Residence Inn by Marriott Washington, DC Downtown

I recently stayed here for a week and had a great time. I think I was in a brand new room, super clean and big. The water pressure was good and very hot. Breakfast was better than I expected, with coffee, Juice, cereal, bagels and toast. There were also some hot options too. The area is very close to the White House/ museums and lots of nice restaurants and a few bakeries. I would stay here again if I came to DC.

My advice is to not stay here. I’ve stayed at several Residence Inns, and they’ve always been great. Not this one. If you want warm water, you have to turn on all faucets in the room and let them run the entire time while you’re showering. Otherwise, it’s ice cold. We went down to the front desk to ask for a towel. I offered to wait while they went and got one. They said it would be deliver, but it never came. Most hotel lobbies have a nice scent. Not this one. It smelled like weed every time we walked through it. The one shining star at this hotel is Elaine in the breakfast area. She is wonderful and such a hard worker.

I rated the location as 5 stars because it is really around a ton of restaurants and even the DC sites that tourists are interested in visiting. The rooms are spacious, but they should do a couple of updates. The shower takes a while to heat up and it has a tub! Most updated hotels have the walk-in showers these days. The breakfast buffet is decent. We also had to change rooms because there was a smoke smell coming through the vents. If you are here for work or a tourist and you will not be spending too much time in the rooms, then you should be fine with the amenities.

When calling around to check rates i had asked this propertys reservations if parking would be waived due to my member status and i was told it would be. When i got my bill it had been added. I called the Front Desk and spoke with the manager who refused to honor what I was told. He would not even make an exception to their policy which is property specific. I asked him if he cared that this would result in a bad review and he said he did not. Even sounded happy to not help in his condescending tone. The chain is going down hill.

The location of this place is excellent- 10 min walk to the White House, the national mall, the museum area. The problem is that this hotel has a bunch of incompetents running it and to be honest they destroy the Marriott brand. This is not the first time I’m staying at this hotel over the past year and the people who work here simply don’t know how to make a guest welcomed. They are slow with the checkin, don’t process the information you give them well, they don’t honor the reservation details. The rooms are old designs, doors are not straight, shower heads are dripping. The stair area smells of dove poop. The rooms have clearly not been vacuumed cleaned between guests. It’s a practical place to stay in DC but I would not call it cozy or welcoming. A nice thing is that there is CVS place right next to the hotel.

My 7 year old son and I stayed here for a quick weekend trip of exploring DC. We used points to book and it was inexpensive but highly rated. It was a 5 minute walk from metro station which was nice to ride from Reagan airport. Check in was easy, rooms were fine (not as updated as other Residence Inn I have been to but not bad) and the free breakfast was great (hot eggs, sausage, pancakes, waffles, fruit, oatmeal, etc) Less than a 20 min walk from White House, African American Museum, and Washington Monument. I am writing to share about an employee that went absolutely above and beyond to make our stay more comfortable. Miss Elaine was incredibly hospitable- going out of her way to make sure me and my son had what we needed at breakfast and even going to her locker to get her personal first aid kit when she saw he was complaining of a bug bite. Miss Elaine is a reminder that there are good, kind people left in the world. She made us feel at home and she felt like family!