Priceline Hotel: 4* DC (White House-Downtown) Loews Madison

[7ontheline]

Originally won the JW Marriott for 9/16/09-9/20/09 for $95. Plans have changed and I needed to extend my stay for 1 day at the beginning of the trip. Tried to add a day today (at $95) and was declined. Back to bidding again...

Used the 5 re-bid zones about three times (starting at $95) trying to get a 4* hotel in the White House or Georgetown areas. Finally ended up at the Loews Madison for $135 ($162.28 after taxes/fees). Not quite the deal I originally got, but definitely beats everything else I was seeing for that day. Thanks for all the advice on this site...it was very helpful.

As always, I did click through on the PRICELINE link provided!

-Matt

PS. My wife called Marriott this morning to try to request a decent room (higher floor and/or respectable view) and was basically treated like a second class citizen. She was told that since she booked through Priceline that she was assigned a standard room and any room requests would be dealt with at check-in. She also called the hotel directly and was told that if she wanted to request any thing then she "would need to pay more money!" Is this pretty standard for checking into a nicer hotel at a Priceline rate? These are my first two wins using Priceline and I am hoping that this is not standard practice for hotels!

[AaronJB]

Congrats on your success.

Thank you for sharing your results with the board and using the site's PRICELINE link to start your purchase. Superb deal for the Lowes.

Sorry to hear about the situation with the Marriott. PRICELINE reservations are not eligible for upgrades (the majority of the time, PRICELINE customers are given a standard/regular room), and while some people occasionally get lucky at check-in, most hotels will say no or require an upgrade fee (the cost difference between a regular room and an upgraded room, generally.) You can try asking at check-in, but I would keep your expectations low.

Enjoy your stay.