DC Omni Shoreham Dupont Circle

[KatiesMom]

I guess I am the first to review this 4* hotel, so be it. We stayed for 3 nights over Columbus Day weekend. Cutting to the chase, the Omni is fantastic, if you get it on the cheap do a little happy dance.

Location-excellent. The Omni is not actually located in Dupont Circle (although that is how priceline lists it), but is one metro stop away in Woodland Park, about 4 blocks from the Zoo. Nice residential area. 1 easy block to metro, metro ride is about 10-15 minutes to downtown D.C.

Service-excellent. There were 3 of us (myself, hubby and teenage daughter) and we arrived early, around 11 am. I had called a few days prior, confirming our reservation and requested 2 queen beds, non-smoking. Of course priceline had us booked for 1 queen, so the reservationist said she would note it on our card and told me to make the request again at check in.

When I originally won the Omni on priceline I went to their website and enrolled in their select guest program. A few weeks later in the mail, I recieved a guest card and coupon for a free room upgrade. I was greeted at check in by "Heseth" and presented him with my request for 2 queen beds, non-smoking, my guest card and room upgrade coupon. He told me to put the coupon away and save it for another trip, and that he would give me a nice, large 2 bed non-smoking room. He then said to call him at Ext. 15 if I did not like the room and he would switch us. We went to room 281. It was beautiful, large, sunny and overlooked the pool/park area. A minute later the phone rang, it was Heseth. He asked if I was satisfied with the room because if I wasn't we could move to another one. We were very satiisfied, so we stayed. I never experienced such attentiveness from a hotel check-in person before. Very thoughtful.

As select guests, each morning we were entitled to 2 free beverages and one newspaper. But each morning we were brought 4 beverages (2 hot, 2 cold) and 2 different newspapers. The young man delivering the tray said he thought we might enjoy the extras. We did (mmm...fresh squeezed oj)!

We wanted to tour the monuments/memorials at night and could not figure out a good way to do it by ourselves in our own car, without it taking at least 6 hours. The Omni's helpful concierge recommended a 3 hour bus tour that totally handled our needs. Whew!

Each night we received turn down service...bedcovers were turned down and yummy chocolates were placed on our pillows.

Room-Very good. If I want to quibble, which I really don't, here's where I could. I plan on posting a picture of the room to this site as soon as I get my film developed so you can see what I am talking about. The room and bathroom were very large. More than adequate closet space as well. Hairdryer, iron, ironing board and toiletries were all there. Large television with HBO, climate control AC all in good condition. Very clean room, and maid service did a great job each day. The only thing to nit pick is that the beds aren't the high, fluffy kind, they are more standard, and linens aren't fancy, they are standard. That's it, that's not much of a nit to pick either because the beds were comfortable and we slept very well.

The pool-They have a large outdoor pool and small hot pool. It was October and 78 degrees. Perfect for swimming!!!

Since I was clueless at the start of planning this trip, I thank the posters on this website for recommending this neighborhood and this hotel. We had a great stay at the Omni.

[luvtohunt]

I stayed on this hotel May 14-18th. It was in a great location close to the Zoo Metro. I also signed up for the Select Guest program before my stay. I used the upgrade cert. that is with the membership, and I was upgraded to a Junior Suite. Pretty nice I must say. Not bad for a $80 PL bid success!!!

It was overall a lovely hotel with a lot of history as well. The front staff was great, but I did run into a couple of employes that werent very friendly. One didnt know where the Business Center was at even though I later found out we were very close to it when I talked to him..Oh well.

I would recommend this hotel and would stay here again.

[KRXNLS]

We stayed here June 14th for 3 nights.

This is a large older hotel with a wonderful lobby area and is used a lot for special functions and conventions.

As recommended on this site, we signed up for the Omni Select program before arriving and, as this program notes room preferences,.a Non smoking King Size room had been reserved for us. We also had an upgrade certificate but the Desk Clerk was unable to find any availability for us to upgrade. She was friendly and checked her computer so I don't think this had anything to do with Priceline.

