Thompson Washington D.C., by Hyatt — Hotel in Washington

The Thompson Hotel has been very disappointing to say the least. It's been the worst hotel I've stayed in, and I travel quite frequently. To start, upon check-in, the front desk staff was not friendly—in fact, they were ice cold. Aside from being told about the breakfast, the only words spoken may have been "Hello" and then "ID and credit card?" I wasn't warmly greeted, or even told what room I was in or how to get to it until I had to ask.

I discovered the temperature of my room was a muggy 72 degrees upon entering. So, I immediately turned on the AC, and set it to 66 degrees F. Then I made my way to the lobby to get an Uber to dinner, in hopes that my room would be significantly cooler upon my return.

In need of help finding a restaurant nearby where I was meeting people, I tried to ask the concierge, but no one ever showed up at the concierge desk. I gave up waiting, so I approached the front desk & stood in front of the same cold gentleman who checked me in. Rather than acknowledge me, or inform me that it would be just a moment before he could help me, he just flipped through some papers and seemingly pretended I wasn't there or didn't exist. I politely waited there and stared directly at him hoping my quiet stare would evoke an offer of assistance. Instead, he continued to ignore me/refused to acknowledge me. Obviously irritated, I walked away, and that still didn't elicit an offer for help.

I returned from dinner three hours later and went to my room—again ungreeted by anyone at the front desk/door. My room was still very hot at 72 degrees. I double-checked the thermostat & it was still set to 66 degrees, but the room was still hot with an unchanged temperature. I felt the vent, and there was a small trickle of air flowing from it, but it was warm & not cool. I called the front desk & asked if I could move rooms or if someone from maintenance could come to the room to check the A/C. I was informed that I would not be moved to another room because they were "booked solid" & no other rooms were available. Instead, they sent up maintenance. 15 minutes later a nice gentleman showed up & fiddled with the thermostat, but couldn't get anything working. We had some troubles communicating, but he told me he'd have to "check it down the hall." After a few minutes he returned to the room & said that the air was now working. However, several hours later the room is still extremely hot & the thermostat reads the same room temperature of 72 degrees. I decided to open the window after my second call to maintenance. However, my window faces a tall brick building with no view, so there's little chance of any breeze making its way through the window's maximum opening of four inches. I called a second time, now at midnight, when I have to be up at 5:30 am. The second maintenance man played with the thermostat & said to give it 20 minutes, but nothing has changed & the room is still uncomfortably hot.

I plugged my laptop into the electrical outlet next to the bed. Then I plugged my phone into the USB port in the same outlet. However, I noticed my phone wasn't charging & discovered that I could only plug in a single device into USB outlet OR into the electrical outlet, but not both. Since I only had a USB plug for that USB outlet and not an electrical plug, I went back downstairs to ask the staff if they had a charger I could buy or borrow (very common for nearly every hotel now), I was told "no." One clerk said, "would this work?" and held up an Android charger that would do, but the other clerk butted in and said, "No we can't do that," and then proceeded to lie to me, saying, "that charger won't work." So, I politely asked for any stores nearby where I could buy a charger, and the staff said, "no, there aren't any," and simply brushed me off, without offering any other help.

See my other comments in the room-specific details I provided in this review.

I'm supposed to stay two nights here, but I'm planning on leaving this hotel tomorrow and that's not soon enough. Do...

TL:DR Booked two rooms for two nights, confirmed multiple times that we wouldn’t have to move—only to be told mid-stay that we did have to switch rooms, conveniently right before a wedding. Missing linens, broken in-room cocktail maker, and a shower that only offered arctic drizzle or scalding lava. Valet was great, but forgot to plug in our EV. Breakfast bill had surprise fees, including a 20% service charge + 20% auto-gratuity + extra gratuity line for good measure. Check-out? Overcharged, and forgot my $100 credit. Overall, great staff, but the miscommunication was a challenge.

Long version: Our stay at the Thompson was an experience, just not in the way we had hoped.

Arrival: After a 10-hour drive with three kids, we arrived exhausted. The valet? Absolutely fantastic. At check-in, I triple-confirmed that our two-night, two-room reservation had been consolidated so we wouldn’t have to move. “Oh yes, of course!” they said. “Everything is set!” they promised.

It was not.

The First Night: We got to our rooms. The pull-out bed had no linens. After two calls and 90 minutes, a knock at the door. Our long-awaited delivery? Two sheets and a pillow. Looking to decompress, I attempted to use the in-room automatic cocktail maker. It reeked of syrup. Curious, I popped in a capsule, only to discover the machine was broken—stuck open, leaking a slow, sticky cocktail of disappointment. I took this as a sign and went to bed.

