Homewood Suites by Hilton Washington, D.C. Downtown — Hotel in Washington

So a group of us had to stay in D.C. for a mission and this was the second hotel I selected for the group, after staying at the Hilton Garden Inn on 14th St., which definitely sucked. I must say, I wish I would've reserved this one for us from the beginning of our time in D.C. When I walked from the job site looking for replacement hotels, this was the last one I visited in the area. The first two were suite hotels as well but closer to the Dupont Circle area. I was welcomed by Katia, one of the managers, who allowed me to see a room that we'd be staying in. I was impressed by the room size and the amenities. Each suite had a separate bed area and then there was the living room area. That was pretty awesome! My pros/cons are below:

Pros- Awesome staff! Katia and her team really helped us out. We were pulled from D.C. back to the Dumfries/Quantico area, then told to go back to D.C.; so there was a lot of checking in and out of multiple hotels over a two-week period. The staff were very professional and understood our situation. Once it was confirmed that we were actually going to stay in D.C. for a longer period, she immediately reserved my group rooms, plus an additional three personnel that I had to bring with me. Not one nasty attitude or contempt from her. That is greatly appreciated and not common nowadays. Thank you, Katia! Kitchenettes. I cannot say enough about being able to cook while away from home. Most of us do not want to eat out all the time or eat frozen meals, so having a kitchenette was great. There were pots, pans, utensils, you name it, and that was great too. There was a full-size fridge too. Separate lounging area from the bedroom. I thought that was good because I could work while watching football, then go to sleep in my separate area. Just more of a convenience for me. The water pressure in the shower was great! My bed was fine. I fell asleep easily and didn't wake up sweating so that's a plus. BREAKFAST! The breakfast was unmatched in all the hotels I've stayed in while in VA. Everything was good. They even had turkey bacon one morning, which I enjoy since I don't eat pork bacon. The eggs were good; not sure if they were fresh or powdered, but they tasted fresh. Just overall a great way to start the morning off. The location was great. It is nestled right on Massachusetts Ave and we worked about six minutes away, so that made our walk that much better. Compared to the Hilton, this was a no-brainer to move here especially when the room rate was the same for both, but Homewood provided more amenities and better rooms compared to the Hilton Garden Inn. The fitness room was average. One treadmill was not working, but there was another one that I used, so no complaints here. Across the street from Wawa! Many stores close by.

Cons- My dishwasher must not have been used in ages, because when I opened it, the smell was awful. I didn't use it either; just washed my dishes by hand. My tub in my second room was peeling. Not too terrible since the water pressure made up for it. My room key didn't work a bunch of times and neither did the app when I tried to go to my floor, so I had to get my key re-imaged a few times. That was annoying. When you sit on the toilet, your knees will hit the door or prevent it from being closed, so watch out for that. Whoever was the designer for the layout of the rooms sucked. Most of my towels had hair on them, so I was only able to use one. I do not use towels that have other people's hair on them; that is definitely nasty. Since my second stay was only less than a week, I used my one towel. In my first room, the towels were good so I had no complaints on that one. And for those reasons, is why I only gave the hotel four stars.

Other than those few things, I would definitely stay here if I ever had to go to D.C. again. And I would have no problem staying here with my kids so that counts for...

DO NOT stay in this hotel. There is a SEVERE lack of management.

1. Cleanliness: Hairs from previous guests were not removed from the shower. Had to ask call front desk 3 times for 2 days to have housekeeping come in the room and clean the shower and I had to go to a friend's apartment to shower twice each of those days until the hairs were removed from the shower. Housekeeping would not come in the room if I was not in it because I had a small dog in the room. Dog is friendly, non-aggressive breed and always wants to play. Not too many people would be afraid of it unless they have dog-related traumas.

2. Housekeeping: Was extremely unreasonable in accepting to come in the room for daily cleaning service if the dog was in the room. However, they did come in the room while I was there. At all times the dog was free to roam around the room and approach the maids while they were in the room. Several times I left the room while the maids were in it and left the dog unattended with them. The maids stayed in the room and interacted with the dog whether I was in the room or not. This leads me to conclude that they were not going in the room using the dog as an excuse to not clean the room daily as I requested during check in. The dog has traveled with me to many hotels and never have any maids have been so reluctant to do their job after meeting the dog and confirming it is non-aggressive, playful, and friendly. Lastly, the 3 times out of 7 nights housekeeping cleaned my room I had to call them back each time because they either forgot to remove the trash and/or replenish items (e.g.: soap, shampoo, conditioner, coffee, sugar, towels, etc.)

