Archer Hotel Falls Church — Hotel in Merrifield

I attempted to check into this hotel at 7am on July 11th. I booked a 3 night stay through Expedia. I finalized the booking after 11pm on July the 10th. I arrived at the hotel sleep-deprived & expecting to check into the room I booked less than 8 hours prior.

The person at the front desk initially ignored me, making zero effort to greet me or ask if I needed help. He nonchalantly told me that my room was canceled & I was considered a “no show.” Yet I was still charged the full amount for a night’s stay.

When I asked why they would cancel a reservation that I made less than 8 hours ago (I literally booked AFTER 11pm at night). He made no attempt to show empathy or help me find an alternative solution. He became weirdly hostile & defensive, saying “You should have called the hotel before.”

From my point of view, this is a pretty absurd request. Not only did I book my room after 11PM at night, but it had been less than 8 hours since I finalized the booking. The hotel was NOT fully booked & there were many available rooms (including the room I paid for!).

Honestly, if the staff were nicer & provided the option to pay an early check-in fee, I would have accepted the loss & just stayed at this location. However, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a more defensive & uncaring hotel employee. He made zero effort to help or to provide alternative solutions, but was more interested in defending himself & vilifying me.

His only solution was for me was to rebook two nights & wait 8 HOURS in the hotel lobby to check-in at 3 PM. There were free rooms available (including the one I already paid for & booked after 11pm – a mere 8 hours prior), yet he did not even try & see if he could help me check-in early or let me stay in the room that I already PAID FOR.

From my perspective, if I pay for a night then I should have access until the check-out time at 12pm the following day. Especially if I book the room past 11pm at night. So if a guest books a room at 11:59 PM then they must have only 1 minute to arrive before you deem them a “no show” & take their full payment?

I am pretty disgusted by this entire experience. I do not think it is appropriate to treat people in such a nasty way. I’ve been traveling since I was a child & have stayed at hotels in different countries & all across the United States. I FREQUENTLY book rooms last minute at 10pm or 11pm, & I have NEVER had an issue checking in at 6am or 7am the following day. I have never had such a poor experience. I have previously stayed at another Archer Hotel location for over a week before! But I would never stay at this hotel chain again.

I feel like a modicum of kindness & empathy or effort could have resulted in an entirely different outcome. Thankfully, the staff at Expedia are more helpful & underst&ing. & they offered to reimburse me for the night that I PAID for (which Archer charged me the full amount for, & then denied me access to my room.) They also gave me an additional reimbursement for my troubles, considering that I wasted time traveling to the Archer Hotel & then taking another Uber to a different hotel.

I gathered my belongings & traveled to the Renaissance Capital Hotel. I was instantly greeted with warmth & kindness by the front desk. The staff were welcoming & accommodating, allowing me to pay a paltry 30 dollar fee to check-in at 10:00 AM. Perhaps my experience at the Archer Hotel was a blessing in disguise, because the Renaissance Hotel has been a wonderful experience so far. They have a lovely cafe & restaurant.

I was very calm about the situation & open to alternative solutions. But I feel that zero attempt was made to help, accommodate, or empathize with me. I was willing to pay an early-check in fee, since I really didn’t feel like finding another hotel & traveling in another Uber. But the Archer Hotel could not have been more unconcerned.

I guess they were just happy to charge someone an entire night’s stay for one...

So we've contacted Archer's right after our trip but never received any type of response at all. We gave them a fair chance to get to us before we took further action. It's the principle of this matter that angers is the most.

We'd like to let you guys know that our much anticipated staycation at your hotel has been pretty disappointing. As a local business owner (although small and family owned and operated), we rarely get time for some time off. Once we've heard about Archer's about a year ago, we've been wanting to visit. So when we got an opportunity at some time off, we decided to go for a spontaneous trip close to home.

Well let's say that the first night, it said the grand den was available earlier in the day but when we tried to book it as we got closer (trying to decide between Tysons and this one), it said it was not available. So we booked the Archer's den. When we got to the hotel, the gentleman was not at all professor or friendly. But most of all, he took forever to get to the door to even let me in, (we did arrive late as we had to work that day) when we asked about the grand den and the love package, the credit, etc he said that he didn't know anything about it, and that it was too late to use the credit and the 1pm checkout was outrageous. Then he said to ask when the day staff came in.

