Good and Bad
Posted September 19, 2007
by ConventionGuy,
1 reviews
61 year old man with a moderate budget, traveling for leisure
Stayed there for 5 nights in early Sept.2007
My wife and I drove my elderly parents up from Atlanta for a yearly meeting of dad's 99th Infantry Division (WW2)reunion.
Good: Nice rooms, very modern and clean.(a bit strange bathroom-wise...it has an unlock-able frosted glass door). Comfortable beds. Nice wide screen flat tv. Friendly staff and Concierge. Close to DC. The hotel shuttle makes going the 4-5 blocks to the Metro subway pretty easy. Plenty of elevators, that were even able to do an ok job with a big convention.
Bad:
The $23 per night parking & required valet parking.
For the computer addicted, it falls a bit short. Any Motel-6 in Anywhere USA now has free high-speed internet. Not so here...they charge $9.99 a day for a somewhat slow wireless connection. The "computer" desk has a glass top which won't work well with an optical mouse (I use a travel mouse). The desk has nowhere available to hook up a laptop security lock.
For those with any mobility issues, like my 87 year old parents, the hotel is somewhat isolated. There are no restaurants within walking distance (4-5 long blocks is ok for me, but not for older folks). Therefore, you are trapped into eating at one of their very expensive in-hotel restaurants. A rooftop dinner for 5, consisting of only 5 appetizers and 3 glasses of house wine cost us around $160. The two lower restaurants were also high-priced, though not as bad as the rooftop. To go out to eat, it requires getting the car brought around, and a drive somewhere.
STRANGE: One night, there was a blaring fire alarm, sounding like the "dive" horn on a submarine and a voice demanding that we immediately leave the hotel. This occurred at 3:00 am. Finally, after an ear-splitting 1/2 hour, we were given the all clear. Some jerk apparently pulled an alarm.
ALSO STRANGE: From the glass elevator we watched a guy about 85 years old tumble all the way down a 2-story long long escalator, head over heels, finally landing on his face at the bottom. He was bleeding from his head, both arms, and leg. Never saw him again at the convention.
Overall, I would find a different hotel if there happens to be a next time. Somewhere with free internet, and close-by restaurants.
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