<p>Daughter and two college friends are planning to be in DC May 22 - 27. All have been to DC before but not in several years, and this will be daughter’s first trip sans parents.</p>
<p>I have been looking for a hotel, and the rates are ridiculous. And the Marriott Wardman Park is sold out! I have stayed at that hotel for many conferences and would have bet that it has too many rooms to ever sell out. Anyone know what is happening in town that week?</p>
<p>It’s the day after the Rapture, so there may be a large convention of Satan worshippers.</p>
<p>I live in the DC area, and I used to work for a company that planned scientific meetings there.</p>
<p>This sort of thing happens several times a year, when there happen to be multiple conventions or meetings of various sorts going on at once. Our conference planners used to have to work around it – usually by moving their meetings to the close-in suburbs.</p>
<p>You might want to do the same thing: Find a hotel just outside of DC but within walking distance of a Metro station. Crystal City would work, or Bethesda (but check the location in Bethesda; not all the hotels are within walking distance of the Metro). Neither of these is a scary place (neither is cheap, either, though).</p>
<p>I don’t know, but that sounds like college graduation week. Where my Ds go to college, all of the surrounding hotels jack up their prices during that week.</p>
<p>We were planning a family DC trip this year and could not get over the lack of hotels and prices. We had to cancel because husband is going to DC for work, but son will already be in summer school by that time.</p>
<p>You may want to try the Marriott property in Pentagon City, which is where we planned to stay, after lots of research and help from CC and tripadvisor. It seemed like it was going to be a good choice for metro travel into DC, as we also could not find a DC hotel for our trip.</p>
<p>My S graduates from Georgetown on May 20. Fortunately we have relatives in the area and don’t need hotels.</p>
<p>I’ve also come to realize that $200/night in the DC area is cheap. We did a family vacation in DC a few years ago, where we used points for the room, so I didn’t really see what the going rate was. I tried to book the same hotel for our planned trip this year, and was shocked to see it was almost $400/night. I had brought son to a summer program later that year and booked one night at the Holiday Inn Georgetown, because of its proximity to his program. It was $200/night, and it was a dump! It didn’t even provide the free shuttle it advertised on its website, which was the reason I chose it. I would recommend a Marriott property, wherever you go, as I’ve stayed in them in many different cities over the past few years, and I always find the service and cleanliness of the hotels to be consistently good. I’m sure there are exceptions, but I would steer clear of any properties that are franchised, like the Holiday Inns and the Choice Hotels. I have heard, though, that the Holiday Inn near the Mall is very nice, but you probably won’t be able to get a room there at a decent rate for the time you’re going.</p>
<p>I think hotels in cities are just overpriced in general. We’re going to Memphis next week, and since we’re staying in the city, rather than the suburbs, for this trip, if we didn’t have points, we’d be paying over 150/night for a room. We’re used to spending 90 max for hotel rooms when we travel, so it was a definite sticker shock! That’s why I love being a Marriott Rewards member. I pay for cheap rooms for family and school travel, and use my points and certificates when I want to go someplace nice.</p>
<p>Marriott Rewards here too. Although Marriott has not treated their MR members and timeshare owners very well recently, I still like the program and use my Marriott credit card whenever I can. Over the last two weeks we used Marriott Reward points for two nights at the Marriott resort in Wailea, [Maui</a> Hawaii Resorts | Wailea Maui Resorts | Maui Luxury Resorts and Hotels](<a href=“http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/hnmmc-wailea-beach-marriott-resort-and-spa/]Maui”>Luxury Maui Resort | Wailea Beach Resort - Marriott, Maui), and paid for airfare to Maui using Marriott points. We traded our Marriott Ocean Club timeshare week in Aruba for a week at the Marriott Ocean Club in Maui. So nice to get out of Wisconsin for nine days.</p>
