Embassy Suites by Hilton Crystal City National Airport — Attraction in Washington

Honestly, I usually LOVE the Embassy Suites line of hotels. However, this one failed in several expectations. One particular positive that deserves mention before this begins, however, is the staff. Every staff member did their best to make my stay a fantastic experience. I do appreciate that immensely, but their level of personability and friendliness did not overshadow the issues that I experienced. ||The first issue started before I even arrived. I had initially booked a King Corner Room under the government rate. That room rate and room were available at the time of booking, and I had no issues. Before I flew to DC, I was supporting a Navy exercise in Hawaii. I check the Hilton app and check my reservation, and see that my room has been changed. It was changed to a double room without my consent or awareness. I called the night manager, and he said he couldn’t see the inventory, but he saw that there was a note saying my room type was no longer available. He also said he could see where I booked the original King Corner Room. ||I flew to DC the next day, and on my way, I started texting from the Hilton app. Mario responded, who I didn’t know was the hotel manager at the time, said he would ensure I was in another King room when I arrived. I explained that it was unprofessional, unacceptable, and incredibly rude to change my room type without my consent or knowledge. Had I not checked, I would have arrived and had to deal with this. Again, I’m super thankful for Mario and what he did, but that doesn’t excuse this situation. ||The primary and most significant issue was the presence of black mold found in my room after I had slept there for three days. There were also several other issues that I noticed around the hotel, which were not typical of an Embassy Suites. The hotel looks pretty dated, from its decor to the lighting to the overall setup and carpentry. This hotel, despite being located in an up-and-coming area near the Pentagon, appears to be stuck in the early 1990s. ||The decor and lighting in the rooms made them seem dark and dingy. My original room was humid and smelled of mildew, which I later discovered was caused by black mold growing on the vents and within the air conditioning system. In the second room I was given, the AC didn't work correctly, and the shower curtain was covered in dust and someone's hair. (And not just a little bit of hair either.)||Then the more minor things, such as the random dirty furniture in the garage, unkempt landscaping, broken pipes, caution tape tied to a ladder in the garage, too, room keys not functioning correctly, broken cabinets in the room, and broken fixtures in the bathroom, the experience at this Embassy Suites was incredibly subpar and failed even to come close to standard expectations. ||The only reason I didn't give this a perfect 1 rating is that the staff was doing their best with a difficult situation. I don't fault them for some of those things, but I do fault them for the black mold issue. That is incredibly unacceptable and shows that the level of upkeep, maintenance, and cleaning within the AC system is not where it should be.|||I knew that the room felt humid and that I smelled mold or mildew. On the first day, whenever I took a shower in the morning and then left for work, I hung my towel up, just like everyone else did in the bathroom. I then expected to come back from work and have that towel be dry or mostly dry. However, when I arrived back at the room after work on Tuesday (10 June), which was around 5:00 PM, I noticed that the towels were not just damp, but still extremely wet. That meant the room had a lot of moisture in the air, which confirmed my initial suspicions.||Still, though, I paid no attention to it because I figured maybe it was just me and that maybe over the next couple of days, it would get better; It never got better. On Wednesday afternoon/evening, I returned to the room and smelled mildew again, just as I had over the past few days. I called the front desk and told Mario that I had smelled mildew, although I didn't know the source of it, and had been noticing it for the past few days. He said, “Mr. Jones, I’m incredibly sorry about that. How much longer are you here, Mr. Jones?” I responded and told him that I was only there for a few more days and checking out Friday. I decided I would try to tough it out; however, I didn’t know about the black mold in the room at this point. |||After I hung up the phone, I decided to look around the room to see if I could find the source of the smell. I started looking around the room, checking obvious places first, such as areas with a lot of moisture. Then I got an idea to check the air ducts; I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight. From there is when I discovered black mold on both bedroom and living room air ducts and vents. ||I took photos of the black mold and walked down to the front desk to show them. The staff immediately went into action. They sent an engineer back up to the room with me, while they looked for a new room to put me into. The engineer stated that he didn’t smell mold or mildew when he walked in, nor did he see anything on the intake of the air conditioning system. I had to explain to him that the mold was already present on the condenser coils and ventilation fans. That means there is a conducive environment for growth, and they likely have a much larger problem. ||I started packing my belongings to prepare for the move. First, the staff initially placed me in room 304, but after the engineer checked, they reassigned me to room 1014 or a similar location. It was around 1 a.m. when I finally got all my stuff moved into the second room.||Although the second room did not have black mold, the AC did not work in this room. I took a photo at 6 am and another at 5 pm, which showed the temperature had only moved one degree. The thermostat was set to 66 degrees, and the room never cooled below this temperature, which meant the room was typically around 73 degrees at night. I also found quite a bit of hair, dust, dirt, and other debris on the shower curtain – it did not look clean at all. Although these were minor inconveniences, they were piled on top of all the other things that had happened and I had seen that week. ||Bottomline: If you are going to stay here, CHECK for black mold. If it was growing in my room, it is likely growing in other places within their HVAC system. And who knows how many people stayed in my original room before I brought this to...

