Marathon Hotel Booking – Do it Yourself & Do it Early!

When I decide to travel to an out-of-town race, it is key to: (1) register for the race; (2) make travel arrangements; and (3) make hotel or other lodging arrangements.   It goes without saying that training for the event and getting to the race uninjured are paramount.
 
When booking your hotels directly, keep in mind that:

(a) there may be additional rates, such as AAA, Government, Corporate or AARP, which might bring down the rate from the daily rate offered by a hotel.  Even if these rates don’t reduce the price, using the special rate may be advantageous in other ways, such as offering breakfast, or permitting cancellation.  Once it dawns on the hotels that there is a big event coming to town with a corresponding high demand for rooms, they typically hike up the prices and remove some or all of the special rates — this is another reason to book early and lock in lower rates;

(b) it is generally best to book early at a refundable rate – perhaps even before you definitively know you are going to go to the race.  With any large marathon, prices generally only go up as the race date draws closer.  If a hotel is running a sale and offers a special non-refundable price that is substantially better than the refundable rate, you might also consider that purchase.  Priceline’s “Name Your Own Price” is another option, but know that you will not usually be given a late checkout by a hotel booked with Priceline – so, if you plan to shower at the hotel and leave the same day as the marathon, unless you are a 3-hour marathoner, I wouldn’t recommend using Priceline;

(c)  you will get better deals if you wish to stay further from the start or finish of the race.  (Personally, I prefer to be close to the action);

(d)  if you have status with one hotel chain, check to see if they have a hotel nearby and their rates first. Also, always determine whether, when booking with a third-party agency, if you will be credited with whatever points and amenities that you would otherwise receive from the hotel if  you were to book directly with them.

Even though many of the larger marathons in the larger cities (such as New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and any of the Rock n’ Roll or ING marathons) seem to now have affiliated entities claiming “negotiated” deals at nearby hotels, I have found that, especially when it comes to these “larger races, in larger cities” – it often pays to book your room directly with a hotel. 

This became totally clear two days ago.  Registration for the Marine Corps Marathon opened at 3pm on March 7th and filled up in a record-breaking 2 hours and 41 minutes!

The Marine Corps Marathon website advertises a listing of “special” hotel prices, offered by the “special” marathon agency for marathon weekend, onPeak.  The link to onPeak’s hotels looks like this:

OnPeak makes some very grand representations about the services it offers and the low hotel rates it has negotiated – the website says::

I decided to conduct a little experiment.  I randomly chose a few of the 23 hotels listed by onPeak on the Marine Corps Marathon website.  I checked to see what the rates would be if I were to book these hotels myself.  I looked at various rates (note: government rate is $226 across the board in the Washington, DC vicinity).  In many instances, prices were significantly higher with onPeak – which, as stated above, promises “the lowest room rates available.” (I tried to phone onPeak, but was left on hold for a long time, so I never found out if they would in fact honor the lower rates which I found, or what other benefits they offered to those using their services that would make it worthwhile to use them).

here’s my research – In each case, I searched for two nights- October 27, 2012 to October 29, 2012.  :

 rate offered by onPeak
– $189 per night
 rates offered by Hilton:
– Best available rate – $239
– AAA rate – $215
-Senior rate – $227

rate offered by onPeak
– $ 129
rates offered by Marriott
-Weekend rate – $139
– AAA rate $118
– Senior rate $118
Sheraton National Hotel, Arlington, VA
rate offered by onPeak
– $ 179
rate offered by hotel (Starwood)
– Best available rate – $239
– Save 20% -prepaid rate (non-refundable) – $147.20
-AAA rate – $115
– Senior rate – $191

Radisson Hotel, Reagan National Airport, Arlington, VA
rate offered by onPeak
 – $158
rate offered by Radisson
 – best available rate – $129
– hot deals rate (non-refundable) – $116.10
– AAA rate – $116.10
– Senior rate – $116.10

As you can see, the rates vary greatly, and that’s why it pays to do your homework!  Clearly, the negotiated rate for the Hilton was decent, while the rate offered for the Radisson was not.  Then again, on the luxury end of the spectrum, the rate offered by onPeak for the Ritz Carlton was more than $100 better than the rate available directly from the Ritz Carlton website.

Also remember that there are hundreds of other hotels in Washington, DC and Virginia to choose from.

and there you have it…

What has been your experience? Any tips you can add to this?

Do you want to know what I booked?