Canopy by Hilton Washington DC The Wharf — Hotel in Washington

My wife and I booked a hotel room for one night at Canopy By Hilton Washington Dc The Wharf | 975 7th Street SW -Washington on 06/01/2024 and I paid $322.00 (Guest Room $278.40 + Room OCC Tax 15.95% $44.40 Room: 501/K1RC). We also did have two other rooms that were booked by friends and family as we were all celebrating one of our birthday’s. At around 6:20pm one of my friends and I decided to go to the bar at the rooftop known as Whiskey Charlie’s as we waited for our friends to get ready for dinner. Shortly after getting into Whiskey Charlie’s, we engaged in a conversation with two other female patrons at the bar. Within 10 minutes, we were rudely interrupted by the bar tender who made a hostile outburst towards me stating “Stop Being Aggressive !!!”. I was stunned and confused and I just stared back at him asking him what he was talking about. As abrupt as he was before, he motioned to one of the managers and stated with conviction “He is being aggressive, throw them out !!!”. The manager without hesitation forcefully asked me and my friend to follow him; which we obliged, and we headed towards the elevator. From there we took the elevator to the 2nd floor where the hotel desk floor was located. The manager then instructed the hotel attendants that we are not allowed to get back into the hotel. I was not even allowed to go back to my hotel room to grab my belongings and had to call my wife to come down. One thing to note, in between the bar tender’s outbursts and him calling out to the manager, I did inquire from the patrons if I was being rude or aggressive. They confirmed that I was not, but regardless, I apologized if I made them feel uncomfortable. Another important thing to note, the victims (patrons) of my aggressive behavior never said a word nor were they asked anything; that is, neither did they complain about me or my friend nor did the manager inquire from them if indeed I was being aggressive. If anything, this was a friendly conversation and we could have easily walked away without any issues if the request was made in a respectful way by either the patron themselves, the bartender or the manager. To note, after the manager left us at the desk, things did get a bit wild and I did cause a commotion to the point of shouting (and police were called) because the following points occurred to me: I had been unfairly thrown out of bar / restaurant due to underlying discrimination by both the bar tender and the restaurant manager. I was being evicted out of the entire Hilton Hotel even though the issue occurred at the rooftop bar due to this discriminatory act. Refund Denial - I was demanding for my refund for the Hotel stay and the hotel helpdesk refused. The police who were there were threatening to arrest me as I was still at the hotel premises and I had been evicted. Supporting evidence - The Patrons / Victims who should have been the ones driving this issue never made a complaint nor did anyone reach out to them to confirm this allegation. My friend and I were the true victims and everything had been orchestrated to make us look guilty. My view is put alcohol, black male, female and the word aggression into the same pot and the black man will be guilty until proven innocent – even with the absence of proof or evidence.

I did call Hilton afterwards and requested to create a case. It was successfully created but based on the finding / feedback I got; the institution is as morally contaminated as the restaurant as they gave one worded feedback – we will not be issuing you a refund. No investigation or finding was made to counteract this discriminatory act if indeed it existed. To conclude, I am disassociating myself from this institution and ending my Hilton Honor’s membership. I had people stay at this particular location during my wedding and I have also recommended a lot of people to come stay at this location. This may have been a great place to stay before, but now I would advise you stay away from it lest you become a victim of...

