777 global mile hound

Parking stll a give away at 23 thanks to Hyatt's give away deep discounting
And breakfast coupons were stll the order of the day on my last visit
I believe the gouging on parking is done simply because many of the weekday guests are business travelers and they try to bleed them dry.
The comp shuttle to the subway/ train is close.
I never take a car when I stay there

TrojanHorse

actually i'm contemplating tonight to get another 2X stay credit in the books and take the kids to the zoo. So I have to drive there but don't really want to shell out $23 for parking. Also since we will take the metro to the zoo, that is why I asked that question (which seems to be answered by having them drop me off)

thanks all

edited to add: i'm here, parked on the street (Crystal Drive) where the parking meters are running 8A-6P M-Sa; clark drive and a couple of side streets also have the same deal. Legal was not quite the short walk I was expecting but i'm guessing a half mile.

Didn't get carded on the AAA rate, got my b/f coupons no problem, was put in a corner room that is a little larger albeit the bed looks like a queen not a king.

at least the place has T-Mobile

YuPiMSPECL

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=870781 - Bad Stay experience - edit by peteropny - to remove lengthy duplicate post.

mcgahat

The following is my review from tripadvisor. I have zero status with Hyatt but I did get stay credit for this priceline stay as I had them add my Hyatt number for incidentals etc. Not that it matters as I will not achieve status with Hyatt.

I needed a few nights in DC and someplace close to the Metro. I decided to use Priceline and ended up with this hotel at $50/night.

I was actually arriving from Dulles airport and used the Washington Flyer coach to West Falls Church metro station ($10 each way $18 round trip) and then the metro to the Crystal City metro stop (about $2 but varies depending and day and time). I only took about 45 minutes total. The hotel has a shuttle from the Reagan National Airport and also the metro. The metro shuttle stops at the corner just outside the metro and it is a good idea to call but it seems to go on a pretty regular schedule, about every 15 minutes.

The check in person was extremely friendly and tried to give me the best Priceline room possible and actually there was a very large group in the hotel over the weekend and I he tried to keep my room away from the floors that group was one.

The room I had was a standard double room on the 7th floor. Very nicely decorated and extremely comfortable bed. I could not ask for much better in regards to the room. I thought the double beds were a bit small, it did not matter to me but had I been trying to share that bed with someone it would not have been very comfortable I think.

I did not use the work out area but it did appear to be under construction as did the outdoor pool so if those items are important to you I would inquire with the property first. I would imagine the pool would be done by summer.

I had breakfast at the restaurant on the second floor a couple of times and it was about $16 before tax and tip and quite good. There is a McDonalds a few blocks away if you want something a little cheaper. The service in the morning was very good and the buffet was very nice. No complaints there. I did have drinks a few times at the lobby bar and it was ok but nothing to write home about.

There are several dining options a few blocks away on 23rd st and along Crystal drive so that is where I usually had dinner etc.

I was happy with the hotels and have no complaints really especially at the price.

tom911

I did a night here during the summer (pre-Diamond) and was upgraded to a 17th floor executive king. Plenty of space. I usually walk from the Crystal City Metro station unless the shuttle happens to be there on arrival. Across Jefferson Davis Highway there is a McDonalds (use to go there for wifi which was free with my home account--no need now), a CVS and a Holiday Inn with an adjoining diner.

tom911

Back last night with a Diamond upgrade to a 12th floor suite. Just finished the breakfast buffet which did have an omelette station (unlike Hyatt Arlington which does not run one on weekends), so that was nice. Not as much as the Grand Hyatt but enough to start the day (hot: french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, chicken sausage, and, cold: melon, cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas). They also had 3-4 different kinds of muffins and three other danishes/pound cakes.

Darren

I have to recommend this hotel. The staff is friendly, the location is reasonably convenient, and the rooms are nice. Diamonds often are upgraded to nice corner rooms, some of which overlook the airport. The breakfast is decent, though I wish they would let diamonds order a la carte. Oh well, not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. There is plenty of street parking on the weekends. CC is part of Arlington, which only monitors their meters from 8am to 6pm Monday through Saturday. The valet is pricey, but it looked like there may have been a lot around the corner on Crystal Drive for $10 with no i/o privileges. When things went wrong a while back, their recovery was fantastic. I was really made to feel that they genuinely were sorry things went wrong and would take steps to correct the issues. In other words, I felt like they were doing more than paying lip service to get a customer out the door. I usually don't care much about recovery because I am more interested in things not going wrong in the first place, but the way things were handled was a direct result in my booking several more discretionary stays at the hotel.

