Courtyard by Marriott Washington Downtown/Convention Center — Hotel in Washington

My significant other and I came to this hotel over the weekend of Awesome Con 2019. We had this hotel booked three months prior. We thought at a great rate. A week before our event we checked online just for giggles to make sure we were getting our room at the lowest rate possible in the area and it turns out this same hotel was offering a room at 150.00 less. We immediately booked that room and canceled the other one. It was not even a 4 minute walk to the Convention Center which was great as we were covering the event as part of the PRESS MEDIA. So it made carrying our equipment very easy to come to and from. After the festivities were over it was great relaxing and enjoying some of the dining options available.

We are at the Sabaro pizzeria as their prices can't be beat. Major plus is that the staff eats their own food as we watched them an hour before closing sitting and talking with each other eating dinner. There's a Subway restaurant nearby, a CVS store and just about five blocks away is a Giant Food store. If you are on a tight budget keep these in mind to save even more money. Also, don't be out after a certain time like say after 9:30pm because you'll see homeless people who well try to jog up to you and beg for change. Some are aggressive verbally. Do what you need to do and get back to your room unless you're out with friends then you're okay. Take advantage of driving around the neighborhood for free parking if you don't wanna pay for valet parking. This hotel told us flat out there was no options available for other parking besides them. We found a great parking lot called City Center Parking and we were there for just two days of overnight parking for a total of 54.00. You heard me right and that's a lot better then paying almost 150.00 for parking at the hotel for just two measly days. The food at the hotel is good but very pricey so do try to go to the store beforehand. Which reminds me we had to keep turning the fridge on every two hours to make sure our perishables didn't go to waste. It seems after you've done that about four times when you get ready to go to bed and sleep your food is okay the next day but you will need to turn it back on sadly and repeat. So do plan accordingly. Also, no microwave! So much for TV meals! What do you say to a mom who needs to warm up milk for the baby? More options the better. Overall a decent hotel but needs to work better in these areas and especially in...

I came for a short stay for work. After an 8-hour flight all I cared about was resting up. The doors were clearly heavy yet so thin I could hear EVERYTHING in the hallway. Even normal-level conversations. It was so difficult to sleep. Then by 8:45am I could hear the staff coming through yelling "Housekeeping!" all down the hallway. Before 9am?? My flight came in at close to midnight so I was exhausted. Then I had to shout through the door with housekeeping when they got to my room to say "No, thank you" to room service, and they yelled at me and told me checkout was at 12. Okay, well, it's 9am now...On my last day my meeting ran late and I got a late checkout for 1pm Okay'd by the front desk, which I really needed just so that I could return to the room to pack up y stuff and get out. Got to the room on the 7th level to see the key no longer worked. Went back down to the front to get the key renewed, wasting time and getting me frustrated being sent back and forth since the front desk told me nothing was needed for late checkout (hotel wants me out, and I myself want out, as I have a flight to catch!). This poor communication happened with breakfast, too. Went to the front desk and asked where to go for my room's complimentary breakfast, they sent me to the bar, bar sends me to the front, the front was about to tell me to go back to the restaurant when i said NO-they just sent me back here to get a card of some kind. Then the front desk asks me for my room and fills out my breakfast card (RIDICULOUS- lazy staff should have given me this card in the first place, they just don't want to deal with "work" stuff apparently). Then I returned to my room and housekeeping came back AGAIN at 11:50am and yelled, "HOUSEKEEPING!" as I was packing up. I told them, "No thank you." I was literally trying to pack up the last items to leave to make my late checkout, when they yelled back at me, "CHECKOUT IS AT 12PM, DOES THE FRONT DESK APPROVE FOR YOU TO BE HERE??" Wow, this is incredibly awkward having a yelling match through the door as I'm gathering my things. I tell them, "Yes, I know, they approved" - and I AM TRYING TO LEAVE, I HAVE A FLIGHT TO CATCH, TOO, I thought to myself. Everything about this place was awful in regards to communication from staff, and being treated like decent human being. I don't even mean 'great' customer service, like, basic human decency. This place is off the list for approved hotel stays for...

The valet here is terrible! We arrived around 4:00/4:30PM on a Saturday (check-in starts at 3:00PM). There was absolutely no room to pull in in front of the hotel. There were approximately 12 or so cars waiting for valet. The streets were posted with emergency orders for no parking. My husband had to keep driving around the surrounding blocks while I went to check in. There was a line for check in and only two staff working at the desk. The one man took a lady who came in after me and essentially butted in front of me and 3-4 other people to complain about the valet. The front desk staff weren't very explanatory or helpful. I was informed there was a $150 charge for incidentals of the room that's refunded within 14 days if it's not needed. That is nuts! Back outside, my husband and I continued to wait for valet. We got to the point we just had to pull behind the other cars and stick out in the intersection because there was no other room. Overall, we waited approximately an hour just for our car to get parked. It was a 15 minute loading zone, but vehicles sat there for 30-45 minutes barely moving. There wasn't enough staff. Some people just left their vehicles to be parked. I didn't feel comfortable doing that. They claim to park the vehicles in the garage down the road. We could've parked our own vehicle a lot more timely! It's also $51/day. There's no other parking option that we were able to find. Other garages on Google maps nearby were closed, and there was a $20/day lot but no overnights allowed. I was getting frustrated thinking we were going to miss our dinner reservation! They told us we could come and go as much as we wanted, but we weren't about to hassle with that anymore and just ubered around. The room was "normal." The bed was fine. The pillows were feather pillows and rather flat. The room was clean, except for one thing. When I was getting out of the shower to dry off, I noticed my towel had brown stains on it! With only two of us staying in the room, we had only been given two full sized towels, and my husband had already used the other one and had it on the floor. I always thought hotels used whites so they could be bleached and clean for the next guest, but...