Do good, get 50% off at 2 Washington, D.C., hotels

Proving it can pay to be nice, the Savoy Suites Hotel and the Carlyle Suites Hotel in Washington, D.C. are cutting room rates in half for guests who sign up for community service programs. For every five hours that you volunteer, under the “Serve America and Stay in D.C.” deal, you get 50% off one night’s bill.

What’s the catch? Well, the hotels say the deal is nonrefundable (meaning your charge card is charged immediately), and availability is limited. The offer is also timed for summer, when the nation’s capital can get steamy.

The rules: Good for stays of two nights or more through Sept. 7,  the deal must be booked online and prepaid at least 72 hours ahead; it’s not available by phone or for walk-ups.  Before arrival, you choose a project through VolunteerMatch, an online volunteer network. Once you complete your community service, you notify the hotel and and provide documentation to get the 50% refund.

The rates: You get the discount based on the so-called best available rates, which will vary by date.  When I checked a July 22-23 stay on the hotels’ websites Monday afternoon, those were $169 for the Savoy Suites and $179 for the Carlyle Suites.

The hotels: Managed by a company called Great Addresses, these are older hotels with larger rooms that get mixed but generally good user reviews on Tripadvisor.  The 150-room Savoy Suites is near Georgetown, and the 170-room Carlyle Suites is near Dupont Circle.

Contacts: For more details and to book, visit the “Serve America and Stay in D.C.” sections of the websites of the Carlyle and Savoy hotels.

—Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

[Photo: Carlyle Suites lobby in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Courtesy of Carlyle Suites]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 1:54 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Business Travel, Deals, East Coast, Family & Kids, Hotels, News, Tips & Advice, Summer, Washington D.C.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.