Groupon: Collective Buying Power

Can you make the reservations over te phone or does it have to be in person at the resort. Also, does that include the parking fee?

Good Morning!

This is Sarah with Groupon.

Karen – you will be required to make your reservation over the phone, and will be asked to provide the 9-digit number on your Groupon certificate as proof of pre-payment. Parking is not included.

Enjoy!
Sarah

how many executive suites does the hotel have, considering this needs to be used within a couple of months?
Is it limited to four people, or if you’re a family with young children, can there be five?

Tammi – We have capped this offer at 500 Groupons today and the hotel has approximately 90 of the suites, so over the course of the summer there should be plenty of availability for Groupon customers. Reservations are based on availability and July 4th weekend will be popular, so you may want to have a few weekends that could work for you in mind when you call to make your reservation. The official occupancy of the rooms is four, but give the hotel a call at 301-965-4000 to find out if there is any flexibility with that depending on the age of your children.

Best,
Sarah

According to the hotel’s website they do not have an “executive suite” would this groupon count as their delux king room, or the atrium view??

What is the hotels pet policy?

how long does it take to receive my groupon number? does it get emailed to me or can i get it over the phone? reservation

Tinker Bell – Please see here for details on the hotels Executive Suites: www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-national/rooms-suites/suites/index.html

I’m not sure about pets, but I’ll find out for you.

Shirley – As soon as we have successfully charged your credit card your Groupon will be in your account and ready to view/print with your Groupon number. This could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. You should get an e-mail when it is ready for you, but you can also check for it by going to the upper right corner of this page, mousing over “My Stuff” and then clicking on “My Groupons.” If you see a print button, you’ll be able to pull up a PDF and view your number.

ALL – You may start making your reservations today as soon as you have your Groupon number. Rooms are still available this weekend!

Best,
Sarah

Will early check-in / late check-out be available?

Do you know if they will give us a discount on a second night?

Do u have to rsvp by 9/5 or complete stay by 9/5?

Hi LaJuanna,

You may purchase 2 Groupons and stay for two nights at a discounted rate. Otherwise, you’ll be subject to the hotels regular rates, although depending on when you go they may have another promotion you can take advantage of for a smaller room. Early check-in/late check-out would be based on availability and not something that could be guaranteed to you until you actually show up at the hotel on the day of your stay.

Best,
Sarah

I would like to know about the pet policy also, I have two older dogs that I can not kennel any longer and would like to take them with me.

I would also like to know if you need to reserve or stay by 9/5.
thanks!
Faye

Tinker Bell, Karen – The only pets allowed at the Gaylord National are certified service animals.

Daisy, Faye – You must STAY by 9/5 and I would recommend making your reservations as soon as possible.

Best,
Sarah

This seems like a pretty crappy deal. You can currently get a room from their website for $135

http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-national/specials-packages/washington-dc-hotel-specials/explore-dc-year-round/index.html?intcmp=na-cid=exploreDCv2-content

or for the same price as this groupon, you could get 2 nights stay and tickets to Beer bourbon and BBQ:

http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-national/specials-packages/washington-dc-hotel-specials/beer-bourbon-bbq/index.html?intcmp=gn-pl=tsr-cid=bbq

They made me put down a credit card to guarantee the room even though I had the Groupon. Is that correct?

Justin, you realize that Beer Bourbon & BBQ is $199 a person, right? I would be paying $800 to do that for 4 people. This groupon was only $199 for 4.

Justin – There are a number of other special offers going on this summer at the Gaylord National, but the big difference with the Groupon offer is the room. We are offering a 1-bedroom suite that is 850-1,000 square feet and would great for a couple OR a family with children. You can see the floor plan at this link: http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-national/rooms-suites/suites/index.html

This deal also gives you the flexibility to select from any Saturday or Sunday night that has an available suite between now and Labor Day weekend, when most of the other offers focus around a particular weekend.

Brian and others – Your credit card number is just required to hold the room for you. If you need to cancel or change the reservation you need to do so by 6 pm the day of arrival to avoid any charges.

Best,
Sarah

Can this be used on Sunday 7/4?

Hi Scott,

Yes, this can be used on Sunday, July 4th – pending availability. There will be a Fireworks Festival going on all day on the property with a big display at night.

Best,
Sarah

I just used the coupon to book a suite for our family of four for the weekend of the Abbey Road on the River Festival. Great deal—thank you!

What a shame about their no pet policy…. otherwise sounds like a great deal. If anyone like me, likes to travel with their pooch, I highly recommend Palomar in DC…. extremely dog friendly, boutique hotel…. pretty special….great bar and restaurant….. and not that expensive per night plus you’re right in the centre of it all. Reminds me…. perhaps it’s time for a weekend of pampering!

