Do go to the Budget Travel forum, post the city & dates you're looking for, and ask for help in getting a good hotel at an inexpensive Priceline (PL) price. You don't need to go into the guns/probation (unless you wish to, but it's not really anyone's bizness).

Just say it's your first time staying at a hotel, you're on an extremely limited budget, you don't want to stay at the Motel 6, etc, because they're not in safe areas, but would like a decent hotel in a certain area of the city. Tell them you asked on the Marriott forum, were recommended to the BT forum, you're new to both traveling & FT, and ask them for assistance & to be kind since you're new to this (sometimes folk can be snarky, as they've forgotten what it's like to be a 'newbie').

I think you'll have better luck w/ a Priceline booking in terms of getting a low rate than you will trying to pretend to be a Citi employee.

Good luck.

Cheers.