DC Marriott Wardman Park Dupont Circle

[CrazyOne]

Stayed here for two nights, 3/23/09 and 3/24/09 then ended up extending my stay an extra night across the street at the Omni Shoreham.

I find the area these hotels are in to be ideal for my work in DC. Our office there is just out of the Farragut North Metro station, which is just two stops down the red line from these hotels at Woodley Park. It's just far enough and green enough that it doesn't feel like the concrete jungle quite as much.

I had stayed at the Shoreham before, but the Wardman was new to me. All in all it was a good experience and to me the most desirable 3.5* in this zone. (Okay, I haven't stayed at the others, I'm going by location.)

I will say, though, this place is a MAZE of different buildings interconnected. The lobby is done nice and works well, but your room may be in a far-flung tower as mine was. Check in (and out) was friendly and efficient. I had a really interesting interaction with the clerk at the desk when checking in, though. She actually asked me right out if I had booked the room on Priceline. I said yeah, and then she said "Did you get a good deal?" I responded that it wasn't as good a deal as I had hoped, but it was okay. She said "Well, we're selling for $299 a night" and I replied simply that yeah it was certainly better than that without mentioning the actual bid. My bid was $160. I don't think this was anything to do with policy; in looking at it a bit while finding my way back to the room I concluded she was just personally curious about the process and how good a deal I had gotten and/or just using that for something to talk about.

I was assigned a room on the 3rd floor of the Park Tower, which is a good and somewhat confusing hike from the lobby through the main convention check in area and to a funny single elevator that also doubles as elevator for one of the garages. (I discovered later there were two more elevators in that building, but this one was right next to my room.) The room key folder has a map of the lobby floor on it; pay attention when they show you where to go! I encountered a number of lost people in the hotel, not surprisingly. It's really confusing. In the Park Tower elevator, the lobby is on the 8th floor, for example. (The lobby is on top of the hill, whereas this building goes lower and ends up fronting on Calvert Street.)

I realize now that my room faced the neighboring apartment building, but while I was there I had assumed it was part of the hotel. Usually I am not that disoriented! Anyway, enough of that. The room was good, seemed updated and nicely laid out. Might be considered a little tight with the two double beds, but then compared to the room I had later at the Omni everything would be pretty small. The TV is flat screen, I think 32", though none of the channels on it were actually showing in HD, all analog. Kind of a waste but maybe they'll fix that eventually. Linens are of the modern variety, no nasty bedspreads here. The closet was large with double swing-out doors. One door had the full length mirror on the inside, actually kind of appealing vs being in the open. The door actually opened into a tiled area, which led to the bathroom. Outside the bathroom, though, was a separate counter, open to the rest of the room, where the coffee maker sat. Below that, a cabinet with a little fridge, nice to have.

Bathroom was average size, good lighting, curved shower rod, good water pressure. Several small touches in this room really stood out. I hope they are becoming standardized in Marriotts. Some of these items seem to be trickling *upward* from their Courtyard brand or competing brands like Hyatt Place. For example, between the two beds above the nightstand were two free electrical outlets up high, perfect if you need to plug in your computer or cell phone while using it in bed. The headboards had flexible LED reading lights mounted to the outer ends (only one on each headboard, but still useful) in addition to the regular bedside lights in the center. On the nightstand was a black iHome clock radio with easy dock for iPod and iPhone (plus available cord for plugging in a different MP3 player). At the desk, 4 outlets were available, some turned in different directions to help with the pesky brick plugs. And finally an input panel at the desk gives you multiple ways to tap into that flat screen TV: VGA, HDMI, S-video, composite video and analog audio for your non-HDMI source. Really cool. No more wondering if you can plug your game console into the hotel TV; this actually seems to encourage it. Or how about outputting a DVD playing in your laptop to the TV? That would work too. I don't know if all the rooms even at this location have been updated this way, but it's a good trend regardless. The bad trend is that in your room if you want high-speed internet you still have to pay $12.95 for Marriott's wired for business package. It does include domestic long distance and local calls, but who cares?

This is a huge place with plenty of amenities that I didn't try. There's a fitness center open 24 hours. The only pool here is outdoor. There are a couple of restaurants and a bar, plus the Woodley Market takeout which I did try one time. It's still overpriced, but some of the stuff I tried was not bad. I like to hole up in my room after a long day of working in DC, but there are about a dozen or so restaurants just down on Connecticut Ave, an easy walk. There's also a small grocery that I always end up going to. As I mentioned, I like this location. The Metro is right down the hill from the hotel. When arriving by Metro, walk directly up the bus/service entrance that you'll see after coming up the escalator. If you look at the maps of the lobby level or the signage, it will indicate bus/Metro at that exit so hopefully that will help you find the right door going out. ;-)

Once you know what you're doing, self-parking here is the most convenient hotel parking I've experienced in DC. I don't care for handing the car off to a valet, because in this case I wanted to leave some stuff in the car that I might need but might not. You enter the self park off Woodley Rd. Exit is first on the left, then entrance just a few feet later. You go up towards a regular hotel driveway, past the valet garage, the valets will wave you through past some cabs and you just go roughly straight ahead to a standard parking gate where you grab a ticket that will ultimately be useless. If you haven't been there before it may not be obvious, but just go up to the gate, punch the button like you're going into any typical garage, and take the ticket.

The first part of the lot is extra valet parking. I recommend following the sign that says "Additional parking in Park Tower Garage". I never saw very many cars in there, I think the other garage is where most of the convention people tend to park. If you go into the Park Tower Garage, and then go down at least one level, you should be able to park right next to the elevator, unless parking is extremely full. Then to check in you can go up to 8th floor and work your way through the maze to the lobby. If you're assigned a room in levels 5 or below of the Park Tower, your car can be especially convenient to your room. When you check in, they will give you a parking pass that allows you to go in and out if necessary. When checking out, I asked if there was a specific time I could leave my car in the self park up to, and she said well, about 6pm they start pushing them to the next day. Well, I didn't get back from the office until around 6:30 or 7 that night. I was staying at the Omni across the street, and I decided to just wing it rather than move my car over for the one night. Darned if the following morning at about 10am the pass didn't still let me out of the place with no fuss at all. Might have been a fluke, and of course it's not often that leaving the car an extra day will be useful, but hey, it was great for me.

I'm guessing there could be some crappy rooms in here somewhere, depending upon when each building was renovated, but all in all it should be good. It's a great location, good service, good features.

[Margie]

Stay here for 4 nights September 2012, secured room via this forum. No mention of Priceline at check-in, the staff could not have been nicer. Parking at the hotel was $30+ a day: expensive but it is expensive all over DC. We parked the car and honestly didn't need it until checkout. There is a Metro stop right outside the hotel along with a selection of restaurants. The hotel was easy to find and not having to drive in downtown proper to reach the hotel was nice!

We stayed in the older part of the hotel (room 2303) and while it is probably time for a renovation it was just fine, and the room was a decent size. Both the room and bath were very clean, plenty of storage, in-room coffee, iron, luggage rack, small bathroom had poor lighting but nice towels and good water pressure.

Common areas were very clean, staff was professional. There is a small "market" near the lobby where you can get muffins, fruit, breakfast sandwiches, etc and there are plenty of tables and charis to sit and enjoy a quick bite before heading out for the day. There is a patio area out side with tables and charis and several nights we enjoyed sitting out there with coffee, or ice cream that we brought up from the Baskin Robins right below the hotel. The hotel is huge, the grounds are lovely and very well maintained. I would stay there again.