Honestly, I usually LOVE the Embassy Suites line of hotels. However, this one failed in several expectations. One particular positive that deserves to be mentioned before this begins, however, is the staff. Every staff member did their best to make my stay amazing. I do appreciate that immensely, but their level of personability and friendliness did not overshadow the issues that I experienced.

The first issue started before I even arrived. I had originally booked a King Corner Room under the government rate. That room rate AND room were available at the time of booking and I had no issues. Before I flew to DC, my room was downgraded to a Double Room, without my consent or awareness even. Despite being to see that I booked a Corner King Room, this was still done. Mario, bless him, worked furiously to get me into a King room again. Though this was better, this should've never happened.

The main and biggest issue was that of black mold found in my room after 3 days of sleeping there. There were also several other issues that I noticed around the hotel, which were not typical of an Embassy Suites. The hotel seems very, very dated - from decor, to the lighting, to the overall setup and carpentry. This hotel, despite being located in an up-and-coming area near the Pentagon, seems stuck in the early 1990s.

The decor and lighting in the rooms made them seem dark and dingy. My original room was humid and smelled of mildew, which I later discovered was caused by black mold growing on the vents and within the air conditioning system. In the second room I was given, the AC didn't work correctly, and the shower curtain was covered in dust and someone's hair. (And not just a little bit of hair either.)

Then the smaller things, such as the random dirty furniture in the garage, unkempt landscaping, broken pipes, caution tape tied to a ladder in the garage, too, room keys not functioning correctly, broken cabinets in the room, and broken fixtures in the bathroom, the experience at this Embassy Suites was incredibly subpar and failed even to come close to normal expectations.

The only reason I didn't give this a perfect 1 rating is that the staff was doing their best with a difficult situation. I don't fault them for some of those things, but I do fault them for the black mold issue. That is incredibly unacceptable and shows that the level of upkeep, maintenance, and cleaning within the AC system is not where it should be.

I've added photos of the things I saw that seemed out of place or dirty. First though was the black mold issue. I was in a room on the 9th floor (sorry I don't recall the number now). After 3 days of smelling mildew and alerting the front desk, I searched and found black mold on the the vents in both the bedroom AND living room.

That means, I was breathing, eating, sleeping, showering in that stuff for 3 days and this is completely unacceptable. Black mold is dangerous and it's appalling that a hotel would not know this is present in their building in 2025. This also lends itself to their cleaning and maintenance.

I would HIGHLY advise everyone to check their room and the air vents in their rooms for signs of black mold. There is no way that my room was the outlier. When there is an environment conducive to black mold, it is usually NOT isolated to one space.

Again, the staff was great and I wish the hotel, the decor, cleanliness, etc. matched their attitudes. It would've been a fantastic stay. Unless there are major renovations, then I will not be coming back here and I won't be allowing any of my fellow servicemembers to stay here either.

Yes I've told the front desk and left other feedback about this and I've gotten a robotic AI response from the front desk supervisor and less than a response from Hilton properties about it. It doesn't really seem like the health and safety of guests is that important, but their response to this situation is completely...

Paid too much for this stay, should have been a much better experience. I totally understand service dogs, but there is ABSOLUTELY no reason that a human sized dog should be allowed to walk with the owner around the area where food is being self served. The dog was breathing all over the food. The owner was also taking food from the serving trays and throwing food in the dog's mouth. This is unsanitary and should not be allowed. (We served ourselves buffet style breakfast.) LEAVE the dogs at your table or in your room. Have someone available to serve those who can't be away from their dogs for a few minutes. I immediately brought it to the manager on duty attention. He gave me a snotty response about this matter just as he had when I brought to his attention unauthorized charges being placed on my card. He needs to go back through customer service training. Can't remember his name, but I can definitely describe him. He's a plumpy, white male with really curly, black hair. Nevertheless I didn't eat breakfast for the last three days of my stay. Update the hotel. This place is outdated. Please steam clean the carpets and curtains. Replace the showerheads. I don't drink coffee, but the old one that was in my room was dirty. Get some Keurig coffee makers in the rooms (like some other less expensive Hilton hotels). Replace the outdated mini fridges. Clean and paint the nook that holds the fridge. Your sister Hilton hotel in San Antonio, of which costs way less, has all of these things. I stayed there 3 weeks ago. The water pressure in the sink was very weak. Had to run the hot water for 10 minutes each time just to get luke warm water. Who wants to wash their face with ice cold water? The shower water was cold. Had to call for service. The A/C would not stay cold. Sorry to say, but if Zeke is your concierge person, you need to train him better. He's nice but not knowledgeable. His accent was also a barrier when I tried communicating with him about traveling/restaurants in the area. My son brought to the attention of the front desk that someone in one of the rooms was smoking Marijuana near the elevator. He asked my son which one. How was he to know! There's only 2 or 3 rooms closest to the elevator. The front desk person should have come up to investigate. Also, please power wash the entrance area to the hotel. Get new shuttle buses. I'm watching all of the nice buses retrieve folks from the airport and here comes y'all's old bus pulling up the rear. The cleaning service folks were very nice and the 2 free drinks per night was good. Would not recommend this hotel. Folks take your money...