3. Complementary Breakfast: Hot food items (e.g.: eggs, bacon, meats, potatoes), coffee, orange/apple juice and pastries run out fast and are not replenished until the staff is asked about the items.

4. Seating for Breakfast: The hotel has 7-8 floors and about 25 rooms per floor additional seating is needed during breakfast. Guests have no option but to take food to their rooms and there are no food packing materials (e.g.: aluminum wrap or to-go bags). Otherwise, guest must wait for seating space to become available or sit in a lobby sofa/chair and eat without a table.

5. Electrical outlets: All the electrical outlets in the room were loose (i.e.: not properly fixed to the wall). Also, only one terminal out of two per outlet was working. I had to move the bed, two nightstands and the sofa bed to plug in my items and the room lamps. Also had to buy a power strip to have enough working outlets to plug in my devices (e.g.: smart phone, smart watch, tablet, laptop, etc.)

6. Unfriendly staff: Front desk staff was unfriendly and unwilling to find solutions to address my concerns. This happened with 3 out of 4 concerns I tried to address with them: Concern 1 was regarding the removal of hair from previous guest on the shower. Concern 2 was regarding the unreasonable unwillingness of housekeeping staff to clean my room while the dog was in it. Concern 3 was regarding the removal of state taxes from my stay despite presenting front desk with a tax exemption certificate issued to the government agency I work with which clearly states it is valid in all 50 states and Washington D.C. I have stayed in many hotels across the nation on government travel, even in D.C. before, and never has any hotel denied the removal of taxes from the bill.

7. Transportation: There are minimal public transportation options around the hotel's location. Takes a 15-minute walk to get to the Red Metro line at Farragout North or 10-minute walk to Metro Bus stops going to business...

Upon check in I was not given any water. I've always been provided water. A member of my team checked in within an hour after me and was provided water, so I know the hotel had water. It was about 10:00 PM when I checked in and due to not being provided water, I had to walk 2 blocks to the nearest Wawa to buy water. On the way I was harassed by a homeless person. Had I been provided water, I wouldn't have walked to get water, and I would have been able to avoid the harassment. Due to the location of this hotel, there's a dark alleyway to the street. Have you ever walked down a dark alley way in downtown DC at 10:30 at night by yourself with homeless people around?

The night of Tuesday the 27th was the worst night. Room 515, next to my room, was loud. Kids continuously screamed "I want my Mommy" and a puppy barked non-stop. I went do the front desk and reported. The person at the front desk said they'd send security to investigate. I returned to my room, but the noise continued. Everyone could hear them screaming and dog barking down the hall. I called the front desk and they told me security knocked on the door and that kids answered. The kids told security that their parents were in the lobby. Then the front desk told me that they don't know where the parents are, because no one was in the lobby. It's obvious based on the information shared by the front desk that the parents had abandoned their kids in the room for the evening. The noise continued and finally at 12:30 AM I walked down to the front desk and took their offer to move to another room. I had to pack my room at 12:30 AM, move room, and then unpack. I'm supposed to be sleeping. The front desk moved me to room 707. This room was worse than the room I was in. I went from a king bed to a double bed.

The next morning at 7:00 AM I went down to the front desk to ask valet for my car. I was tired and had a long drive ahead of me to get to where I was working for the day. The front desk asked me how the new room was and I shared how I was moved from the king bed to the double bed. They apologized and said that they would move me to a better room that had a king bed and offered to provide a room with a better view. Room 707 had a horrible room of a brick wall. I graciously accepted, but then the front desk didn't move me and kept me in the worse room.

Overall it was a horrible experience. The hotel staff could have and should have done a lot better. They were friendly, but failed to do what they said they would do. They failed to provide basic items like water and they failed those kids. I believe by law that they should have called the Police as soon as they found abandoned kids in room 515. Probably the worst experience I've ever had at a...