Think You're Booked? Think Again.
Some Hotels Hike Inauguration Prices and Stays as Demand Surges

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Deirdre Flanagan, a lifelong Democrat, wanted to splurge on the presidential inauguration.

Although she lives in Annapolis, Flanagan decided to book a hotel room closer to Washington so that she and her daughter would have a place to crash after attending the Jan. 20 festivities. On Oct. 27, a week before Sen. Barack Obama won the general election, Flanagan logged on to Priceline.com and reserved one night in a suite at the Bolger Hotel and Conference Center in Potomac for $159.

But on Nov. 18, Flanagan received a letter from the hotel.

"In order to protect your reservation," the letter informed her, "it is necessary for us to process a non-refundable advance deposit equivalent to a two nights stay. . . . If we do not hear from you, your reservation is subject to cancellation and will be given to another guest on our waiting list."

Her reaction?

"The top of my head was lifting off my shoulders," Flanagan said. "My daughter said, 'Just cancel it.' But this can't be allowed. It's outrageous this is happening."

With skyrocketing demand for inauguration week housing, Washington area hotels are enjoying the kind of bargaining power usually reserved for hotels in cities that play host to Super Bowls, Final Four college basketball tournaments and soccer's international World Cup, industry experts said.

Some hotels have doubled or tripled usual prices, required customers to stay at least four nights and collected full payment up front, no refunds allowed. Even during Washington's busiest times, such as major conventions or protest marches on the Mall, hotels have usually been able to demand minimum stays of just two nights, experts said.

"What you have is a lot of venues that don't normally face this kind of demand," said Emily Durso, president of the Hotel Association of Washington. "They're dealing with it for the first time. They were dumb enough to give out rooms over the inauguration dates months ago at a low price. Oops -- now they have to fix it."

Durso added that hotels should abide by the agreed-to rates and not change prices after the fact.

In an interview last week, Paul Dolce, general manager of the Bolger Center, explained that because the hotel had a waiting list of 100 people, it was necessary to weed out those who were not seriously interested in staying.

"This is an unprecedented situation," he said. "We've never seen this demand before in Washington, D.C. . . . It is a change to the usual terms given the uniqueness. I would just apologize [to Flanagan]. It's a very unique situation and we would hope she would make arrangements for two nights so she can enjoy the facility."

Although hotels are reportedly sold out in locations as far away as Richmond and Baltimore, Nancy Riker, co-owner of Washington D.C. Accommodations, a hotel reservations service, said there are a few rooms left in the District -- that is, if one is willing to pay between $800 and $1,000 a night, equivalent to a deluxe room at the St. Regis in New York City.

If that's too steep, Riker said, she has a couple of rooms for $599 -- near Dulles International Airport.

"The normal person coming from Florida or North Carolina and bringing their kids -- these are not the people buying these rooms," Riker said. "The people buying the rooms are the production companies for the movies," she said, referring to Hollywood types who want to be close to the action.

It's not just hotels, but also the dozens of bed-and-breakfast boutiques in the region that are seeing green. Steve Lucas, general manager of Bed and Breakfast Accommodations Ltd. of Washington, D.C., which books rooms for 30 properties, said typical prices range from $125 to $145 a night in the off-season to as much as $250 in peak season.

For inauguration week, rooms are going for $550 to $700 a night, Lucas said.

"The day after the election, I sold 75 percent of my stock," he said. "We had four phone lines between two employees and myself. They were ringing nonstop from 9:05 a.m. the day after the election until 5 p.m. each day."

Durso estimated the average price of a D.C. hotel room during inauguration week at about $650 a night, despite her organization's asking member hotels to try to keep prices down.

"We said: 'Let's not go overboard. Let's be sensitive,' " Durso said. "But it's not looking good next year economically. Many of these hotels are trying to do what they can to make that extra bit that can carry them through the year and make budget."

Colm Owens, 38, an American who works in London, can empathize with Flanagan. He wanted to take his mother to the inauguration, so in September he booked two rooms from Jan. 17 through 21 at Yesteryear's Treasures, which he found through the Alexandria & Arlington Bed and Breakfast Network. The cost was $150 a room each night -- a total bill of $1,500.

Owens provided a look at several e-mails between him and Linda Egerton, who handles reservations for the bed-and-breakfast network. In one, Egerton wrote: "I can book the 2 room suite for you at $150/night per room."

But when Owens got his credit card statement on Nov. 17, he had been charged $2,648.29, he said.

"I was never told the rate would go up and would never agree to an escalating rate. Who would?" Owens said.

Egerton disputed Owens's version of events, saying she had cited the $150 rate as an estimate but had explained to Owens that the rates might change. When the bed-and-breakfast owners she represents met to set rates a couple of weeks ago, they settled on $300 a night, Egerton said.

"I've been getting 100 calls a day," she said. "Most people want to come one or two nights, at $100 a night and 12 people in a room. People should not expect to pay $100 a night."

Owens, whose money was refunded by Egerton, now plans to stay with friends in the area.

As for Flanagan, she was offered her room at the Bolger Center yesterday after a Washington Post reporter contacted Priceline spokesman Brian Ek and related her tale. Ek called the hotel, which said it would honor Flanagan's original one-night reservation.

Asked what had changed, Dolce, the Bolger Center manager, said he had been mistaken in his initial conversation with The Post last week.

"We're working with people. We're flexible," Dolce said. "We hope everybody who wants to come will come."

But Flanagan's mind is made up: The hotel is history. She'll drive to Obama's inauguration from Annapolis and return home after it's over.