My 11 year-old son and I recently spent 9 nights at Holiday Inn Capitol during the Fourth of July festivities.
I would recommend the HI Capitol and am planning to stay there again on my next visit to D.C. There were a few negatives (discussed below), but many positives.
We made our reservations in February and obtained a $136 per night rate with a AAA discount. I believe the rates were low for the week because Congress was in recess for the Fourth of July. I booked through the hotel website.
The Hotel has 9 stories and is arranged in a C shape, with courtyard in the interior of the C. The hotel has a connection to the lobby of the FEMA office building next door. There are no guest rooms on the ground floor. We were given room 949, near the southwest corner of the top floor.
There are four elevators off the main lobby to serve the guest rooms. The elevators were quick – we rarely had to wait more than 30 seconds for a car to come. There is one additional elevator near the restaurants on the ground floor. That elevator was very slow to move between the floors. The wait for the single elevator could be a few minutes and the car was often full.
We had a room with two double beds. The beds were very comfortable – we slept well. The mattress was firm, the pillows were comfortable. The bathroom had considerable counter space and a tub with shower. The shower was high enough (I am 6’3” and it was above my head) and delivered a strong flow of hot water. One drawback in the bathroom was the lack of a fan to try to vent the steamy, hot air from the shower. The bathroom area was clean.
The room has an air conditioning unit by the window, but it is controlled by a thermostat on the wall far from the unit. We had some difficulty keeping the room cool due to the windows facing the southwest and the room receiving direct sunlight during the afternoon and evening. We were never able to freeze the room down to what I consider an ideal sleeping temperature around 68, but I had only one night where I felt warm. There is an air flow guide on the unit that directs the air towards the room and away from the window. The drawback is that sitting at the desk in the room, you get the air directly on you. The desk is the coldest part of the room.
We had very few concerns with noise in the room. The air conditioning unit provides a white noise that muffles most outside sound. Early in the morning right before waking up, I did hear a few trains going by on the tracks that run along the back of the hotel, but I was never awaken by noise from the trains. I also heard no noise from the hallways or the adjacent rooms.
Rooms had a small refrigerator, coffee maker and hair dryer. There was no in room safe and no microwave. The refrigerator was great for beverages – there is a CVS near the hotel that has water and other drinks – cheaper than hotel vending machines. Bring your own if you are driving to the hotel.
The location of the hotel is a selling point. Only two blocks from the Air & Space Museum and the National Mall. Most of the attractions are within walking distance. With all the museums offering free admission, it is easy to head back to the hotel for a midday rest or lunch as it is just a short walk back.
The hotel is located between 1 and 2 blocks from the L’Enfant Plaza Metro stop – 4 of the 5 lines on the Metro stop here (only the Red Line does not serve L’Enfant Plaza). The L’Enfant Plaza station is a large station with four exits. Make sure you use either the 7th & Maryland or 7th & D Street exits to access the hotel. The hotel is at 6th & C. If you use the 7th & Maryland, continue walking straight ahead off the Metro escalators and turn right at the corner of Maryland & 6th. If you exit at the 7th & D Street exit, do a U turn when you leave and then turn right. Go to the traffic light and turn left, go under the railroad tracks and the hotel is on the right. Do NOT exit at the other exits from the Metro at this station. We learned the hard way our second night at the hotel. We exited after sunset and could not see our hotel and were very disoriented for a few minutes as we were a few blocks away from where we had previously exited. While nothing unsafe, being in an unfamiliar place with very few people out and about at night is not a comfortable feeling. All the exits are well marked in the station.
The hotel has a guest laundry that proved invaluable for our stay. Located on the second floor, the laundry has 4 washers and 6 dryers. $1 per load for each. Laundry detergent is available in small boxes for 75 cents each. CVS also offers laundry supplies. The sign says about 30 minutes a load for the washer, but our loads were usually done in about 20 minutes. There were occasions we had to wait for a washer to become available. And waiting for someone to come on empty a washer was frustrating.
