So I stayed here for four nights, checked out yesterday.
The good:
-The people. With the exception of one front desk agent, who the manager confirmed was from another Hyatt and was there only temporarily to help them get rolling, everyone I met (which I think is just about everyone there) was "nice enough" to "excellent."
-The hard product. The building and the surrounding development are beautiful. Rooms are nice looking, though regular rooms feel small. I did a poor job of taking pictures of the inside, I only actually snapped 3 shots from my window (below) but hey, the view is pretty nice.
-Location. I
felt refreshingly far removed from my normal DC haunts, which have been the Park Hyatt (nice but $$$), the Westin downtown, or places in Arlington. But I was in fact super close to where I needed to be -- 10 minutes to get to 17th & Penn, or to the Capitol, or to the Verizon Center. It was comparable to staying in Rosslyn, and much easier than staying in Crystal City or even the PH when I needed to be east of the White House.
-The rate. As a Cat 2, it was only 4000 points + $55 per night. I imagine this may change at some point, although I see rates in the future at ~$120 on many nights.
The bad:
-Parking. I had a lot of in-and-outs, so even though
paytonc is correct that it's $26 (actually, $25 according to the signs) for 4-24 hours of self-parking, there are no in-and-outs with that, so I thought I'd go ahead and do the $50 valet the first two nights. Unfortunately, there were major communication lapses between the hotel and the valet (it's Colonial Parking, though it's billed directly by the hotel), and the valet seemed woefully understaffed, which meant that on Friday and Saturday evenings when I needed to get the car out, it took way too long, and on Thursday and Friday evenings when I brought the car back, there was no one there to take it. And the valet is in front of the canopy, which is awkwardly about a 100-foot walk down an alley from the Hyatt House, so I essentially had to leave the car there, go up to the HH front desk (which is also on the second floor, so can't see it from the valet staging area), and get them to take my keys. The problem with that was that the agent (the one guy who was abrasive, as I noted above) didn't want to take the keys and wanted to blame the valet people for the problem. So by Saturday afternoon I had had enough of the parking situation and decided to just park it on the street. I relayed all this to the assistant manager, along with positive feedback where it was due, and he comped all the parking charges plus my various purchases from the "pantry" market thing.
-Laundry. I only rarely do laundry while traveling, but I was planning to wash a couple of shirts here in the (brand-standard) self-service laundry machines. Unfortunately they weren't yet up and running. But the front desk said that their in-house laundry could wash my shirts -- even on Sunday (yes, I asked multiple folks to make sure) -- so I handed my shirts over on Saturday evening, with a promise that they'd be back Sunday. Unfortunately, mid-morning Sunday, I get an email saying whoops, no can do until Monday. (I needed a shirt back for Monday a.m.). I was promised 10,000 points as an apology, but I was still unhappy that I got my dirty laundry back Sunday night (I was unavoidably out all day 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., but could have had the shirts taken to a laundromat if I hadn't handed them over)... I had to improvise to have a clean shirt for Monday.
-Breakfast. It's only until 9 a.m. weekdays, so I didn't get a chance to try it. (I had events with breakfast provided on Saturday & Sunday, when breakfast goes until 10).
-World of Hyatt. I gather that the Best Available Room policy doesn't apply to Hyatt Houses. With some prodding, I got a room with a nice view, but it felt tiny. I had even tried to use a TSU to get a suite (the T&Cs expressly allow a one-category upgrade with a TSU) but was simply told that the property wasn't participating in TSUs (not that my room type wasn't available, etc.). Waters were freely provided, and the 4 p.m. checkout was honored without cavil, but there was no other apparent benefit to being a Globalist.
Other notes:
-I will say that contrary to the post above, there is street parking on Maine Ave SW, west of 7th, right in front of the hotel complex. It's metered (I think the Parkmobile zone is 21459 but don't quote me on that, the sign with that isn't up yet), $2/hour. But the meter is off from Saturday night to 7 a.m. Monday, so I didn't have to pay for parking there during those hours, and I was able to get spots without trouble along that row of metered parking.
-The "Borrows" items aren't yet available.
-There was some light construction noise Friday morning, but I am told that that was a mistake and that they will be "done done" next week or so.
-The A/C is loud (this doesn't bother me, but I can see it really bothering some folks).
-The lobby bar was open only 5-10 p.m. (I don't think there's any food/drink service other than breakfast and the lobby bar, though Canopy has something with extended hours.)
-The pool table is there, but the equipment to use it is not.
-I had a nice Hendricks & tonic at the bar, it was $12 which I found reasonable. I had a chicken fajita flatbread, also $12 and kinda weird.
-There is security onsite, which is nice. They were well aware of the valet parking woes, and were on the guests' side.
-Final parking note: the garage did fill up on Friday night, so self-parking was not possible--only valet or monthly permits. I imagine this will only become more and more common as establishments open and the area becomes a popular weekend spot. It really is a snazzy looking development and I'm sure it will draw crowds.
Pictures of the view below: