]

Congratulations on your win!

Looks like this one took a bit of research and effort... glad to see that ultimately you're happy with the results and the deal you received.

Thank you for sharing your win with the board.

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

Enjoy your stay.