Pretty hotel, but too many problems
Where to start. Perhaps I was expecting too much when I read all the great reviews of this place on Trip Advisor and it had been recommended by a work colleague that lives in the area. The problems started when I went to check in. I had requested my room be adjoining my friends room (she brought her twin 10 year olds with her on this trip) and was told the only way to do this was to get a more expensive king bed room for myself. Fine. We were told at check in that we got the last 2 connecting rooms in the hotel. Not true, they were next to each to each other but in no way connected. This was disappointing because we wanted to have a one big room feel to the place for the kids. I tried to put both rooms on my credit card and have my friend pay me when we got back home. But when we checked in the 2nd room was declined on my credit card. This was because hotel holds the entire cost of the room, 100 dollars a day for incidentals and who knows what else, totaling some rediculous amount like $3000 per room. I had to put her room on a different card! Be aware of this in case you do not have a high limit on your credit card (we stayed 5 nights by the way). When I made the reservations I was asked the kids names and was told special attention would be paid to them at check in and that they would get some sort of gift. Nothing special was done at all. The next day when we came back from touring my friend asked the front desk about this and they were allowed to go in a toy chest behind the front desk but everything in that chest was really for toddlers, not older children. When they were back there I noticed a small fridge with a glass front with bottled water in it. I asked about it and we were told the bottled waters were complimentary. No one bothered to tell us this when we checked in. We had the continental breakfast our first morning at the hotel and thought it was over priced at $12 for adults and half that for kids. We did no bother eating anything at the hotel after that. We decided to do a movie night in my room and had problems trying to get the pay movies to work. We called the front desk a number of times and they finally sent someone up, only to find out the pay movies were not working at that time, the kids were really disappointed. A coffee pot is not in your room, you need to request it, which I did. The maid never rinsed the pot when she came in to service my room nor did she replenish the items that came with it (creamers, tea bags, sugars, etc.). Each morning between 7 and 7:30am there was a really loud garbage truck that came to collect a dumpster under my room so ask about this if you intend to sleep in and get a room farther away from it. One day after touring my friends room keys did not work, the next day my room keys did not work. The hotel is very clean and pretty but is not near any attractions or the metro or the hop on and hop off bus. We had to walk about 6 or more blocks to the White House every day to be near anything worth seeing in DC. There are shampoo, conditioner and shower gels attached to the wall of the shower in metal brackets (they smell wonderful by the way). When my friend went to pump one of them the fixture came off the wall. In addition to this the phone next to her bed did not work. When the hotel staff came up to see why they discovered the phone had been unplugged. They say accidentally by the maid but who moves a big table between two beds to vacumn? Who knows how long it was unplugged. They gentleman that came up to check out the phone and give me new keys told us someone would be up to fix the phone and bathroom fixture but after 1 1/2 hours my friend called the front desk to tell them the kids needed to go to bed and to forget it. There are no instructions of what number to dial for the front desk, room service, etc. on the phone or any where near it. We kept calling the main hotel number from our cell phones when we had problems. To be fair to the hotel they gave us some money off our rooms when I told them about all of our problems at checkout. They asked if we had said anything about these problems during our stay and I told them yes and that I was mostly hoping the next folks to stay in our rooms would not have these same issues. They told me what I experienced is not typical of the level of service they usually provide. For me, I would not stay at this hotel again. There are way too many to choose from in the DC area. We booked rather last minute and during a week when many schools are off but I think we could have done better. At $300 a night I think it is overpriced.