Residence Inn by Marriott Washington Downtown/Convention Center — Hotel in Washington

Depending on the room you book will determine your experience. I had a good stay and a bad stay. Let's start with the bad.

I stayed at this hotel twice in a week's time to celebrate my birthday in the city. For the first stay, I booked a Studio Double Queen for me and 4 friends. It was a Sat-Sun visit. First, there was a sign saying there was no more garage parking and when I went inside there actually was. I was almost so inconvenienced by that because I was getting ready to purchase a parking spot somewhere over a mile away because of the sign. We were in room 701. The controller to the blinds did not work, we called maintenance on it and he looked said it was broken and left. We weren't sure if he was coming back to fix it or anything, he just never returned or communicated a solution. I asked for extra towels online for our reservation and none were in the room. We asked the front desk for more and those were brought in a timely manner. The studio double rooms sleep up to six yet there was only enough cutlery, plates, and bowls for four. We requested extra, the items were never sent. There were small stains on the sheets in the bed. Yuck. The shower knob was broken and it took three of us to figure out how to get it to come on. Since the knob kept coming off it was hard to gauge the temperature of the water, so it would be either scalding or freezing. The shower was very powerful and blasted so much water that the drain could not keep up. The tub would fill and hair and debris would come up from the drain into the tub as a result. Yuck. It was also fine hair on the bathroom floor which I really did not appreciate. I had visited this hotel in the past and really enjoyed myself but this visit left me embarrassed that I chose this hotel to celebrate my birthday with friends. After we returned from dinner and prepared for bed, the pull out bed had no linens on it, nor were there any ready in the room. When I requested linens and a comforter we were told we had to come to the lobby to get them. I don't understand how they were aware that 5 people were staying in the room but supplied no linens or pillows for the pull out bed. I opted to just sleep on the couch instead of going downstairs since it was already late and I had been so displeased by the previous service. This stay was a hot mess and it shows that on busy weekends, this hotel cannot maintain a consistent routine of good service. I would rate this stay 1.5 stars.

My next stay was a Tues-Wed stay. We checked in around 7 pm and it was a breeze. We got a studio king room (814). I requested online that the room could have the tv on a swivel like the picture of the room displayed on the website, and we got it. I also requested we got a walk-in shower and that was also a part of the room. The room was extremely clean, free of hair, and overall pleasant. We were able to find parking right next to the building, which we didn't have to get up and pay for the next morning. It was only two of us staying this visit so I'm not sure what may have come up if there were more people. We called about complimentary water and they said they didn't do that. Other than that our experience was very simple and peaceful. The TV that could twist to either the couch or the bed was the highlight of the room, next was the walk-in shower. Also, the TV said, "Welcome Cierra" which I enjoyed. One thing the Studio King room does have that the Studio queen doesn't is a small kitchen island with two seats and cute lighting above. It really felt like a cute little apartment. This stay was 5 stars.

Between the two I can only give an average of 3 stars. I wish my first stay was better, the second stay was great but it wasn't so wonderful that it could change the way I feel about the hotel overall. If you want a good experience, I recommend coming at a time where there are no large-scale events happening and during the week to avoid the lack of quality service you may receive on a...

We came here for a nice staycation for my husband's birthday. This experience has been a complete nightmare! We understand there was a nationwide issue/outage for Microsoft 365 but the handling of this situation has greatly missed the mark! We "checked" into our room Friday 7/19. We are staying until 7/21. When we were unable to get keys because of the outage so every time we left the room we had to have a staff person come up and unlock our door. So we come downstairs Saturday. I left my watch upstairs and hopped back on the elevator with a group going up. The staff person pressed the floor of everyone which was 12. He asked what room number and I was like 1202. And a couple checking in said their room was also 1202. Thank goodness I just happened to be on the elevator and going up because staff were just unlocking doors and walking away. We went back downstairs to sort everything out. And the lady at the counter said that our room was listed as check in ready even though it wasn't because we were staying until Sunday. She apologized an assured me the issue was taken care of.

We stayed out all day and just got back to the hotel. We go to the counter to find a staff person to let us in. We're told the system is back up and we can finally get keys! The first guy looks up our room number and can't find us. Then he looks up my name and can't find me. A manager.... Mark comes over. And we explain to him about the issue we had earlier someone reassigning our room. He informs us we were never checked into our room. No apology nothing just a straight up attitude. He acted liked we did something wrong. Then he's like oh well I'll check you in. Then he's like we need a deposit I'm like okay. What about the paper we filled out with the credit card info yesterday when the system was down? Will we be charged twice? Can you give us the paper back? He copped an attitude and was like do you see all of these papers I can't go through all of them. So because your staff made a mistake you could potentially charge us again just because things were done wrong to begin with. My husband took out the card to pay the deposit. Mark told him to insert the card. The screen said swipe but there was tape over the swipe strip of the machine. Mark proceeds to rudely tell my husband to insert and turns the machine around. He's like well do you have another card? We're like no? It doesn't say insert. I guess he pressed something and it finally said to insert the card. Mark needs customer service training especially being a front desk manager! You don't treat paying customers that way! We've stayed at this hotel several times and have never had such a poor experience. This is our preferred hotek when coming to DC. Thank you for ruining my husband's birthday! Can't wait to check out of...

This hotel was a bit of a mess. The problems we had started at check-in:

When I made the reservation (four months prior to arrival- 11/1/18), I called the hotel to ensure that the rooms would be adjoining rooms. I was told they were. Two days before check in- on 2/26/19, I called the front desk to again ensure that the rooms would be adjoining. I was told they would put in a request and to call on the day of check in to be sure. I called again on the day of check in- on 2/28/19- and again requested that the rooms be adjoining. I was told that yes, the rooms were connected. When I arrived, after traveling for ten hours with three children and an adult with special needs, I was told that there were no adjoining rooms left in the hotel. Again, I have three children aged 4 and under, and am traveling with an adult that has special needs. The reason I booked this hotel was because I could get adjoining rooms and thus be able to keep an eye on the kids and the adult at the same time. So now, it is time to go to sleep and I have two rooms on different floors and no way to get everyone to bed. I asked if there are any rooms, anywhere that are connected and was told that, no, they could not accommodate us. This left me in a huge dilemma. I asked for a crib to be sent to the room while I tried to figure out how to make the next week work in a situation that is highly difficult since I have not figured out how to be in two different places simultaneously.

I waited an hour for the crib to come while on the phone with Marriott and while my husband tried to beg the front desk for help. The crib never came. I opened the app and used the "chat" feature to ask for a crib. It never connected to anyone and after about 20 minutes, I gave up (I have a screen capture of this). I called the front desk to again ask for a crib. After another half hour, I gave up and put my 6 month old baby to sleep on the floor in the corner so that I could try to set up a sleeping arrangement for everyone else in the same room, since, again, I can't be in two places at once and so that second room on a different floor was essentially useless to us.

There were a number of other, less significant issues, but honestly, if I had known this is what staying here would be like, I would have chosen...