Can you get an executive suite with TWO BEDS? There is no description of the exec suite on the website that I can find.

My Groupon says that it is not valid until tomorrow, June 18, due to the amount of calls that the hotel is currently taking about the deal. Does this only occur with some of the people who purchase it? Seems a little unfair…

How does this suite accommodate four people? It looks like two in the bedroom and the only other sleeping option has to be the couch in the living room. Are they expecting two people to sleep on the pull-out couch in the living room? Four people- one bathroom-very little privacy.

I love Groupon, but this isn’t much of a deal considering all of the limitations. If all 500 Groupons are sold, it will be a nightmare. There are only about 10 weekends this can be used until it expires. If there are 90 of these suites and only 20 days they can be used (1800 suites total), 500 Groupons will have to find time before the first weekend of September. Gaylord has many nights where they are sold out. Even without the sell-outs of previously booked rooms, Groupon customers will lose about 1/3 of the nights they would be able to book the very few days this deal can be used.

I can’t wait to see how many of these will be refunded or how many complaints Groupon will get because people will be locked out for all but one or two weekends that they don’t have a need for.

Rita – please visit this link for details on the suite:
http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-national/rooms-suites/suites/index.html The room has a king sized bed and a pullout sofa in the living area and sleeps four.

Kimberly – Everyone may call to make their reservations starting today. That “not valid until tomorrow” is a default setting for our offers, but the Gaylord is accepting reservations today so that people can use them this weekend.

Best,
Sarah

Thanks Sarah! Just booked a room for July 4 with ease! Great deal if you ask me!

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for your comments, but I can assure you that we have worked closely with the folks at the Gaylord National to outline the parameters of this offer and there is quite a bit of availability all summer long for these particular suites on the weekends.

There are actually 12 weekends included in this time-frame for a total of 2,160 room nights available and we are intentionally cutting the deal off at 500 so that everyone who does get a Groupon will have plenty of options.

Best,
Sarah

People who are complaining about the Groupon deal need to stop. If you don’t like the deal, then don’t buy the deal. Another one will come through your inbox tomorrow morning.

(Groupon is awesome.)

I agree with Nikki S. Stop complaining about it. This is a great deal considering rooms at the resort most of the time start at around 250 or so (thats what the front desk says). You are getting an executive suite for $199 with access to all the great amenities and events that the gaylord and national harbor offer. give me break. I will be enjoying myself regardless :)

Had no issue booking for 4th of July! Should be fun with the kids.

FYI . . . I just got off the phone with a reservationsist, and while I easily booked a suite for a Saturday in August, rooms for July 3rd and 4th (and a few others) were taken. Good deal, you just may need to be a bit flexible with your dates.

I too just booked a Saturday night in August.

I booked a night in August as well, no problems. Very excited for this little trip and to take advantages of a gorgeous hotel and the generous amenities!

Any way to check availability for the weekend I want before buying the Groupon?

Kate – Feel free to give the reservations department a call to find out about availability before you buy. The number is: 301-965-4000.

Best,
Sarah

I’m pretty ticked off. I bought the Groupon around 9am. Was going to call immediately to reserve a room for July 4, except that my groupon said I couldn’t until call for reservations until tomorrow. according to this discussion, I would have been able to ‘easily’ book july 4 had the groupon info not said I couldn’t use it until tomorrow. In fact, I couldn’t even see the groupon # until I printed it — and had to ‘agree’ that I wouldn’t use it until tomorrow. I called anyway this afternoon after reading this discussion and seeing that people were already booking rooms! This is VERY UNFAIR!!!!!

Hi Jen,

I’m sorry for the confusion on when the Groupon was available. Technically it can’t be redeemed until this Saturday – but reservations can be made now.

Hopefully there will be another date for you that is suitable, but if you do not think you’ll be able to use the Groupon between now and Labor Day Weekend it is not too late to cancel your purchase today by going to My Stuff and editing/canceling your purchase.

Best,
Sarah

Does this include atrium view rooms?
and how much is the Resort Fee? Please..,
The suites do not show pricing online…

Will someone call to find out how much an executive suite typically is? It says “up to” $675" and on the gaylord website it says hotel suites range from $355-$675. The executive suite seems to be the lowest tier of the suites, so I would presume the full price would be $355 for this particular groupon.

Patrick – About half of the suites do have an atrium view. Feel free to request one when you make your reservation. The resort fee is typically $15 per day but is included with this Groupon. TAX is included as well.

