Pokye

Hotel Washington

I am currently on vacation - in the middle of a weeks stay in Washington DC before heading up to New York. I’ve been to this city before but this time, my hotel of choice was fully booked so it was time to find somewhere new. I rarely give a ‘review’ of anything but sometimes, something can be so good, or so bad, that it merits a mention. The Hotel Washington indeed falls into the category of ‘I really must warn people about this place’.

It looked pretty good on the website. Located on Pennsylvania and 15th directly opposite the US Treasury building with the White House behind it, it seemed to have it all. Location, grandeur, history. Instead, it is quite simply the worst US hotel I have ever stayed in. Beware of this place.

When you arrive at this $400 a night sorry place there is no doorman or porter to lug your cases up the front steps. At reception you are met by the most humourless old woman imagineable who has quite clearly had her smile muscles removed. The corridor outside our room looked like it hadn’t seen a vacuum cleaner for a month. The room was pokey. The bathroom door doesn’t even close let along lock. The luxurious marble bath is, in fact, an ordinary white bath surrounded in marble effect tiling. And the luxurious rug is a fluffy floor mat.

Having been here a few days now I realise that not smiling and being polite to customers must be a hotel policy. The waiting staff are just the same. As you sit at breakfast eating your cold sausage, bacon and egg wondering where the hell the pot of tea you requested has got to let alone why don’t I have a napkin, the waitresses walk past your table scowling as if daring you to ask for something. It’s not worth asking as in reality, the best thing to do is to get the hell out of the hotel as quick as possible.

OK - this was once a pretty grand place even if always upstaged by the Willard next door. It is now on the lower rungs of hotel life with delusions that it can still cut the mustard. A few smiles, some flowers and those little things like little bottles of shampoo in the bathroom and enough towels would go an awful long way to lift the spirits of the customers.