It was the recarpeting of the rooms in early 2017. I was a fairly frequent guest of the hotel at the time (as much as weekly) and they asked if I would stay in a redone room, I agreed, and I thought it was unnecessary to put the carpet in and that it looked like a weird Piet Mondrian painting.

Don't get me wrong, I love the PH DC and still stay there periodically, and I think the overall design and the cherry blossom features (from the lobby to the teacups) are great. My only point in bringing up the 2017 reno was to compare my feelings about that to what I'm perceiving about others' responses to the PH Milan's reno.