[vayla]

This Residence Inn is located at 333 E Street SW, and calls itself "Capitol South." It is in Priceline's "Convention Center - Capitol Hill" zone. We stayed there May 26th to 29th, 2007, (Memorial Day weekend), for a price of $58/night.

We have never been disappointed by a Residence Inn, and this one was no exception. There is not much to speak of on E Street, but otherwise the location is excellent. There is a Metro stop only two blocks away (Federal Center SW stop), and the Smithsonian and other sights on the Mall are within walking distance. For restaurants or nightlife, you will need to go to another neighborhood. We found plentiful on-street parking on E Street on the same block as the hotel all weekend, so we had free parking all weekend. On-street parking is metered, two-hour meters enforced Monday through Saturday during the day. The hotel offers valet parking for something like $30/day. We did see a parking lot on the corner of E St. and 2nd Ave. advertising a rate of $16/day.

The hotel lobby and our room were outstanding. The rooms are so large, with a small kitchen, dining area, living room area, bedroom area and bathroom, that we felt like we could move right in for an extended period of time. Free wired high-speed internet access, local calls were 75 cents. All Residence Inns have free breakfast every day, as well as free light dinner bars during the week. We ate breakfast two of the days we were there, and there was a wide variety of quality food -- cold cereals, oatmeal, waffles, pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, bagels, toast, yogurt, fruit, pastries, etc. -- and a large, pleasant dining room to eat in. The dining room was overwhelmed by all of the tourists staying on the hotel on Sunday morning (including us), but the hotel staff handled the crowd as efficiently as they could. Breakfast on Tuesday morning (presumably a more normal day for the hotel) was not crowded at all. On Monday night they had a "taco bar" for dinner, but we skipped that.

The only complaint I can think of is that the water pressure was weak, and the shower head was mediocre, but this did not detract from an otherwise great stay.

[Wissenschaftler]

I had both bad and good experience with the Residence Inn. I booked with PL for 2-nights on 11 and 12 August 2009, the total price was $144.99 including taxes.

First the bad. On the evening of our arrival we were told that, along with 5 others, we were be transferred to the Donovan House across the road for one night because the Residence Inn was overbooked. But we could still have breakfast at the Residence Inn. I was at the tail end of a 15-day research trip and very very tired so I did not want to waste time packing/unpacking and transferring. I asked if we could stay for 2 nights at the Donovan Hotel. Front line staff said no. I was very unhappy because transferring was really quite a chore because in addition to luggage we had laptops, camera and tripod, battery charging equipment, plus boxes of paper. It was an unfortunate experience, because I otherwise liked the room we finally ended up in on our second/last day. It was big and clean, with a nice kitchen, decent bathroom, and lots of desk space.

Now for the good. 1-1/2 weeks later I received 2 emails from PL stating that I would get a refund for this stay. The second one had more explicit information:
‘Thank you for your patience while we researched your issue with the hotel.
‘Sometimes hotel are overbooked and do not have the availability that they had previously expected. We apologize on behalf of the hotel and priceline if they failed to accommodate you. Patrick, Front Office Supervisor from the hotel contacted us and informed us that the hotel was overbooked and you were relocated to a different property and thus we are processing a full refund to your credit card.’

I was very surprised because I thought PL did not give refunds. It did make up for some of the trouble. But ultimately for $144.99 (total price of my 2 nights) I would have preferred some peace (no packing/unpacking/dragging equipment across the road) even though the room at Donovan House was much smaller and had was very little desk space.