Negotiation

Sitting in the Public Policy lobby of George Mason’s Original building, Kirsten, tamar and I looked blankly at one another.
“We could go to eastern market?” I suggested, “that way, we can negotiate prices on things”
“Yeah, but it’s cold and rainy” said Kirsten.
“And I don’t want to go all the way into the city” added Tamar.
We sat for another moment, each one deep in thought.

“What if we go to Starbucks?” suggested Tamar.
It continued like that for about 10 minutes, each one of us throwing out random ideas of places and situations to negotiate. Kirsten suggested we go to 7/11. Tamar suggested Starbucks again. My stomach rumbled and I suggested a restaurant.

Finally, we determined that the best thing to negotiate would be a hotel for Kirsten when she travels to New York in March. Excitedly, we gathered details from Kirsten, and ranked her preferences. Most importantly was price, followed by location, room quality and lastly, room size. I quickly pulled out my laptop and started searching for cheap hotels in the section of Midtown where she would need to stay. We found a Hilton Garden Inn on Priceline.com, listed at $179 per night. I went to the Hilton Garden Inn website and ran a search on a room for the desired night, and found it listed for $159. This meant that we would get a better deal if we booked the room from the hotel website, rather than through priceline. This is in direct contrast to priceline’s guarantee, and Tamar decided she would call to negotiate a better price for Kirsten.

I pulled up the two websites, side by side, and read aloud the number for Tamar to dial. After about 10 minutes of waiting on hold, Tamar was connected to a Priceline operator. Tamar informed the agent about the trip, and asked the agent to confirm that they offer the best price. The agent then confirmed the guarantee. Tamar mentioned the discrepency in prices, to which the agent offered a $50 voucher, in addition to matching the cheaper price.

Negotiations are fun! I need to do this more often. :)