Embassy Suites by Hilton Bethesda Washington DC — Hotel in North Bethesda

This seems to be a relatively low-level, not so well maintained, penny-pinching Embassy Suites.

Notes from my stay: Room keys did work because the batteries were dead in the door lock, has to await engineering. Mini-fridge was turned off, took hours to cool and difficulty turning it on and no one could be easily reached overnight (see next item) Spent 1/2 hour attempting to teach the front desk over night. Then figured let me hit the "reservations" button on the desk phone, figuring maybe they could somehow help or reach the front desk through another #, but unfortunately, both room phones reservations button was programmed to call Marriott, not Hilton. Lol I finally had to put cloths on and go downstairs,only to find a vacant front desk, but sleeping security guard in the enterprise car rental chair/desk. Woke him up and he radioed the front desk guy to return to help me. AC not working. Only heat. So room was a bit warm for sleep. Also very difficult to reach and see thermostat night because they put the work station desk directly in front of it. Laundry (at least on our floor) out of order Rooms a bit out of date with old style tile and curtains in shower. I'm ok with that, but wish they could at least change out basic shower heads for hand sprayers. Happy hour refreshments super basic - basically just chips and salsa. Also no refills on sodas. Soft mushy beds, not good for the back, but maybe that's all Embassy Suites these days? And last but definitely not least in my list of per peeves, the alarm clock went off at 5 something AM !!!! Why can't they train staff to make sure these aren't set when they make up the room???

Update from the next day: Fridge turned off issue: it turned off again by it self and my food spoiled! Engineering told me the fridges are set to only run for a short time limit (he guessed 2 hours) and then shut off, presumably to save electricity. What??? He said they are updating them, but only a few new ones I'm the entire hotel and set to try to find me one. The front desk said they are happy to store perishables in the restaurant fridge. So why not let guests know all this BEFORE they rely on the fridges that don't stay on and your food soils???

AC update: they got it working, but wow is it loud. Loud screeching and scraping noises you can hear from down the hall! Had to change rooms engineering looked at two other rooms for me and one also had a screeching scraping AC blower, but the 3rd room was a charm and actually had an HVAC system you can sleep with. Ugh such wasted time and effort.

Icing on the cake: so after all this, room changes, and basically a list day, I finally tried to take an afternoon nap, figuring I could salvage part of the day, but guess what? They had a mandatory fire alarm test I know that's the fire marshal, not the hotel, but after all this... I give up.

I added videos of the AC noise so you can see I'm not just nitpicking. Also the fire alarm test, just fir therapeutic reasons, admitting this is the fire marshal, not the hotel's doing. Lol

I wonder if the hotel or Hilton will make any of this experience right? I wish the Hilton site would show which are corporate vs franchise hotels so maybe can avoid these kind of...

We’ve stayed here twice and this time was a disappointment. There were some usual positives such as the breakfast staff but there were many issues.

We stayed in room 541. There was a dirty sock on the floor, toothpaste residue all over the counter behind the sink, the window screen was completely torn so we could not open the window without letting bugs in. The light switch at the entrance did nothing. We were given an ancient, broken, leaking iron that needed to be replaced. It leaked water all over my husband’s dress shirt.

The pool had a sign that said it was closed for swim lessons from 9-11 and 2-7 but that we could use the hot tub. The hot tub had orangey brown foam in it and the jets were set in such a way that they sprayed everywhere. The door to the pool was locked so we were annoyed about the “swim lessons” (the pool was empty), but finally we got the pool attendant’s attention and he let us in. He did not know what we were talking about re: the sign in the gym saying the pool was closed.

I left a swimsuit and a pair of sandals in our room. I am 100% certain. I left the swimsuit to dry in the shower and the sandals were brand new but I had no room for them, so I left them in case anyone wanted to take them. Somehow they found neither the swimsuit nor the shoes in the room, both of which I know were there because the shoes were purposely left and the swimsuit was hanging to dry and never got packed. I worked in hospitality for 20 years and I had people call and say they left stuff all the time, then they’d find it in their luggage. That’s not what this is.

I called four times and spoke to four different people about the items and every time the person had no idea what I was talking about though the previous shift should have passed the information on to them. I had to start over every time with each person and it was obvious they didn’t care/weren’t taking me seriously. On Wednesday 7/23 the woman who answered the phone was laughing and talking to coworkers while she answered. She was very unprofessional and sounded like I was annoying her. I was told by every person that I would get a call back, but no one called me back. On Thursday 7/24 I spoke with the front desk manager who was unprofessional and rude. She did not care at all about what I was saying, that her front desk staff had promised to follow up with me, etc. She said, “what do you want them to follow up on? We already told you we didn’t find anything.” She essentially hung up on me because I said it’s crazy that she doesn’t seem to care that her staff is lying and ignoring a guest.

This was our regular spot when visiting family in Bethesda but we will not give it another try after this experience. I would recommend staying far away...

Phone in bedroom did not work. Toilet was slow to flush, but I know that happens sometimes in older hotels. The main problem is that Hilton highlights this as a new hotel, and I suppose it’s my fault for not reading the fine print, but this IS NOT a new hotel. This hotel was a Marriott and was apparently purchased by Hilton. I am not sure of why they would put their name on anything like this.

My sister and I (two very grown women) had to play a game of human Tetris while sleeping on the sofa-not the sofa bed-the first night (see attached photo of how we slept on night 1). Upon pulling out the sofa bed, it resembled one that you might see on a movie-complete with MULTIPLE urine stains and other dark stains. We were already in our pajamas and had cleaned and disinfected the room, so we agreed to sleep on the sofa itself through the night and receive another mattress the next morning after 7:30. Our daily $20 parking fee would be comped-which I dealt with because after 8 hours of travel, I was too tired to tell them that I didn’t understand what I was paying for anyway when the Entrance and Exit gates were both opened that night.

I called the front desk around 7:50 the next morning just to be sure we weren’t forgotten, and they said that we were on the morning rotation. Around 8:15 the front desk called back to say that their Engineer notified them that they did not have any other mattresses for the sofa, BUT we could flip the mattress and sleep on the other side. $178.67 per night for our inconvenience.

This was our first time traveling since the pandemic and what was supposed to be a fun girl’s trip with my sister, mom and aunt has turned into more work for me as I continue contacting people here, writing this review, and getting what looks like will be 3 dreadful nights of sleep on the sofa. Would never return to this location and I will think twice before booking with Hilton again.

**Update: I did make a few phone calls and ended up speaking with Melanie-the District Manager over this location? She was extremely kind and patient. She also acknowledged the issue and our frustration, promising to have another mattress sent over within the hour AND taking half off our first night’s stay for the inconvenience. The mattress did arrive very quickly, and Melanie left a message to the room that the issue had been resolved. I was very grateful for her, although checking over my final invoice, the half off was not reflected for that first night. I was so tired of the whole ordeal (seriously seems like everything I try to accomplish with the public lately leaves me more drained than any of it is worth). So, there’s that. Still would...