long stays
 

what is the general consensus/experience regarding room rate negotiation for longer stays? at what point would hotels bite (20 room nights? 50?)? whats a "regular ho-hum" deal (in terms of % discount below hilton.com rates)?

ps. the HS in north columbus (OH) wants $134 a night. sounds outrageous.

Find out what the rooms go for on Priceline and start from there. The number of nights/shortness of time period will have an effect.

I negotiated a rate at a Fairfield Inn that was exactly what the PL rate was. Of course, I spent 145+ nights there last year. I'm going to be negotiating with a Hampton Inn across the street, promising them either 28 nights or, if the rate is low enough, 60 nights ... gotta keep up my Diamond status.

Keep us posted.

One more thing -- Hilton limits you to 100,000 points per stay, so you might want to arrange something with the manager to get you checked out and back in with at least a day in between. The simplest solution is to just re-check in the same day under either a different name or without using your HHonors number.

wow, didnt know abt the 100k points thing. i was actually going to be traveling to OH for work ... so i'll be doing the sun-thu thing almost every week for a few months.

i was offered a 20% discount for 300+ room nights. that sounds a tad low to me, but i thought i'd check in here ...

If you were staying for a straight shot, never checking out, I think you could get a Homewood Suites type property to give you the room for $60/night in most Midwestern suburban areas. So that's $420/week. (Places like Extended Stay America usually advertise in the low 300s, but HS is much much better). But you're only staying 5 nights of the seven, but then again the property has the ability to resell the room for $90 those two nights. I could see a rate of $360 flat for either 5 or 6 nights per week, which would come out to $72/night for a five-night stay.

Base points, actually -- subtle difference in terms, but if you bump into it there would be a 50%-100% difference in the number of points (in that you'd have earned Diamond by then).

i just spoke to the sales manager again and she couldnt or wouldnt come down on the $109. they are located in a business area so that could explain why they arent interested in lowering their price ... the good news is that there are alternatives 5miles away, which aint too bad. thanks for all the advice ...

alls well that ends well
 

this is probably old news to those who spend months and months on the road traveling to the same place, but hopefully this info will be useful to others like me ...

this is for a HS in columbus, oh area. YMMV, but the idea is that if u'll be around for >30days then the last option might make sense.

1-5 nights $99+tax
5-11 nights $84+tax
12-29 nights $74+tax
30+ nights $59 + NO TAX

essentially, the last option increases your folio amount and reduces the tax paid. thus increasing base points :)

BEWARE - Some programs don't award points/stay/night credits for stays exceeding 30 consecutive days. I know Starwood does this - not sure about Hilton.

it shd be ok i think. in 2004, i made gold in 1 stay :)