Best,
Sarah

July 31st is also apparently fully booked, for anyone who might have been hoping for that date as well :/

We’re having a big problem – we bought the groupon but so far all of the dates that we’ve requested are sold out. The dates that they have available are dates that we’re already on vacation. Any ideas what we should do?

Hi Beth – Shoot! We were hoping that by starting with 24 dates to chose from there would be something that worked for everybody.

You may either cancel your Groupon order now by going to My Stuff in the upper right corner of the page, or just hang in there and cross your fingers that some of the reservations that have booked your desired nights get canceled or changed. If you do decide to hang on to the Groupon and still can’t find a date that works for you by late next week, contact us offline at support@groupon.com and we’ll try to work with you and the Gaylord National to find a solution.

Best,
Sarah

Groupon deals are getting worse and worse. They need to step it up or they will be left in the dust by a competitor.

Thanks for your feedback, Michael.

We are working hard here to bring different deals to the table every day and we understand that not every offer will appeal to every customer.

We do review customers suggestions on a weekly basis, so please take a minute to tell us what you think in more detail and what you’d like to see more of: www.groupon.com/pages/suggestions

Best,
Sarah

Sarah R., I want to commend you for answering the questions and handling the negativity like a champ. Go you! and Groupon rocks!

I purchased this Groupon at 7:15 this morning but for some reason it did not go through after I made my hotel reservation. Is there anything I can do to still purchase my Groupon?

I know this may be a shot in the dark but if anyone cancels or gets their groupon refunded due to unavailable dates, is there a way to purchase one of those? Just missed out and would love to still get one!

Hello grouponers! Thank you all for your interest in Gaylord National. For any of you who missed today’s offer, we want to still give you the opportunity to experience SummerFest! You can call reservations at 301 9654000 and mention code GNSFGP for a reduction off of our SummerFest package.

If anyone does not want their Groupon, please let me know and I would be happy to buy it from them. I purchased the Groupon this morning but for some reason it was never processed.

Thanks so much!!!

Wow, couldn’t see these issues arising or anything immediately from this deal. It is going to get much, much worse considering the vast majority of Groupon buyers haven’t even attempted to reserve rooms on the dates they wanted.

To the complainers-there’s a new Groupon everyday…. if you don’t like todays-get over it and wait to see what is offered tomorrow. You don’t need to post complaints just because it doesn’t work for you!! Obviously 500+ people thought this was a great idea. We are lucky to live in an area where we often get 3 Groupon deals to chose from. Not every deal is going to be super close to you.
Groupon-thanks for the great opportunities to do things we would never get to do. Sarah-thanks for the quick responses!

If anyone missed out, we’ve 2 available. My kindly fiance purchased 2 for my soon-to-visit parents not knowing they’d already made arrangements. I’m at mcclain@comcast.net if anyone is interested. Thanks.

Has anyone made a reservation yet? If so, do you just call the hotel and mention the Groupon deal when booking?

Hi—-We used our groupon last night (Sat 6/26) and enjoyed the resort. Our suite - one nearly identical can be seen on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv-TN9jjjhM
was beautiful and would have been $499 plus around $78 tax plus $15 resort fee. We only had to pay the $28 for valet parking. Self parking is available for $20, but is over on the convention side.
We had no problem booking—-you do need to do it over the phone and you do need a credit card to hold your pre-paid reservation—-but found the groupon # we gave when making our reservation wasn’t used when they figured our final bill. The bill under our door included the complete fee for the room so we had to wait in a LONG line to have that resolved. The person at the desk didn’t even seem familiar with the groupon deal. Otherwise a wonderful weekend at the National Harbor—-one of our favorite places for restaurants and walking along the water!

To answer someone else’s question yes, there is a king bed in the bedroom and a pull out couch in the living room. There is only one bathroom, but the two sinks/mirror are outside of the toilet/walk in shower part of the bathroom.

Gave my g

Gave my groupon to daughter and son-in-law as a gift. I can truly state this gift was a horrible experience. The room and service was horrible. They checked out after staying less than 3 hrs. My expectation of this hotel is less than a motel and next time I will use another chain hotel like Hilton or Hyatt when reserving a room that advertises executive or elegant service

The customer service at the Gaylord sucks! I bought 2 groupons and made reservations for yesterday and today (7/3 and 7/4). I had to call 2 times, once to reserve the first night and a second after I confirmed that my out of town guest could rearrange their plans to come in early to spend 7/3. I also spend about 45 minutes just chatting with the clerk, who was very nice. When i called to confirm yesterday, they said i only had a reservation for 7/4. i spoke to everyone that i could at the reservations center, including the manager (for 2 hours all totaled). No one was able/willing to make their mistake right. Finally, I was told I’d get a call back from “Ron Bailey” once they brought him up to date on what was going on. At that time, they confirmed that they knew I was trying to get in that day (this was around 12pm on 7/3). I NEVER heard one word from Mr. BAiley. What kind of customer service is this from a company that is supposed to make its living in the hospitality industry???!!! To just not call, at all? No one? I’ll never stay at the gaylord again after tonite and I want a refund on the second groupon i bought as it is of no use to me at this point. Thanks gaylord for ruining my plans for July 4th…

