jjnv

We have friends visiting us quite often and I am amazed how different weekday and weekend rates could be. I have no problem finding reasonable rates for weekends. But I have not found anything under $150 per night during the week for the Northern Virginia/DC area. Even the Towneplace in Sterling starts at $139 per night. I usually end up bidding on priceline for under $60 for 3.5 stars without much problem so far. But I really don't like to prepay in case of a plan change. Is there any trick for better weekday rates?

libuser

call the hotel directly and/or lnf

SaintsFan

Prices in NOVA really went up this year. Last month I stayed at the Chantilly Fairfield because I couldn't justify paying the difference at the Westfields Marriott or Chantilly Residence Inn that I normally stay at.

aaupgrade

Prices everywhere have gone up... Vail, LAX, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, London, etc. (BTW I live in Fairfax VA)

It is the nature of an economic recovery, occupancy is up and so are prices. Prices will only get higher in the next couple years IMO. One reason I have been paying for my stays the last couple of years, and booking stays 50 weeks out is that prices are only getting higher. The past few years I regularly found lower rates as I got closer to my travel dates and changed my reservations accordingly, but that is a much rarer occurrence these days. Glad I booked way in advance as I can always cancel.

Here in the near future it will be time to use points for stays again, once the return on points is 1.5¢ or higher. You folks who earn points from business stays are lucky in that you don't have to be so picky and analytical about what you pay and/or use points for; I am a bit jealous.

ncgator

try to take advantage of the LNF rate guarantee. hotelscombined, kayak, orbitz, reservetravel, etc. It doesn't always work but there are rates to be found from time to time using this. Good luck

Old Hickory

Could you explain how to use this to our advantage?

Thanks!

nacho

try roomsaver.com if you don't mind last minute booking - you will get an idea which properties are willing to drop their rates.

jjnv

Thank you all for your suggestions. I discovered one myself by accident today. I got a last minute request from DH to book 2 night at the Marriott Tysons for his friend arriving tonight. I check the price on Marriott.com and was shocked to find it was only $89 per night with the $100 voucher offer. Then I thought I might want to get them the rate with breakfast for Friday night. As soon as I changed to one night, the rate went up to $269 for tonight. I know weekend rates are lower. But I never knew it could pay to book two nights sometimes. So not only the rates for two nights total are $100 lower than one night, they also qualified for the $100 voucher.

dave-b

I stay a lot in NOVA and a Thurs-Sat or Sat-Monday reservation is much cheaper than a Thurs-Fri. Plus you get 2 nights elite & megabonus credit!

Also, for mid-week stays, you might be better off using points than cash. There are a few Cat 1-3 hotels -- especially out towards Dulles that give a great $/point value if you have to stay M-Th.

ncgator

are you familiar with the Marriott LNF guarantee? There is a separate thread both on successes as well as help in finding those rates.

aaupgrade

This is true pretty much everywhere. The basic requirement is at least Friday or Saturday night stay, but sometimes with slight variations on that theme (like Sunday or Thursday nights being inlcuded).

In the US and the UK I have notice that if you go to book a Wed-Sat or Wed-Sun stay it will give you a split reservations with Wed and Thu nights at the higher rate and Fri and Sat nights at the much lower weekend rate. It pays to actually check Thu-Sat or Thu-Sun separately because quite often if you book that along with a separate Wed-Thu stay, you will get the Thu night at the much lower weekend rate (always IME). I have booked numerous stays throughout the US and UK this way in the past. Actually I have gotten Thu-Tue (5 nights) weekend rate stays twice at RCC in London. I haven't seen that lately though.

sophiegirl

And you get 2 nights that count towards status, 2 nights towards a megabonus (if your offer requires nights instead of stays), and higher point earnings. you also get a much later check-out without a hassle . We often book 2, use one.