The room was spacious and nicely furnished and had a view over the lovely gardens. It was a bit dated but nothing to complain about.We did receive a newspaper each morning but there was no mention of the morning "drinks" that a previous reviewer spoke of. Perhaps that's been discontinued. Anyway we didn't worry about it and didn't ask anyone

We found the staff to be friendly and helpful and used the Concierge services on a couple of occasions.

One evening we had a drink in the Lobby Lounge which is very comfortable and pleasant, if a bit "Pricey".

One complaint was the Elevator situation. They are very slow, very busy and the waits were often long. On one occasion, a staff member came by and took a group of us up in the Service elevator because we had been waiting so long! It might be an idea to consider a room on a lower floor for this reason - we witnessed quite a few people hiking up annd down the stairs .

The Omni has a terrific location. About a block to the Metro and the same distance to neigborhood type restaurants and shops. We walked over there for breakfast each morning and had Dinner at a fabulous and inexpensive Lebanese Restaurant one evening. We booked tickets for a city tour with the Concierge and the bus picked us up and dropped us off directly accross the street.

We enjoyed our stay and would certainly recommend the location.To us, it seemed to be a bit nicer than the actual Dupont Circle.

[gotatravelbug]

Our family had a great stay here this weekend! We were upgraded to a classic room with 2 queen beds, corner room with a balcony. To our right in the distance was the Washington Monument. I was already a select guest member though we didn't take advantage of the morning beverages. The hair dryer did conk out but they replaced it quickly. The service was wonderful here. It's in an absolutely terrific location and so very convenient to the metro! We felt safe walking around this area also. The only complaint we had was the very hard beds. They need to be replaced. :) We ate breakfast in the restaurant, Robert's, and was pleased with the food. Yes, there is a musty smell in the hallways, but I didn't notice any smell in the room. I found that a bit strange. The smell is not in the common areas either. The hallways were very toasty, too. There was a conference going on but we didn't have any problems with slow elevators. Housekeeping gets two thumbs up for the keeping the place tidy. We would not hesitate to stay here again. :)

[stuseattle]

We're back so I thought I'd add a bit of information.

The hotel is massive. It's an old-fashioned kind of luxury and the staff was professional and polite.

We requested a non-smoking room in a quiet area and, at first, I was really pleased to see we weren't put in "the priceline room," if you know what I mean. The room was huge, though the bathroom was a bit cramped, and extremely clean. The location was great and it was incredibly quiet...until...

A few doors down from us, it turns out, was the "housekeeping supply room" so, when they started to clean the rooms, at 8:00 am, they kept slamming the door over and over again. This hotel has doors that slam shut, unless you're holding the handle from the inside, so every time they went in/out of a room, it made quite the noise. I asked them politely to try not to slam the doors and they said all right; then they slammed the doors anyway. I don't understand why they can't prop the door open a bit when cleaning a room, so that every trip to the supply cart doesn't slam the door, but it seemed beyond their capabilities. Anyway, when requesting a room, if you have any choice at all, you might keep an eye out for the supply closet!

What else:

They've eliminated the self-park option, even thought it's still on the web site and the check-in slip, so you have to do the Valet Parking @ $28/day.

The hotel is one block away from the Metro, which cost us $1.35 to downtown...great! (Remember, all the museums are free in DC!)

There are a lot of restaurants right in the area; the hotel food is unbelievably expensive thought they have a little cafe/stand that has sandwiches and salads for not too much more than normal.

For the price, this was a great stay..I would definitely keep an eye out for the housekeeping supply room in the future.

- stu

[CrazyOne]

Stayed here for one night last week 3/25/09 after 2 nights across the street at the Marriott Wardman Park.

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've stayed at the Shoreham before, but it's been about 3 years ago. The room I got then I remember feeling was a bit worn in some ways, though large, and overlooked the parking lot. The room this time was fantastic. I was given a room in the opposite wing (west, I think it is, though I've lost track), then straight to the back of the hotel directly at the end of this particular corridor. This room came complete with balcony and view of the Washington Monument with part of Rock Creek in the foreground and the hotel's nicely landscaped back area just below. No leaves yet, and it was cloudy both the evening I arrived and morning I left, but still, a pretty setting and great deal for a last minute bid. (I bid just 2 nights before.)

