not at all a tourist-friendly hotel ESPECIALLY when it comes to asking if an area is safe to walk down!!
There are only 3 things good I have to say about this hotel, 1) The cleansiness is very good 2) The location made it easy for us to visit the tourist sites and the people at the reception were very nice. Thats all, but I have A LOT of bad to say about it.
My advise in going to Washington DC when it comes to asking what area is safe and whats not (and yes EVERY city has good and bad) is to do ALL your research before coming because you absolutely can NOT ask the people "is this area safe", at least not at this hotel, they get VERY angry and offended, and this happened to me twice in a row (the very moment I arrived in the hotel and I even mentioned how there are good and bad areas in every city). First time I asked this arts lady and straight away budged in said something like "your be fine, how about just keep out of the NE part, how about that" very sharp and rudely (and I think also she said something about why are you here then), so I thought to myself (I'll ask someone better if I am not going to be answered nicely) so I asked the security guard who was standing around (judging the fact he is a security guard so I thought he would be most helpful) and he says "yeah noones going to kill you or hurt you or anything" and I says "are you ok" and he goes "yeah Im just a bit ofended you know..." as if I had that intention to upset them, they both KNEW that every city has good and bad areas and that I was a foreigner (a tourist that is, not a immigrant) who knew nothing about it AND the act of being angry and being offended was all put on (me ending up throughout the whole vacation holding my breath) I have travelled to the USA 8 times now and every time I asked about low and high crime areas and everybody in every place told me and helped me out, unlike this hotel! I have crap like this in the UK time after time even directed at me and we all get fed up with it, I did not save up all that money to USA to experience another UK attitude. 
Other complaints is that as soon as I arrived, I went up to the swimming pool, and it was all set out which looked like there was going to be a party (ok I understand its a conference hotel), but I asked if I could go in the pool and apparently its only for people in this "Arts" thing, I could not use the pool the whole time I was there and when the people from the arts group came, you could not MOVE in the lobby because it was crowded so much so that we felt that we werent guests anymore, the elevator was unmovable at times and they were all drunk, (I mean VERY DRUNK) you could not even stand outside in the entrance at night without the crowd screaming about next to you, therefore unless you were toat least put up with the outside bit, you are limited to your hotel room because you were in the crowds way allthe time (you can tell the body language when you walked past). The only nice people there really was, was the people in the reception (they were VERY nice) but the rest, I would go as far to say that they need to know how to respond to tourists better, even when we were waiting in the lobby for the airport shuttle, the people both inside and outside couldnt seem to get rid of us quick enough. 
Apart from all that, there was nothing really in the hotel shopwise apart from a gift shop (even there, there wasnt much that was worth buying) apart from the hotel resturant in which we had to book to get in, we had to live on McDonalds on the other corner of the road.
I do sound like a complaining Brit here, but I would by far consider it worth complaining when you have spent all that money to live your holiday like that.
I would never again in my life waste a single dollar, pound or euro on even USING this hotel even if I won the lottery, let alone staying, and I would not recommend others to either!
DISGUSTING!!