<p>Do you want a Marriott property specifically? See if there’s a room available at the Residence Inn Courthouse in Arlington. it’s a brand new property on the Orange Line Metro, so it’s convenient to downtown and its two blocks from the restaurant/club district of Clarendon so there are places to eat nearby and do things at night (very popular with the young and trendy) if they don’t want to stay in the city for fun every night. Usually less expensive than downtown.</p>
<p>mini – you bad, bad soul! I have no doubt I will still be here on the 22nd. </p>
<p>Amsie – There’s a Howard Johnson in College Park that has a shuttle to the Metro. It’s pretty reasonable.</p>
<p>Don’t know the budget or planned activities, but have stayed at the Embassy Suites, Friendship Heights. It worked out well as the Metro stop is directly under the hotel (inside access) and there is shopping/restaurants (including reasonable young adult stores), all right there. Additionally,I believe breakfast is included, there are stores and Starbucks in building and all rooms are suites, with 2 rooms. Luxurious for 3. It takes about 20 - 30 minutes to get to Capitol Hill if I remember correctly. Their rates (without entering any discount codes) for that time frame are $300ish. Good luck.</p>
<p>Hotels convenient to the Red Line Metro in Bethesda and Rockville, MD</p>
<p>Hyatt Regency Bethesda is directly above the Bethesda Metro Station. Excellent location in the heart of Bethesda with nifty restaurants, shopping, movies, etc. Also walking distance to the Bethesda Metro: American Inn, Doubletree, Hilton Garden Inn. The Marriott Bethesda is not near anything at all. Don’t stay there without a car.</p>
<p>Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center is across the street from the White Flint Metro Station. This suburban location is close walking distance to shopping and restaurants.</p>
<p>The Hilton Washington, DC/Rockville is next to the Twinbrook Metro Station, and the Legacy Hotel is across the street from the Hilton. There are lots of restaurants and good shopping in this suburban neighborhood.</p>
<p>Try [KAYAK</a> - Cheap Flights, Hotels, Airline Tickets, Cheap Tickets, Cheap Travel Deals - Compare Hundreds of Travel Sites At Once](<a href=“http://www.kayak.com%5DKAYAK”>http://www.kayak.com) for the dates that you need, and then check for Metro access so your tourists can get around town easily.</p>
<p>Crystal City is a good location, easy access on the Metro, cheaper parking at the hotels and lots of local restaurants. It is not graduation at American as I know that their graduation was last weekend as friend’s d just graduated.</p>
<p>We’ll be up there starting on Monday (for College graduation and sightseeing)…we found a condo via vrbo.com. Agreed, this was one of the highest priced times we’ve seen in 4 years of going up there w/ kids at UMD. We’ve stayed at some great places in DC, but it’s been at “off” times (which you can’t predict)…We’ve stayed at some great places for less than $150 one time, that are $400 per night the next time we looked. Supply/demand…</p>
<p>It’s not graduation at GW either - that’s this weekend. I’ll echo the suggestions to look in Rosslyn/Arlington. It’s quick & easy on the Metro to get into DC from there. There are several Marriott properties there in varying price ranges.</p>
<p>My S is a jr in HS and is attending the National Catholic Forensics League national tournament in DC May 26 - 31. The main hotel for the event is the Marriott Wardman Park.</p>
<p>This is making me nervous. Ds2 and I hope to be in D.C. in mid-July. Maybe I should start booking rooms now, just in case.</p>
<p>happymom (and others who suggested specific hotels): Thank you! I just booked the Hyatt Regency Bethesda for way more than I had initially thought I would have to pay, but I absolutely love that the metro stop is in the hotel. Is the red line fairly safe at night?</p>
<p>I started with the Marriott Wardman Park because I have stayed there a lot and know the area. It is a huge hotel and i am still surprised that it is sold out. I can’t imagine the high school debaters need that many rooms . . .</p>
<p>When we visited D.C. a few years ago we stayed at the Hotel Harrington. It is not fancy but the rooms are very reasonable – less than $200 a night. They seem to have vacancies for those dates.</p>
<p>Amesie- Don’t know that specific area or hotel, but in my experience at another hotel, the Metro location was a big plus-both for peace of mind and logistics. Hope they have fun.</p>