platbrownguy

I have a 4-night stay here starting this Thursday. Has anyone stayed here yet? The property just opened last week, along with the rest of the new Wharf development.

Hotel website is here: https://washingtondcthewharf.house.h...otel/home.html

I'll return to this post to provide a review after my stay, but in case anyone has been here already:
-Any experience with the parking (either the garage, or the hotel's service)?
-Did you get any sort of upgrade as a Globalist? (I have a "studio suite King" booked... tried to use a TSU for a 1-bedroom suite but was told that they don't honor TSUs)
-How's the breakfast? Usual HH fare?

paytonc

I live a block away, so I can't directly attest to the parking situation, but $50 a day for valet parking is silly. There's one giant parking garage underneath the entire complex, and 4+ hours is $26. You can even check occupancy here:
https://www.wharfdc.com/getting-here/car/

For future reference: there is zero free street parking in this neighborhood. The only parking "secret" is the metered parking along 10th St. SW (L'Enfant Promenade), which is popular with museumgoers.

Some of the restaurants you can look forward to (everything under October is open)
https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/0...sw-waterfront/
I also very much enjoy having a hardware/bike/coffee/beer shop (District Hardware) and an acclaimed bookshop (Politics & Prose) inside.

As for the hotel, it shares amenities with the Canopy by Hilton next door. There's a very pleasant upper-level garden between the two, and a rooftop bar in the Canopy.

A neighbor wrote on Facebook that the breakfast was "good enough considering it's free."

platbrownguy

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:

paytonc

Good catch. That lane was closed off due to construction staging for a few years, so I seem to have forgotten that it even existed.

cmanc

I stayed for 1 weekend night a week ago. Overall a very pleasant stay, as to be expected since the property is new everything was clean and up to date. However since I was coming from the PH in Georgetown it was a bit of a tough comparison. The check-in was smooth/quick although I booked a room with a pull-out for my teenage son who was travelling with me. The 1st room didn't have a sofa bed so they moved to a room that had the pullout. Size of room was OK, maybe a little smaller than expected but for 1 night and 2 people it was fine , but if there were 3 people for a week or so might get a little tight.

I did like the location at the Wharf and with the nice weather the waterfront area was a great place for a drink/dinner. The hotel shares a common area with the Hilton Canopy which is right next door, the Hilton has an outdoor terrace/bar area. One note the wharf was very busy, we were there Sat evening and the wait for a table at irish bar for dinner was over 1hr. Since the Wharf is still in development there are more places to eat opening up so hopefully this will get better. Location was great for national airport and was a very quick uber to the main sites in DC. Overall a good option for DC especially if flying in/out of national.

platbrownguy

Stayed here again Friday, Saturday nights this weekend.

Great staff again, and no issues. Staff remembered me.

Had booked a 1 bedroom suite, still cash & points ($55 + 4k/night), very nice sized room with fully separate bedroom and full kitchen (small fridge/freezer but didn't matter to me). Definitely a plus over the small room I had last time.

I was delinquent at taking pictures again, but I should be back either next weekend or the following weekend and will make a point to do better!

platbrownguy

Came back again this weekend, stayed Saturday & Sunday nights, checked out this morning. Again a perfectly pleasant stay at a phenomenal rate of $55 + 4000 points per night.

I was less delinquent and took a few pictures this time.

First, here's the outside of the development from the east. The Hyatt House is behind the Hilton Canopy. You can see the Hyatt House ("H") logo in the bottom-right corner; at least for now, though, the entrance is not where that H is. Rather, if you look at the Parking ("P") sign in the bottom-left corner, there's a sort of alley there, and the Hyatt entrance is maybe 20 yards down that alley on the left.

Here's the entrance from the alley:

The ground-floor entrance just has elevators: down to parking garage, up to the second-floor lobby.

I didn't take pictures of the common area because there were people milling about.

The elevator is one of these efficient things where you press your floor and it tells you which of the three elevators to use. Fun to watch people use it.

