Embassy Suites by Hilton Washington DC Georgetown — Hotel in Washington

We travel corporately several times each year and have always stayed in this location with no problem. Each time, we normally book by calling "reservations," but this time they were booked online. We booked four rooms two weeks ago. Normally, when we call, we are able to request a room on the highest floors. We do not mind any extra costs associated with this. We were just at the hotel in October and rooms were booked on the top two floors. On Sunday night/Monday morning we noticed we were able to e-check in. When selecting rooms, we noticed that we were only able to select the 6th floor. We emailed the hotel with a very direct question and received an email that did not answer our question. We then called Hilton and was informed that since we had already e-checked in, we would be unable to make any changes and would need to call the front desk of the hotel. We called the hotel and after speaking for several minutes, we realized the person did not understand what we were stating. We asked if they could remove the e-check in so we could call to the reservation desk to choose another room. We were informed that they could cancel the reservation for one room and we could call the reservation desk to rebook. No problem. We called back to reservations and they advised that, again, our room was still showing that it was e-checked in. We called back to the front desk and was informed that it would be a late cancellation if we were to cancel although we were rebooking since it was another hotel. We were NOT okay with this as no one, up until now, informed us of this, but we were willing to just take the room and stay one night and work with reservations to get a higher floor for the remainder of our stay. We spoke with a person in reservations who advised that she was speaking with the hotel front desk and they had cancelled the room, waived the late cancellation fee and was putting in notes that we were requesting the 8th or 9th floor. She then informed us of the rates for the "new" room. We were pleased and thanked her. After traveling for 5.5 hours to get to the hotel on Monday, we were informed that three of the rooms were on the 6th floor (and that was fine), and the King Corner Suite was on the....3rd floor!!!! We were very upset. We informed the staff of the discussion from the reservation desk and tried to pull up the info/email from the cell phone. At this moment, the phone battery was done! The Staff looked and was unable to find any reservation for us anywhere else. Not only was the original room NOT CANCELED, but there weren't even any rooms available at The District. So, we were in the SAME type of room on an even LOWER floor AND paid more than the original reservation because we were booking it same day instead of in advance. In addition, we were now booked for not three or four rooms, but SIX!!!! It took some time and it was late, but the additional rooms were cancelled and we were just ready to get to a room...and send this review!! To make matters worse, a credit card authorization was already submitted for all four rooms, yet we were also charged for three of the rooms on our personal cards!!! We were informed that it would take 7-10 business days to clear!!

We are very upset that the staff just blatantly lied. Had they advised that we would not be able to get a higher floor because the hotel was fully booked, FINE! But, don't insult us when you know that no changes were made!

Robi was VERY friendly when we initially called regarding the credit card authorization and even called back to assure that it was received.

We have traveled to this hotel numerous times over the last 12 years and have never had issues...until this time. We have to travel to Washington in a few weeks and stay for 11 days. We have booked elsewhere.

As a Gold status Hilton Honors Member, this...

This was the most terrible experience for us in many years. Very possibly the worst hotel we have ever stayed in, ever! The first room we got, was flooded before we even settled in. Some kind of water leak. We were switched to another room that then had the water cut off for several hours for the next two days of our stay in order to fix the water leak in the first room. Both rooms were in pretty bad shape. In fact the entire hotel is very dated and an eye sore. Seems there hasn’t been a single remodel in years. Yet, they have the nerve and audacity to add a $25 DAILY charge for something they like to call, “RESORT FEE”. Really? I am certain Hilton doesn’t have a clue what a resort is as this place was nowhere near resort quality. In fact, I dare to say, this place struggles to reach 2 stars! They try to make you feel better about this blatant rip-off by giving you a credit of $25 in the form of an expense card you have to present at the bar or at the convenience store. The card has many restrictions and it is designed to rip you off even further! $5 for a pop tart? $5 for a pack of oreos? $5 for a bag of skittles? And don’t you dare to take the card to the bar. Two dinks will run you $30 making you spend more than what the card allows you to and I am sure this is their master plan. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this is illegal! Also, be aware of what they call “free” breakfast which runs from 7am to 10am according to the literature. The problem is the place starts running out of food by 9:00am and they make it a point not to refill most of the items. I know because I asked one of the workers that had no interest in bringing anything else out. I have pictures of empty trays everywhere. So what appears to be a big spread at first, is all fake unless you get there first thing in the morning even when you don’t have to get up early. Even then, the entire exercise is futile as the designated breakfast area is completely unsuitable to handle large crowds. After 8:00am you will be hard pressed to find a table making you take your now cold breakfast back to your room if you don’t want to eat standing up and that is after spending 15 minutes in line to get your overcooked eggs and burnt bacon. The Wifi, when we could get on it with our iPhones, was terrible, flaky and slow. Most of the time we were not even able to get on it giving some kind of connection error. To top things off, on our last couple of days someone had the bright idea to dump fresh manure on all the planters and surrounded greenery outside the door making the entire hotel entrance stink to $hit to the point of vomiting. All in all, I am done with Hilton. I am converting my Honors points to airline miles never to set foot in any of the properties these pathetic con...

TL;DR: I stayed here for 6 nights on a business trip. I would classify it as good but not great.

Me: I’m a Hilton Gold member, so I travel frequently and I’m very familiar with the Hilton family of brands, but this was my first stay at an Embassy Suites. I used Lyft (and walking) for all travel within DC.

The Good: The hotel appears to be recently renovated, so style is modern and the hotel is clean overall. Plenty of space in the suite. The bed was very comfortable. House keeping comes daily. Free hot breakfast, and the evening reception is a nice touch. There is a small grocery store (Streets Market) directly across from the hotel.

The Bad: When I first arrived at my room, I noticed that it felt warm. The thermostat was set to 65, so I figured that it was turned on just before I arrived and had simply not cooled down yet. Apparently not the case. I would estimate that the room never dropped below 74 that night. I sleep best in a cold room, so sleep was not good that night. When I showered the next morning, the water was borderline cold even at maximum “hot” on the valve. I also noticed that the bathroom sink drained very slowly (took a few minutes after washing hands for the sink to empty). There were enough issues with the room that I asked to move to another room. The staff reluctantly accommodated the request. Water was hot and no draining issues in the new room, but the A/C still struggled to cool the room. Thankfully, by the 3rd day of my trip, the outside temperature had dropped and the lack of cooling was no longer an issue. Heat worked as it should. The remaining items are really just nitpicking, but I will leave them here for customer awareness and hotel feedback: The breakfast does not start until 7AM, so you will miss it if you have an early meeting or flight. The evening reception is 5:30pm-7pm, so you will miss it if not at the hotel during this window. The food at the restaurant is not great. Its not horrible but also not worth the price. Chef Geoff’s is next door (located in the Hilton Garden Inn) and is similarly priced but the food is much much better. The atrium style hotel means that in the evening you hear occasional noise from the restaurant/bar below while in the living area of the suite. There is a door to separate the living area and bedroom, so the noise was not an issue while trying to sleep. The bathroom light is on a motion sensor (nice during the day, but unwelcomed in the middle of the night).

Conclusion: I will likely stay somewhere else the next time I come to D.C. but I will still consider stays at other Embassy Suites locations. Other than the A/C cooling and hot water issues, all other issues experienced were very minor. After some slight improvements, this hotel could be...