On a recent business trip to the Washington DC area I spent one night at the Marriott Crystal Gateway hotel.
I put a video overview together here
http://yelloww.net/blog/2009/03/crystal-gateway/ which covers most of what I have in the text of this review, so if you are a visual person, go ahead and skip to the video -- otherwise, read along and watch the video afterwards.
The Marriott Crystal Gateway is located in Arlington, VA — in the neighborhood known as Crystal City. The hotel itself has a great location as it is connected to the Crystal City underground tunnels and only about a 3 minute walk to the Crystal City metro station. The hotel is also located about 1 mile from the Reagan National Airport to which the hotel provides complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport. Note: There are 2 Marriott’s in Crystal City — the “Crystal City Marriott” — and this one, the “Marriott Crystal Gateway.” They are located directly across the highway from each other — and they share the same airport shuttle, so make sure you get off the shuttle at the right hotel.
I flew in to Dulles, so I was driving in to the city. Parking at the hotel for self parking is $22 -- there is also a valet parking option.
Upon checking in to the hotel I was given the usual spiel about "The gym is here.. the restaurants are there...". I then inquired about the Concierge Lounge -- the front desk attendant looked down at his computer, and said "I see your Marriott Rewards number is on file, but it doesn't say what level you are". When I told him that I was a platinum, he then said "Well in that case, I'll upgrade you to a suite on the concierge level.". I'm not really sure what the malfunction was that my rewards level wasn't shown in their system, but I was pleased with the resulting suite upgrade.
The suite that I was given was room 1601 on the concierge level. The suite is made up of three rooms, a living room, a bedroom, and of course a bathroom. The room is on the side of the hotel, and as such as excellent views from the living room with windows facing to the west, and the bedroom with windows facing to the east. The Crystal Gateway Marriott recently renovated their rooms at the end of 2008, and it shows. The living had a sofa for two, an armchair with footrest, flat panel television, and a coffee machine.
The bedroom had a king size bed, that had a robe laid out on it. Also upon the bed was a bag of white chocolate covered pretzels, and two chocolate chip cookies -- nice touch. The bed had the new Marriott LED reading lights. The alarm-clock on the nightstand had an ipod jack. The bedroom also had another armchair like in the living room, along with the desk, and another flat-panel television. The television in bedroom had the audio/video inputs, while the living room television did not.
The final room, the bathroom, was rather spacious and had the standard Marriott amenities.
The concierge lounge is located on the 16th floor, and is open Mon-Thurs 6:30am - 10:00pm, Fri 6:30am - 12:00pm, and Sunday 5:30pm - 10:00pm. The evening snack options during my visit were pretty poor -- apples, bananas, and cookies. No hot snack or real deserts. The lounge cutbacks have obviously struck at the Crystal Gateway. Breakfast was a little better as they did have one hot item, scrambled eggs.
Around the rest of the hotel, there are 3 restaurants, a Starbucks in the lobby, a business center, a jungle themed indoor swimming pool (see the video), and a smallish fitness center overlooking the pool.
Crystal Gateway Marriott Video Review:
http://yelloww.net/blog/2009/03/crystal-gateway/