We initially wanted to stay at the grand den so we were hoping we could kind of switch to it but he said he couldn't help with that either. So we went to our room and ordered from Denny's since we were told we couldn't use the credit then went to sleep. At least in the morning the lady who was at the front desk was helpful and friendly. So we moved our room to the grand den. After our second night here, at 1pm when we just booked another night a few minutes prior, we had two people try to walk in, right after one another especially when we told them we were staying another night. After the second person tried to force their way in at 5 minutes after 1pm (the love package checkout time) phone rings and asks us if we plan to leave or... So I told her I already booked for another night. We haven't asked for the room to be cleaned, nor asked for much at all in regards to anything.

We had to play it by ear whether we could stay longer or not each day due to our business which is why it wasn't booked all at once. But regardless that shouldn't have mattered.

Last night, we ordered some dinner from the akb bar, and the soft pretzels for the fondue were inedible as it was rock hard, and fruits we got were a couple of pieces of an apple? And the steak was very overcooked and was extremely tiny. We still have the food. So that was a complete waste and we ended up ordering elsewhere again. That in itself took over an hour and a half and when I called to say I was going to pick it up instead, the guy told me it was already delivered which made zero sense as it wasn't and it's only been 15 minutes since I placed the order. But we decided to wait it out another hour and 20 minutes to receive horrible food.

We're unsure if this was directed at us personally for a reason? We're hard working individuals and have been established in the area for over 21 years. To realize that we've spent over 1100 dollars for our four nights here just to have gotten treated as such is very disappointing and unsettling. We thought we'd at least reach out to you guys before we share our honest experience to others. (Due to character limit I had to omit some of the last part of this letter)

So yes that was our heartfelt and honest letter of our concerns, anger, and disappointment which we put a lot of effort in to just to get ignored.

As hard working, law abiding, and positive contributors to our community, we feel that we deserved much better than that. And would've appreciated some type of response even just out of simple respect. And now our winter vacation has been used and...

I stayed here for 2 nights for business this time, however, this is the second time I’ve stayed here. I liked it so much, I went out of my way to reserve this hotel again.

Rooms: I booked a King suite, which included a full kitchen (stove top, microwave, full-sized refrigerator, dishwasher, and single serve coffee maker). The room was very clean and they included 2 little caramels on my first night as well as 2 chocolate covered caramels with almonds inside on my second night (they clean the room each night). The room has very cute/modern decor with plenty of lighting.

Fitness center: includes cardio equipment (treadmills and elliptical), dumbbells that go up to 50 lbs, 2 benches, cable machine, exercise balls, a trx band, exercise mats, as well as resistance bands with handles. It’s very clean and the two treadmills are very nice for a hotel gym. It’s a very small room, but all 3 times I’ve worked out in there, only one other person has come in on 2 separate occasions so there’s plenty of room.

Parking: there’s a parking deck right outside of the front entrance, but you need to get a parking pass when you check-in so you don’t get towed/fined because it is public parking for all of the stores/restaurants around as well. Parking for the hotel is only on the second floor and higher, but there are plenty of spaces.

Surrounding area: there’s a Target, Pottery Barn, a cute little cafe, Home Depot, plus several other stores (I think there’s also a grocery store/market) within walking distance to the hotel.

My only issue during my stay was when I came back to my room after work on the second day (around 2pm) and someone opened the door to my room without knocking, but the door caught on the little security latch. I called the front desk to see if it was housekeeping or some rando, they called housekeeping and confirmed they were doing their second check after cleaning to ensure everything was taken care of. So as a warning to those who might be chilling in your room during the early afternoon, housekeeping may come back a second time after they already cleaned your room if you don’t have the “Do Not Disturb” sign out. I was a little freaked out when my door randomly opened, but reassured after the front desk checked with housekeeping, so overall it wasn’t a big deal. They were very kind about the whole situation.

All in all, I’d definitely recommend staying here, and I’ll definitely be back the next time I’m in the...