Rooms have been updated with flat-screen TVs (I think 32"). LED reading lights are mounted on the headboards, in this case at all 4 sleeping positions of this room with 2 queen beds. They're using updated linens now, the type with duvet covers and such, and there are plenty of different pillows to prop up with for the TV, etc. Each bed had a bench at the end, nice touch. There was a desk with chair and an easy chair with ottoman. Lighting was good with most/all of the fixtures being 3-way so you could vary the level to your taste. The TV actually had some channels in HD. I mention this because my experience across the street was that they had the same exact TVs but every channel was analog. Heh. Clearly flat screen in a hotel doesn't necessarily mean it'll be HD, but in this case there were some HD choices. The internet is wi-fi throughout the hotel, but this 5th floor room at the end of its corridor had iffy reception. It did work most of the time but the reported signal was weak. I was able to confirm my Omni Select Guest membership to get this service for free; otherwise it still costs 10 bucks. The clock radio had an input cable to plug in an MP3 player. And, in a cabinet in the dresser unit, an empty fridge! Minibars are becoming extinct, I guess. I think normally we would have seen a minibar in this type of hotel, but they must be concluding that the upkeep is too much of a headache for the declining sales.

The bathroom was large although the layout and vanity style leaves little room for spreading out your junk at the sink. Good shower pressure, curved shower rod. The bathroom has a window too, as well as the wide window and door across the balcony area of the room. These were old and not updated. The door was plain wood. So that end of the room was really drafty during the chilly night, especially an issue in the bathroom where the toilet is right next to the window. The heat kept up fine for sleeping. I didn't consider this to be a major issue but some might. I had a housekeeping supply room nearby as well, but I didn't find it to be an issue.

Check in was extra friendly and efficient even though the person checking me in looked to be a trainee (or perhaps the one over her shoulder was the trainee, not sure), but I checked out kinda late around 10am and things were bogging down. May have just been a fluke, but I wonder if there would have been more help a little earlier in the morning.

For the sub-$100 prices that have been coming up especially during recent off-season weekends, this place is a steal. I paid, well, my company paid for me $160 for my recent night, and for that day at that point it was still a good deal. Retail had been $299, with an AAA rate available at $255. Unless you're dying for an indoor pool (they only have outdoor) I think it's hard to go wrong here.

[CrazyOne]

Just to update my above from last year, stayed at Omni Shoreham again for one night Monday 3/8/10. This bid was last-minute as well, I bid early Saturday for my Monday stay.

The bid was cheaper this time, $105, but so was the room. This room was smaller, on the opposite side of the hotel and only one floor up from the lobby. Plus, it was a smoking floor. Yes, they still have one. The woman at the front desk apologized, saying they were sold out that night and she guessed the system assigned only what is left. She said not to hesitate to call if it smelled bad because they could bring up an ozone machine to clear it out, etc. When I got up there the hallway was ominous, but the room itself had no odor at all. So not a real problem.

Furnishing, etc. was all the same, just a smaller, less desirable room. Still a good deal though. Hint: if the hotel is busy with lots of people waiting for elevators, look for a stairwell nearby. Both wings should have two stairwells in the central area that are usable by guests to go up or down. Not fun, actually very narrow stairwells, but especially if on a low floor far better than waiting forever. Note for parking: I keep seeing that they have self-park, but I've never been able to. If they do I don't know where it is, or I'm always there when it's full enough that they decide not to offer self-park. (The first time I went there a few years ago I asked and they said it was full.) Something like that. Valet was efficient, had my car pulled up in just a few minutes when I was checking out.

They seemed to have a big convention group at the hotel, so my bid picked up probably one of the few remaining rooms that they may have released only that weekend. This may have been a sweet spot, whereas my bid in March 2009 was even more last minute when there must have been somewhat more demand. Or perhaps because that room I got last year was so much nicer, they put it out there at a higher price.

Either way, one year later this still looks to be a great place. I get so spoiled with Priceline bids, hate when I have to go somewhere and pay $100 for a much lesser room at the Holiday Inn Express or such. :)