Day Two: After a morning of sightseeing, we returned with just enough time to get three kids ready for a wedding. Except—my husband’s key didn’t work. Why? Because despite three separate confirmations, we are being forced to change rooms. These rooms, of course, become available at 4 PM. The wedding? At 2:30 PM.

After some deep breaths, I reminded them (again) of our previous conversations. Apologies were given, but the only solution was a $100 food credit—which, while appreciated, did not help with the small matter of where we were supposed to shower and get dressed in the next 30 minutes. After negotiations, we were allowed to stay in one of the two rooms. In a mad rush, we attempt to shower, only to discover that the water pressure is akin to a leaky faucet, and the temperature fluctuates between "glacier runoff" and "lava." The kids choose the polar bear plunge and we trickle-bathed in ice water.

After a wonderful wedding (off-property, thankfully), we called down and asked they move our EV to a charging station overnight for the 10-hour drive home. “Of course!” they said.

The next morning, I checked our app. The car had not been plugged in. My husband ran down to find it parked next to open chargers, just… unplugged.

We decided to make use of our credit and got breakfast which also came with some surprises: a 20% “service fee” and a 20% auto-gratuity, along with a erroneously billed americano turned a $150 bill into $250 with tax.

Check-Out: We called for our car in the morning, and instead received a visit from a cheery bellhop with a large dolly (we had one suitcase). Went downstairs and spoke to the valet himself (again, amazing), who quickly brought around the car as I settled the bill. Though I rarely do, I requested a hard copy—just in case. Good thing I did. First, they had checked me out under the wrong room number—though, in fairness, this one was likely a miscommunication on my part. Still, it was impressive that this wasn’t caught at the time of payment but only when I requested a hard copy of the receipt. Next, my $100 food credit had mysteriously vanished. Both were corrected, but I decided to check my credit card charges to make sure they reflected the hard copy receipts. They did not. Four separate transactions. Three matched. The fourth? Double charged for breakfast. A call to the hotel was met with a cheerful, “Oh, that’s just a system glitch! It should correct itself in three days.”

Final Verdict: The Thompson is a nice hotel with some fantastic staff, but the level of miscommunication made for a...

A lovely modern hotel, with a rooftop bar worth seeking out for its own sake.

The location in the rapidly redeveloping SE waterfront of DC couldn't be better. It's a block or so from the metro, mere feet (a minute's walk) from a cluster of very good restaurants & bars, just a couple of blocks from Nationals Park (and the variety of restaurants there). The riverfront is close. As a local, this is the "fresh new" part of town.

But the service negatives...weren't great for a premium, boutique property:

Barely any greeting at check-in. No mention of amenities, or bar hours, questions of what I might need. Zilch. I booked through an agency, but this is still a premium property and every guest should be welcomed. No towels or floor mat in the bathroom -- literally only one handtowel and one washcloth. I was going out immediately, so didn't note this until the next morning. An equally terse checkout. No offer of checking/printing a folio or asking after departure needs. Granted, the reception clerk was struggling to store an excessive amount of guest luggage at the time, but inanimate suitcases can wait-- attend to the human first. Or staff up appropriately. And there's a $30 "destination fee". That they didn't mention at check-in OR check-out. If everybody has to pay it, mention that it'll come out of the credit hold-- surely others will be surprised or unaware also? Presenting a printed bill to customers whose email you don't have is another simple way to note the fee. C'mon, basic hospitality: no surprise charges. Never mind that a boutique urban hotel shouldn't have a "destination" fee. Universally-detested "resort" fees (that the feds are moving to ban) at least usually exist for a reason, typically covering out-of-hotel services (like beach towels, shuttle buses, watersports, etc). What non-standard service this fee covers is not mentioned anywhere I saw, nor in correspondence with the hotel and with Hyatt. If you need more revenue per room, build it into the room rate. A mandatory fee to bring the advertised rate down is dishonest. The kicker-- I emailed the hotel (using the address on their official "contact us") to ask about the mysterious charge. No response. I emailed Hyatt about the lack of response, and they got Thompson DC to finally respond to explain the charge (a whole week passed by this point). My follow-up reply email to THAT also ignored. Clearly somebody is not interested in monitoring their inbox.

The rooftop bar deserves further mention-- it has a huge wrap-around area with views, and the inside space is cozy-- weird to not have the hotel hype up this jewel? At least tell guests "the bar is open until...". The drinks there were good (not unusual) but anything served in this kind of setting is automatically enhanced.

Other thoughts: The 2nd (lobby) bar was strangely empty / unmanned, both early & late (and just one couple there in the morning). A bit strange for such a large space.

The bed was comfortable.

I travel heavily, staying at ~30 different, diverse properties per year -- so small things don't bug me, they're normal. But cumulative or multiple issues often imply a systemic problem. I dock one star for the "destination fee" fun & one star for the service snafu.

I'll definitely return to the bar, but unlikely to...