A weak point of the hotel is the food selection. The hotel has three choices – A restaurant, a lounge and a snack bar. The snack bar has sandwiches and Pizza Hut pizzas – but closes each day at 5:30. The $11 pizza during the day becomes an $18 room service pizza after 5:30 due to delivery charges and mandatory 18% gratuity.
The restaurant had both a breakfast buffet and a dinner buffet each day we were there. The kids eat free promotion entitles kids to $3.00 off the buffets. Breakfast buffet was good – nice selection, free juice and coffee and reasonably priced. The dinner buffer was $16.95 when we arrived, $17.50 by the time we left. Kids dinner buffet was $6.95, $3.95 with the kids eat free coupon. Dinner buffet food was mediocre at best. I did not see much difference between the quality there and at a Ryan’s or Old Country Buffet – just a much higher price. They have pizza on the buffet for the kids and a nice salad bar.
The best food we found in the hotel was at the lounge – but $12 is steep for a cheeseburger and fries, especially for a family. As others have noted the surrounding area does not have a lot of restaurant choices. The FEMA building next door has a Quizno’s, Wall Street Deli and McDonald’s. If you go to the nearby Air & Space, McDonald’s is their food vendor, but the prices are jacked up by about $3 on each value meal – leave and go to the McDonald’s near the hotel and save some $. There is a Vie De France restaurant in the office building across the street. We tried it one night. Slow, inattentive service and mediocre food keep me from recommending Vie De France.
The lobby is spacious. We did not use the concierge service in the lobby, but many did. We made tour reservations for Old Town Trolley through the gift shop. The Trolley comes to the hotel to pick you up.
The worst part of the trip was check-in. We arrived around 7:00, after a day of flight delays and had hoped to arrive, check-in, hop on the Metro for dinner and to go grocery shopping. We were told we could not check-in as the computer “had just gone down.” Amazingly there was no back-up plan. We quickly learned that the system had been down for about 30 minutes and there were several others waiting around to check-in as well. All the front desk personnel suggested was giving our luggage to the bell captain and going to the lounge to wait. Management dropped the ball here – both by not having a backup plan and by not offering any compensation of any kind to those affected. A voucher for the restaurant or lounge would have been appropriate. No updates of any kind were given and about 20 minutes later there was a mad stampede to check-in when they simply started processing check-ins again. It took a few minutes to find a room for us – we needed the two double beds and they tried to give us a room with a single bed. I have no idea what the hotel would have done if their computer did not come back up.
Check-out was smooth. Two copies of our bill were slipped under the door at night. We signed the second copy and dropped it in a box in the lobby with our keys. Surprisingly we could not check our bill on the TV in the room. This is the first hotel in a long time that I have not been able to check my bill. I had to carefully check my bill due to the number of room charges from the restaurant and room service. I prefer to charge those separately to ensure that I am not overcharged as I rush to checkout. Our bill was accurate and the checkout was smooth.
The first floor has a business center with four computers and a printer. There is no charge for either and there were no restrictions on printing – although you need to go to the front desk when it runs out of paper. They do ask you to limit your use to 30 minutes. There is a sign that says the computers are only for guests over 18, but it was not enforced.
The lobby has wireless service; the rooms have wired high speed access. The high speed in the room was fast – we had an issue where we could not connect for about 24 hours. The hotel maintenance came quickly to work on it and put me in touch with their provided. We eventually got it straightened out.
We were at the hotel for the Fourth of July fireworks on the National Mall. Due to rain during the day, we waited until about an hour before the fireworks to head over. An employee of the hotel was in the lobby handing out large trash bags to sit on – very nice and a great idea. We walked over and breezed right through security and had a great time watching the fireworks. 10 minutes after they were over, we were back in our room. The hotel had a “barbeque” after the wireworks. At prices that would make ballparks blush, we passed on hamburgers and hot dogs.
Lots of good about this hotel – clean, quiet, comfortable rooms, fantastic locations, good business amenities. Overall the rating is dragged down by overpriced, mediocre food service. But I will return if I can get a reasonable enough rate.
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