Washington Marriott Georgetown — Hotel in Washington

Avoid this hotel! Truly the worst hotel experience in 2024! If I could give this place zero stars, I would. Just read the other reviews of customers as well, and everyone complains about the exact same things and so many of us even provide specific examples, such as:

Food and Beverage - over-salted, bland, and horrible tasting food. We ate there only to use this “destination fee” that the hotel forces customers to pay. The white wine was warm, the employees don’t care about anything, and there is such a lack of even the slightest effort - it is shocking! The waiter also didn’t ask about allergies or anything and the food served had pork on it. Accounting - customers, check your bill!!!! Mine had almost $22 dollars of excess and unnecessary charges. Housekeeping - our room was not cleaned and when asked to have someone clean it, nothing was done. Instead, the night manager rolled his eyes at us and walked away. Front Valet - all they do in the front is talk on their cell phones. Nobody asks - ever - do you need a cab? Nobody helps you with luggage. But they are great at talking on the phone. Follow-up - after mentioning everything to corporate, corporate wrote back to me saying the Front Desk would follow up with me, and that never happened either.

If you want bad service, bad food, and if you want to stay in a hotel where you are treated like just another passer-by, stay at this hotel.

I have stayed at the Westin Georgetown and the Madison Hotel in 2024, and both of these properties were fantastic.

Of the 2 months I’ve lived at Marriott hotels in 2024, the Georgetown Marriott was the worst experience.

Now, let me also discuss the “destination fees.” To scam loyal Marriott Platinum customers out of $30 dollars a day with a “destination fee” is one thing, because yes, you can claim that you explicitly state that fact on your website. Fine. I am sure management will also reply that they give customers “stuff” in return, such as incredibly bad food and horrible service.

The “destination fee” is not a mandated fee by the city. There are tons of Marriott properties in DC that do not charge “destination fees,” including the Madison Hotel, which is a Marriott property. So when you see the hotel management in their response say that there’s a misunderstanding about “destination fees,” there is no misunderstanding. It is a self-determined fee that the Georgetown Marriott imposes on customers so that we are forced to eat at their horrible restaurant. If they didn’t impose this fee, that place would be completely empty. Everyone who goes there is going there either to use up their credit or perhaps because the weather outside might be so bad that there is nowhere else to go.

But the icing on the cake here is to tax customers on the $30 and then blame the DC government for that revenue that YOU are mandating on us. That is just shameful and if the DC Mayor heard your employees blaming the DC government, she would simply tell you all to just stop charging the destination fee.

The whole “destination fee” business is a well researched and well documented hotel revenue generating scam.

A company with a long history of ethics and values, like Marriott, should be above this sort of...

Is Marriott service going downhill? I used to stay at Marriott hotels regularly. Both as a business traveler and a city-break tourist. Always impeccable, consistent, Swiss-clock mechanism service. Did I say “service”? In my recent stays at Marriott hotels (Boston Cambridge and Washington DC Georgetown), it seemed they lost it… The in-room phones do have an “At your service” button. They also provide a QR-code to reward housekeepers with a cash-less gratuity to show appreciation for good service. But while the phone and the QR code seem to be aware of the notion of service, Marriott might have forgotten to continue teaching that notion to their employees and their managers. The most basic service that a hotel provides a customer (apart from a room and a bed to spend the night) is to keep that room clean, right? Well, it looks like year after year rationalized, optimized, digitalized, abstracted, QR-coded and at-your-service-phoned procedures omitted to actually “do” the service. Apparently the new rule at Washington Marriott Georgetown is that if you miss the housekeeping service at 7:30 am, well, you missed it. At least that’s what Mark Curtis, the manager on duty on the evening of Monday August 12th, tried to explain to me when I complained that my room wasn’t made when I returned at 8:30 pm after an exhausting day : “your DND sign was on at 7:30 am”. There was no “sorry it is our mistake”, no “please let me offer a refreshment while your room is being made”, no “I understand your discomfort and we sincerely apologize for it”. Instead, Mark insisted that the DND was on when the housemaid passed by our room, that he doesn’t care because anyway he started his shift at 3 pm, and literally dismissed me over the phone. Mark (and most probably other Marriott managers?) forgot that his primary job is to find a solution while reassuring and calming his customer. The old saying used to be “the customer is king”. But maybe Marriott removed this course from their curriculum. As a hospitality investment professional, I’ve had the opportunity to negotiate hotel management contracts with various hotel brands, including Marriott. And Marriott’s repeated motto “we have 6000 hotels, we can’t budge on this, we know how to run this business better than you” was always met with some degree of frustration mitigated by the rather reassuring knowledge that, yes indeed, we can trust their professionalism. But as a customer, I’m realizing that, maybe, Marriott is starting to lose it. Outperformed by other hotel chains that understand how to preserve an atmosphere, a concept, heck yeah, a service, that a customer is expecting. Well, sorry to tell you, you won’t find it at Washington Marriott...

We had an excellent stay at the Marriott Georgetown. Most significant was that the service was exceptional from the moment we arrived until we left four days later. We arrived early and were checked in and upgraded because of our gold elite standing. The desk clerk who we met was the nicest person who answered all our questions every time we saw her (wish I remembered her name.) We did deal with others at the front desk and the elite desk during the four days and every encounter was positive and pleasant. We really liked the M Club concierge lounge. We had access to the M Club 24 hours where we could get coffee drinks, fresh sparkling or still water in glass bottles, chips, fruit, juices, and other snack items. A concierge was there almost every time we stopped in. Wine was available by the pour. Wednesday and Thursday nights we had some great dinner appetizers including a salad bar, grilled chicken fingers, crab cake, and some interesting desserts later on. Each morning we have a very nice breakfast buffet in the M Lounge. Again, the staff at the M Club was hard working, helpful and pleasant. We ate dinner at the hotel’s restaurant one night. We were dressed casually and appreciated the contemporary casual nature of the main restaurant with large screen televisions and an open design. The food we ordered was good and service was prompt and efficient. The room was big and comfortable with a pull-out sofa, desk, tables and lamps and a very large wall mounted television. There was a Keurig and a nice selection of coffees and teas. There was a small refrigerator. Also in the room there was a small closet area, iron and ironing board, and one robe and slippers. Outside the closet area was the sink and vanity. The toilet and shower had a door to separate from the closet vanity area. The only negative we had about the stay at this Marriott had to do with the shower. While the shower had a nice shower head and separate hand held spray hose, the shower was a little narrow and only had one small soap dish that didn’t fit our shampoo, conditioner, shave cream, shaver, and soap. We had late check-out because of our gold elite status that helped us love this place since it allowed us to spend time at the annual Cherry Blossom Parade on the Mall downtown and come back and change before checking out for our next...