NEVER AGAIN. It all started when I called CS and explained that my flight into DC would be early and if I could add another day to my stay. She stated that my room wasn’t available, and I would be able to stay in the 'transfer lounge'. Upon arrival, I realized that was the lobby. In the center of everything … the lobby. We arrived at the hotel at 930am and was clearly interrupting Derek by merely walking up to the desk. When I explained that we were early, I was interrupted mid-sentence saying there was nothing that he could do but take our luggage and hold it until our room was ready. He proceeded to grab our luggage and place the orange tags on them and walked away. When he came back, he stated that we would just have to check back later to see if the room was available. I excused his lack of eye contact and professionalism because it was early in the morning. About 3 hours later, I went back to the desk to ask Nia how I would know when my room was available. She seemed so irritated said something about at the managers request - rooms aren’t assigned. She ended with you will just have to come back later and keep checking. While waiting in the lobby, I noticed how Derek & Nia’s attitude would change when approached by other guests. I could hear them laughing and joking when they answered their questions and what seemed like checking them in. I watched the restaurant staff change 3 shifts, the cleaning crew clean the lobby and power wash the balcony. Everyone saw me sitting there. It was embarrassing. A manager in a black jacket with a red flower in the lapel walked past and went to the desk more than once. We made eye contact a couple of times and nothing. I had bags with me, so it was obvious that I was waiting on a room. I saw him so many times, he has an anchor tattooed on the right side of his neck. The lack of overall customer was ridiculous. Not once was I asked if I needed anything. EVERYTIME I would get up to go to the bathroom and Derek / Nia thought I was walking to the desk, they pretended to look busy and look down. It's now 2:30p … and I go back to Nia with the same question. NOW she decides to ask for my last name. As soon as she pulls up my reservation, her attitude changed and now she’s concerned. She said the room was ready but it hasn’t been inspected yet and to have a seat and she’ll come to me. 10-15 minutes go by and she comes and tells me that the toilet isn’t working but they’re working on it. She apologizes and offers me a drink. I decline. She comes over again to update me that they’re still working on it. but forgets my last name. Then about 330p or so .. my room is ready. At that point, she’s being extra nice. She apologized about the wait and asked if no one asked for my name since I’ve been at the hotel. I said .. neither you nor Derek did. She rambled on about the amenities and asked me again if I wanted that drink. I declined again and walked away. This is discrimination. I was traveling early so I guess being in sweat pants, I didn’t look the part. I am sure nothing about me looked as if I could afford the river front room. Everyone should be treated with the same amount of respect! The silver lining to all of this was the night lead Antonio. He did come and talk to me when he saw me in the lobby the next evening. He apologized and that’s really all I wanted. He said he didn’t know the whole story and glad that I told him, and he was going to take it back and try his best to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future. Good staff are hard to find. Give that man a raise! Gladys was very accommodating as well. Saturday late night the toilet stopped working. ( I wonder why) I called the desk and a man said there was nothing that he could do but leave a message for maintenance. When I talked to Gladys, she was super friendly and patient. If you must stay, the view from the river front room was AMAZING. That’s it. The room was mediocre, and I killed a baby roach and left the crime scene as we were checking out.

That was my reminder that...

During my stay my diamond status did not seem to matter to Canopy. There was no mention of my status at checkin.  The associate advised I could get breakfast at the central canopy cafe, but did not clarify if it was a redemption of my breakfast at the location. (I was charged 46 dollars for breakfast, on our 2nd day. I learned about this on my checkout bill). Once we got to our floor and got off the elevator, we were greeted by the odor of burning marijuana. We know its 2020 and marijuana uses is welcomed more openly, but my wife and I do not smoke at all and the property is sappoused to be smoke free. During our stay we saw hotel staff on our floor but the odor continued throughout our stay. When we got to our room the door Jam had a seal on it proclaiming the cleaning measures performed on the room, once we began to unpack my wife and I discovered an empty water bottle on the floor next to our bed. Any rational person could easily deduct that the bottle either belonged to a hotel staff member or worse case the prior occupants. Both scenarios run contradictory to the seal placed on the door. Prior to arrival at the hotel I messaged the hotel that I would be celebrating my birthday and that was the reason for my stay at the location, during checkin/stay not one mention of my birthday from the staff as well as nothing in my room. I have stayed in other Hilton properties to celebrate birthdays and special occasions and they have done a much better job in the past with cards, cake, on site credit ect. There is a large construction project next to the hotel, there was no notice about this on the hotels web page nor did I recieve any correspondence in reference. As a result on our 2nd day we were awoken early in the morning by noise coming from the job site. On the 2nd day at the location my wife and I purchased coffee from the bakery on the ground floor, we wanted to sit on the wharf and drink our coffee, and enjoy the beautiful views advertised by the hotel. When we went to try and sit in an open court yard area we were stopped by central cafe staff and told the area was only for cafe patrons. I explained that I was staying at the property, We were directed to a sitting area off the lobby (That did not offer a view of the wharf), as it had rained recently the entire area and seat cushions were soaking wet/ dirty. Also the area seemed to be over run by small catipiliers, there were squashed catipiliers all over the sitting area. When my wife and I attempted to enter the hotel through a nearby door, we discovered the access key sensor was broken, this caused us to have to walk around and through the central cafe to get back into the hotel. When I told the front desk associate that the door censor was broken and that we had to walk all the way around, she apologized but she was aware of the broken door sensor. On Saturday I called the front desk to see if my breakfast credit could be used on saturday for brunch at the property. I was told that I could not as the brunch was ala carte, when I explained that I recently stayed at a Hilton property in Ocean city MD (newly renovated Double Tree = great stay and service) and I was able to redeem ala carte breakfast. The associate seemed to ignore what I told him and plainly state that Canopy had not worked out a way to redeem breakfast. In my opinion the property suffers from a lack of attention to detail, on the surface things seem to be right with this property. But during our stay things were revealed to be lacking in the above situations. We were expecting an experience similar to staying at a Conrad property, but it fell short of that.

The pros are that the property has a great elevator system, the nautical theme is beautiful and well thought out. Despite the above observations the associates that we delt with were friendly and...