I agree with Sharon G that the customer service at Gaylord isn’t nearly up to par with what you’d expect! The hotel is nice, but not the customer service!! I did send a letter after our stay—-complaining about customer service, staff not knowing anything about Groupon, long lines to wait in to resolve our billo, etc. and never heard anything back!

Also worth noting is the Gaylord has fireworks every Saturday night throughout the summer. That was nice!

Just wanted to weigh back in after my July 4th night stay at Gaylord and say that the staff AT THE FACILITY was very accomodating. So, apparently, the reservation staff in Tenn. doesn’t know anything about the hotel and are making promises (like I was promised an atrium room when I made my reservations only to find out that there were only 4 or 5 atrium exec. suites and I didn’t have one…) that the hotel cannot possibly make good on.
The staff at the hotel gave me a wonderful room and we had a great time watching the fireworks there.

Anyone still have one of these still available? Please let me know by replying to this topic. Thanks

Anyone still have one of these still available? Please let me know by replying to this topic. Thanks

Anyone still have one of these still available? Please let me know by replying to this topic. Thanks

It looks like I may not be able to use mine. They have an executive suite available on August 28 – let me know if you could use it!

@Jane Is here any way to change the reservation date you have to the first week in Sept-preferbly (fri-sun). Please let me know!

I’ve talked with Gaylord reservations several times the past few days. For a Saturday night, I believe August 28th is the only one available and I will not be in town. It has to be used by 9/5, not just reserved and there does not seem to be any flexibility in that. I tried to reserve a less expensive room (not a suite) this weekend, which I thought would be a good solution, but they would not allow that.

Jane,

Hubby’s b-day is that week so I would def need to reserve it and use it during those times and since they don’t have anything available with or without the groupon I wouldn’t be able to purchase it. Thanks so much for offering I would love to take it off your hands if they had the date available. Good luck!

This was a bait and switch! We were lured to this deal by the promise of a suite. Gaylord has apparently decided that they do not need to honor their commitment to this deal! We had reserved the executive suite for last night, but when we checked in at 3:30 pm, were told by Gaylord that they were no longer giving groupon customers the suites, as advertised. They gave us two connecting rooms instead. We complained to a manager, who admitted that although she had suites still available, they were promised to other [higher] paying guests. She said that THEY HAD CHANGED THEIR CONTRACT a few days ago, without informing guests. Groupon, can Gaylord do this??? We were there, and stayed, and had a good time, but I was disappointed in the Gaylord. A deal’s a deal, and they renegged! Other customers should plan accordingly.
p.s. You should also check your bills carefully. We were initially charged resort fees on both rooms. This error was corrected immediately, when we brought it to management’s attention (although it meant waiting in line, again).

Wow Jill,

This makes me re-think staying at the Gaylord now! I honestly thought this was a good deal but somethings are in fact too good to be true! I called as well and tried to get a Suite but was told they had none available.

I stayed at the Gaylord using this deal last night. When we tried to check in yesterday at 4:00, they tried to tell me there were no suites available and offered 2 connecting atrium view rooms. She said she could get me in a suite, but it wasn’t clean and she wasn’t sure how long it would take. We said we would wait, as the suite is what attracted us to this deal. We were not able to check in until 5:30, which severely cut down on the time we had to enjoy the resort. We were able to get in any pool time prior to our dinner reservation. The clerk said she would call us when the room was clean and she never called. I had to call and check the status of the room. When we finally did get the key, we did not receive a map and had to take 2 different elevators to eventually find the room. The room was beautiful, but the service was terrible. I expect a higher level of service at a place like this.

I don’t think I’ll go back to the Gaylord again. The service was terrible and the breakfast buffet was mediocre at best. Glad we opted to eat dinner outside the resort.

Used it last weekend and it was excellent. Although we got there late, the room very nice. The customer service was great. The valet was even cool!! My husband and I will stay at the Gaylord again!

Showed up and they refused to give us a suite. Instead offered regular room with $100 credit. Argued but to no avail, since I had made the reservation months ago. Requested rollaway bed but they said they don’t provide those to regular rooms. Tried to use the $100 credit the next day but it didn’t process.