I had a new travel experience - getting stuck in a hotel elevator that went into emergency braking between floors for almost one hour. Location was the Residence Inn DC Downtown, which is (over)due for an elevator replacement soon.

Was ascending to floor 8, elevator lurched to a stop (and I mean there was a very sudden drop and stop) between floors 4 and 5. There five of us in the elevator, and no one had ever gotten stuck before.

Spent the first five minutes ringing the emergency bell, with no response. After fiddling with an inactive phone in the elevator, which must have been for police and firefighters, we pressed another button with a phone symbol on it. This connected us via speakerphone to the front desk and that was the first they heard of our problem - so much for the emergency alarm bell!

Fire department was then called and it took around a half hour for them to arrive, pry open the doors, insert a ladder (since there was a >4 foot gap between the car and the fifth floor we exited through). Opening the doors this way released a lot of "dust" into the elevator car - I would have preferred to have a face mask for this part of the operation.

Once we escaped, a Marriott security staff took our names and room #s and said that we'd get a room upgrade for our troubles. This came in handy, as I was in a studio, and switched to a one bedroom suite that I was going to move into a day later in switching from paid to points reservation.

So it could have been worse - it was on a Saturday evening, and no work meetings were missed. And no one in the elevator was claustrophobic and freaked out. And the power and lights stayed on the whole time - I think that there were some in that elevator who would have lost it if the lights went out.

Another day, another adventure in Marriott-land!