Same as last time, I was in a one-bedroom suite. This was 714, last time was 514. These are I think technically "non-view" rooms but you can still see the boats from the window, just not as well as when I was in 506 (see previous post). Anyhow, here are a bunch of pictures of the room:


Breakfast is fine, nothing special. I went down on Sunday morning, there were a bunch of people there and I didn't have time to wait on a made-to-order omelet, but I had some of the potatoes & bacon off the buffet, both of which were very good for buffet items (i.e. the bacon was crispy to the point of crumbling, which was good & uncommon). The scrambled eggs on the buffet looked unappealing though, probably an industrial sort of egg mix. And other than eggs, potatoes, bacon, and the made-to-order omelets, there wasn't really much going on, maybe pancakes, cereal, fruit, juice, and coffee.

I was able to park on the street all weekend no problem -- first on the street in front of the Canopy, and then a block east of there, still along Maine Ave SW.

Planning to return again soon.

osmantrex

Thanks for the pics platbrownguy! Have two of those one bedroom suites booked with points + cash for two nights early next month and these are the first pictures I've seen of them anywhere.

yaromac

Add my comments to this new Hyatt option for DC. Stayed one night on P&C midweek, as part of MR to get to Globalist. Didn't check in until just before 10pm, so staff were a bit thin on the ground, check-in was fine, I had asked for a quiet room and was told I had been given one, plus an upgrade. I got the one bedroom suite, and it was indeed quiet, 5th floor, and I thought spacious. I didn't need the full kitchen for the 9 hours I was going to be there, but I can imagine it being very handy. There's a large CVS close by so if there for tourism, you could get some basics and put them in the (full sized) fridge. Bar was pretty empty and characterless when I went past it. Fancy new "choose your floor, then put your room key to the bottom right to get access" elevator control didn't work well, had to change my room key twice. I was rushed for breakfast, so had no time for the custom-made omelettes, but the potatoes were hot and delicious - completely surprised me because I usually hate lukewarm buffet stuff. Breakfast staff very nice. View from windows was great, the little harbor, and planes landing at National (good double glazing, so you don't really hear them). Overall, liked this hotel, liked the staff, liked the room and breakfast was better than expected, and in a nice bright space. My rate was great, something like $55 and 4k points. Note, uber doesn't come to the hotel, they come to the close-by Hilton (don't ask me why).

Shuli

Any chance anyone has been here over the last few months?

Mid covid, what's breakfast like? The pool?

platbrownguy

Haven't stayed but I took a stroll down the Wharf a couple weeks ago and it was hopping (both the Wharf and the HH). HH rates have been higher than the GH though so I haven't been inclined to try it again recently. Might give it a shot some time soon if the rate is right. I do enjoy the rooftop bar on top of the Canopy.

Alpinetrekker

Stayed a week in June. Pool had just reopened and was pretty crowded on a Saturday afternoon. I didn’t check mid week. Breakfast was pretty lame. We grabbed coffee and bananas and then went to Toastique next door. I have to say though, this is my absolute favorite Hyatt House location. The area immediately outside the door is a vibrant scene with numerous dining options, live music, etc. I would consider staying here even if my main focus was to see the typical DC sights.

gbdbld

Stayed here over new years originally for 1 night, upgraded to a 1 bed room suite. Not a river view room, but you can still see a bit of the river. My flight was cancelled on the 2nd day, extended the stay by booking a base room on the app, front desk gladly let me stay in the original upgraded room. The gentleman at the front desk was extremely welcoming and friendly. He said that the hotel was pretty empty and I could check out as late as I wanted.
As others mentioned, the location is excellent. I walked to Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and back.

Perry Raskin

Did the hotel upgrade you based on your status or did you pay for the upgrade upon arrival? I read online that Explorist (my current status) upgrades don't occur at Hyatt House/Place properties.

Looking into this property for a weekend soon, and it has everything I want, but I'm hoping to get more info on certain things. For example, I heard the elevator system is a bit hectic - there must be stairs as an option, right?

gbdbld

They proactively upgraded me without me asking. Very friendly front desk agents.