Reserving hotels on amtrak.com

[SCrails]

During the reservation process, amtrak.com offers me hotels that show no name or location. This is at the bottom of the "PASSENGER DISCOUNTS / PROMOTION CODE" page where a few hotels and rental car options are show. I clicked "More Deals>>" and several lodging choices appear that don't have a hotel name or location.

Anyone know what gives here? :huh: Is this just a glitch, or is it a pig-in-a-poke deal where you find out the hotel after booking it? I'm not too interested in that option myself.

FYI this appears when I book a trip to WAS on 2/3/2011.

 

[Exiled in Express]

I attempted a 2/3 PHL-WAS search to duplicate. I get 3 named hotels with prices: State Plaza, Capital Hilton, Hilton Alexandria. I also tried a few routes I will be traveling and get named hotels. I have been hotel shopping in San Diego and the Amtrak offered prices are no better than via the hotel's site directly.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Is this just a glitch, or is it a pig-in-a-poke deal where you find out the hotel after booking it? I'm not too interested in that option myself.

I've never tried the hotel links but your post did give me a bizarre idea. What if Amtrak offered last minute heavily discounted tickets on a random outbound train for railroad enthusiasts to fill seats? If they partnered with some hotels they could offer all-in-one packages. You'd pick the days and Amtrak picks the trains and hotels. I'm sure there are any number of reasons why this will never happen but it seemed like it might be worth a chuckle or two. :lol:

 

[rrdude]

It basically cost Amtrak nothing to offer you the hotel, and some people like the convenience factor. better rates? I think not, EZ, yes

 

[jb64]

It is convenient for those booking trips through amtrak.com because it shows the distance from the station to the hotel, which is very useful information. I have seen examples where it doesn't say the hotel name as the OP stated, I think it is a glitch or a formatting problem.

 

[SCrails]

I eventually booked my hotel independently - found a reasonable rate in downtown Washington, surprisingly, a couple of blocks from the White House.

This will be my first rail trip in over a year - yippee!! ^_^ We will be driving to Charlotte NC (1.5 hour trip) to take the Carolinian to WAS, and the same one back. I wanna ride a train in the daylight for a change!! (You can catch a train in my hometown any time of day you want, as long as it's between 2 and 4 a.m. )