Hotwire Hotel: 3.5* Arlington Sheraton National

[KatiesMom]

My daughter fell in love with D.C. on our trip here a few weeks ago, so now we are planning a college campus visit trip over Veteran's Day weekend, staying 2 nights 11/12 and 11/13, checking out 11/14.

Our itinerary is:

11/12--Tour Geo. Wash. Univ.

11/13--Tour American University in the morning, then Univ. of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA in the afternoon

11/14--Tour Geo. Mason Univeristy in Fairfax, VA

I am thinking it might make sense to stay near American University. On the college's website it gave me a list of hotels, none are right next door to the college...so now I am not sure what neighborhood I should look at for lodging.... The hotel need not be fancy, because it's not a vacation trip, but we do want to stay somewhere clean, safe and accesible. We will be leaving American quickly late morning to catch the afternoon activities at UMW.

Any suggestions with logisitcs, hotel choices, etc...? I'll either bid priceline or worse case, hotwire. Thanks!!

[TravelGuy]

The area in the immediate vicinity of American University is entirely residential. The closest neighborhood where there are hotels would be Georgetown, and unfortunately it's rare to get a hotel on Priceline that's actually in Georgetown. The Georgetown/Foggy Bottom zone is overwhelmingly slanted toward Foggy Bottom.

I think any hotel near a Metro would work. GW has a Metro stop right on campus. There is a Tenleytown/AU stop, but the AU campus is a long walk from it. The University has a shuttle, but it's available only to students with ID. You can transfer though from the Metrorail at Tenleytown to the N2 Metrobus, that will get you to the campus at the intersection of New Mexico and Nebraska Aves. in 5 minutes.

If you'd like to stay where you did last time, the Omni is showing sold out for your dates unfortunately, but the Westin Embassy Row, which would be ideally situated between GW and AU, is showing just $139 on starwood.com. That's the other 4* in that zone. So you might try that - I would suggest starting with $65 adding free rebids up to your limit.

If you'd like to economize, and wouldn't mind staying just across the Potomac River from DC, I'd highly recommend the Arlington zone at 2.5*. There are 2 very good 2.5*'s there, the Hilton Garden Inn and the Courtyard by Marriott that have low Priceline rates on the weekends. I'm talking around $38/night with free parking! They are both just a half block from a Metro stop and the Clarenden neighborhood, which is a great area for restaurants and walking around. The drive to GW would be just about 5 minutes, to AU about 15. There would also be easy access to I-66 to get to GMU, as well as I-395/I-95 to get to Fredericksburg.

[KatiesMom]

I hope I haven't made a big mistake. I ended up with the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington for $66/night, two nights, 11/12-11/14.

First of all, thank you Travel Guy about the tip about staying in Arlington. It does seem like a very good option for us on this trip.

I went to Priceline (via SavingsBarn of course) and plugged in Arlington 3* for $45. No go. I added Arlington 2.5* for $55. No go. I split the dates, and tried for just Friday 11/12 at $65 (with both 3* and 2.5*). No go. (Perhaps it's busy because of Veteran's Day weekend??)

Having checked out Hotwire in advance of my Priceline bidding, I knew there was an Arlington 3.5* on Hotwire going for $66. Figuring that Hotwire 3.5* likely equalled Priceline 2.5* I thought the Hotwire offering might be the Hilton Garden Inn or the Courtyard By Marriott. Also, the Hilton was listed on Expedia for $79 a night for the dates of my trip so I figured there might be a good chance the Hotwire 3.5* was the Hilton. In any event, I didn't want to go any higher on Priceline with a $66 or $79 option in clear view. Also, since there are 3 of us, I do like the fact that you can be up front with Hotwire about that fact, it should help with check-in haggling.

So I decided to be a guinea pig and go for the Hotwire offering. Listed as 3.5*, Customer Favorite, Amenities include: Airport Shuttle, Restaurant, Pool, Fitness Center, Business Center.

My concern is accessibility. From reviews I read on Trip Advisor it appears I picked the one hotel not near a metro stop, and relies on shuttle service to a metro. We have been given a parking pass for American University, so we will drive there. So it may not be so bad.... But we were planning on metroing to meals and such...

It might be just fine, but any info you have about this hotel/location is appreciated.

Thanks!

[TravelGuy]

Well, the reviews at tripadvisor look generally pretty good. It looks like you want to be sure and ask for a Washington view on a high floor, as there are nice views. This hotel is very near the Pentagon though, a few miles from the area around Arlington where the good 2.5* hotels I was describing are. I don't believe there are any restaurants or shops within walking distance of this Sheraton.

It's a shame that neither the Hilton Garden Inn nor the Courtyard came up when you dropped down to 2.5* at $55 given their low rates for that weekend. I wouldn't have advised bidding 3* in Arlington (or 2.5* beyond $43) because that's substantially less predictable, none of the 3*'s there have free parking, and there are usually more attractive options in other zones. I'm sorry I didn't make that more clear. Also, unfortunately I don't believe I've ever seen a Hilton Garden Inn or Marriott Courtyard rated 3.5* by Hotwire; they're 3* max, if not 2.5* sometimes.

Nevertheless, you will have excellent ease of access to the highways to visit the 2 schools outside of DC. Also, weekend parking is usually a breeze at AU. You might have to drive around a bit at GW, but you can almost always find free street parking on the weekends there as well.

[KatiesMom]

Well, for better or worse, we're booked here so we'll make the best of it. I went to the Sheraton website and got a Starwood Preferred Guest Member number (not yet sure what perks come with it), then called the Sheraton National to confirm our reservation. The clerk confirmed our reservation is for 3 people and for 2 double beds. I made the request for a non-smoking, high level floor with a view...no guarantees of course...so we shall see.

It would appear that Hotwire's new policy of allowing more than 2 in a room is working.

Edited to add: I just read something on the internet that said this hotel is owned by the Unification Church. My discomfort level is very high now. ;-(

[thereuare]

This hotel was listed in our HOTWIRE WASHINGTON DC HOTELS list (first entry in the second post) so it could have been identified beforehand.

I wouldn't worry about who owns the hotel... as with any business, how they treat people is more important than their personal beliefs. Based upon the reviews above they seem to do a good job.

Thanks for the support of using the SavingsBarn link.

Enjoy your stay and good luck on the college circuit. :)

[KatiesMom]

I didn't read all the way down, so I goofed. Will make the best of it.

[KatiesMom]

Travel Guy,

Thank you for helping me out with D.C's logistics. After spending this past weekend there and driving all around, I finally got a sense of the neighborhoods. In the future I will feel more comfortable when bidding on D.C. area hotels. I saw a whole lot of them and know where they are.

Surprisingly, the Sheraton actually worked out fine for us....I'm going to post a review now on that board....

Looks like we will be visiting D.C. again in the spring because my daughter totally fell in love with American University and she wants go for an interview then. It has just the right curriculum, majors, campus style/location and internship opportunities she's looking for.

Thanks again!

[TravelGuy]

You're very welcome. Glad everything worked out!

I think it will be hard for your daughter to go wrong if she decides to come to DC. I'm a GW grad (International Affairs major) and loved the excitement of studying in Washington. I did the internship thing as well and it was a great experience.