We came to DC as part of our honeymoon across the US NYC-DC-SF.
We chose the Tabard because we wanted character, we like quirky and we were on a relatively tight budget and wanted to spend money doing things rather than throw it away on swanky hotels.
Area: Dupont Circle is great (although the south enterance to the metro is closed at the moment which is inconvienent to where the hotel is placed but heck its only 5 mins through the square, not a big deal but something to consider with lots of bags). Its a nice area, plenty of resturants, coffee houses and liquor stores! It takes around 10mins on the metro from Union Station with no changes so easy.
The Tabard: its on a quiet street, with minimal street noise so a big plus.
On arrival at around 6pm on a sunday night the bar area was busy and there was an overflow of cocktail drinking public crowed in the lobby. We were assigned our room on the second floor at the front of the building. It shared a bathroom with 1 other room. Looking at the floor plan the rooms which share a bathroom with 2 other rooms are small but to our surprise our room was the smallest on the entire floor (the room next door which shared our bath was literally twice the size of our room and we were paying the same rate which we were a bit miffed at)
Decor: The stairway is beautiful up to the rooms, you'll see it, its grand and its lovely which give you good first impressions. The posters, mirrors and paintings which adorn the stairway are equally grand and of good quality. Once inside our room the standard dropped significantly. The artwork was shoddy pencil drawings and were dull and faded. The headboard was seperated by a glass mounted picture of flowers, its very uncomfortable when you hit your head on it every morning and rather negates the point of a headboard. The pillows (one each) were flat and uncomfortable, there was a throw pillow on the bed which was dirty and had been shoddily repaired. Although I guess they're going for shabby chic, there was a tad too much of the shabby. The rug was tired and old on the boarded floors (which were lovely and didn't need a rug!) Well I think you get my point, we were expecting so much and it just didn't meet our expectations.
We had a desk, a bookshelf with books, two bed side tables with no draws and a small shelf mounted ontop of the small radiator in the corner. There was a coat stand and that was it. No where to put our clothes and the room was cramped with the furniture and us in it. It might have been ok for a single person but not a couple. However, i'm sure next door with twice the floor space would have been much more accomodating.
Bathroom: we shared the bathroom with next door. The bathroom was shocking. Now, i lived for 6 years in university digs and i've stayed in my fair share of hostels and budget accomodation but I wasn't prepared for the bathroom. The enamel in the sink under the cold water tap had erroded, leaving a dark brown stain on the white porcelain which as first we thought was something else! There is no fan or window so the steam has no where to go (which isn't great in a sticky and already humid DC) The paint was tired, cracked and needs re-coating. The tiles were different...again shabby. That said there was plenty of hot water so i guess if you aren't looking for asthetics then it does what it should.
On the plus side: The bed was comfy (memory foam) and there was a ceiling fan in the room so it was cool (we weren't ready for the DC heat)
The worst bit: Our room had a door in the center which is part of the fire plan and i guess allows for them to sell as a conjointed room to larger groups. This is just an internal door which was locked. The walls and this door were paper thin. Now i know paper thin is an often over-used phrase but we could literally hear every single cyllable, sigh and breath that the american couple next door to us exhaled.
Complimentary Breakfast: Bagels and creme cheese and a glass of juice, granola or oatmeal or a scone.
Luckily because we stayed at the start of the week, mon to thurs, we didn't have a problem with the bar downstairs, it was dead during the week. So if you're going to stay here i'd suggest you do it during the week and NOT thurs-sat. The restaurant was fully booked on thursday as we over-heard the waiter saying on the phone at breakfast.
Inconclusion: the rooms need updating (not modernising as such, we like the hallway and the charm of the place but it really does need a lick of paint and some quality antiques not just tat) Its not fair that two rooms which differ so much in size are the same price. The location is great, the street is good, its pretty cheap for DC so all in all its good to crash for a couple of nights if you're sightseeing. Just don't expect a romantic hotel which you'll never want to leave.
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