All in all, a good experience. The only downside is that the area is very corporate and is still being built up. Across the street is the EPA, which is of course closed on weekends. Accordingly, the Starbucks and the little store around the corner from the hotel are also closed since they cater to the workers. Across the street, it looks like condo/apts are being constructed. Possibly some retail will be put on the ground floor as it finishes. The hotel is at 27th Street. Across JD Highway, there is a McDonalds. Also there are a number of restaurants on both sides of JDH at 23rd. As Tom said, about a half mile to a mile down. On the east side, there's a liquor store, Legal Seafoods, Chilis, Sushi, Irish pub, and a few others. On the west side (there's a subway under JDH), there are about 20 restaurants of all types including Thai, Peruvian, Italian, Ethiopian, Bistro, Japanese, etc. The other way at Glebe is a grocery (Harris Teeter) and a number of shops and restaurants. I am not sure of the distance. The main part of Crystal City is right about 23rd and Crystal Drive. Jaleo is a Jose Andres joint and is worth a stop. There's also a good Italian restaurant called Kora. They have a nice family style Sunday dinner. There is also a good Thai place that I cannot pronounce. Across Crystal Drive is a Ruths Chris and a Noodles and Co. In short, there are *a lot* of places between 20th and 23rd on Crystal and on 23rd between Crystal and Fern. All are walkable from the hotel with a little effort and the area is very safe, imo.

ElmhurstNick

This is my favorite hotel in DC for the price. The shuttle to the Crystal City metro runs every 15 minutes during the day, so its location isn't that big of a deal. I often book a 7pm flight home and have time to take the metro from Navy Yard to Crystal City, take the shuttle to the hotel to pick up my luggage, then take the other shuttle to the airport. It adds maybe 20 minutes to the total time of getting back to the airport, and beats hauling luggage through federal buildings.

For those of you looking for weekend parking, I've parked before facing northbound on the 2600 block of Eads after 6pm on Friday.

I got a little worried now that they've started the infamous NOR1 upgrade sytem which drove me away from the Capital Hilton. But this property does it correctly, and last time by following the NOR instructions for a courtesy Diamond upgrade, I got upgraded all the way to the two room Ambassador Suite at no charge. I usually stay either Wednesday/Thursday or Friday/Saturday night, and my upgrade rate to at least an Executive King (which is plenty for me) is about 80%.

The buffet breakfast is solid for Diamonds, and between Jaleo and Legal Seafoods I can crank out two dinners if I have to do so.

tom911

Back again last night. This time I was upgraded to a 15th floor suite with an airport view. Two photos here, with more photos linked below. I was down early for breakfast, but if I wanted to stay for Mothers Day Brunch they were offering a $16 credit towards the $22 price for that. Stumbled into RestlessfromRNO, who was staying at the Hilton, as I walked over to the Metro station around 10.

tom911

The ground floor remodel is most definitely underway. Entry doors to hotel are on far right of photo. Here's a photo from around 8pm when I came back.



I'm in a 10th floor king end unit this trip. Rest of the photos linked below. Checked in with the kiosk for the first time here as there were lots of people trying to check out when I arrived at 11a.m.

GUWonder

Of the Hyatt hotels within the DC city limits or in Arlington -- the latter includes the Crystal City property -- this is the hotel that seems to be the most likely to comp Diamonds an upgrade to a suite.

skj

Not my experience ... I can't recall that I've ever been upgraded here, while I've had some luck getting suites at GH DC. Not a big deal for me, as I'm usually by myself and spending as little time in the room as possible. I do like this property, usually more reasonable than other DC Hyatts, convenient to DCA and Metro, nice breakfasts ...

jetsetter

I stayed in this hotel on Halloween night 2010, and have stayed before. I don't remember anything especially good or bad from prior stays.

I was staying at the hotel using an Airport Accommodations
http://apaglobal.com
rate of $89. When you book through Airport Accommodations either by phone or web they do not actually transmit your information to the hotel. My understanding is they have a block of rooms for any given night but the hotel will not have your name. Typically you present a pink coupon given to you by an airline.

I took the metro to Crystal City, and had to wait about 15 to 20 minutes for the shuttle. It seems like most of the time when you call for the shuttle they kind of just tell you it will come in 5 minutes without really checking on it. I really wish DCA had a hotel like the ORD Hilton or MCO Hyatt where its built in to the terminal complex.

The front desk agent, apparently in training, had no idea how to book the Airport Accommodations rate in his computer. At least 2 to 3 times during the check in process, he disappeared in to a back room to get one of his colleagues or a supervisor to help him. It is critical for an airport location for front desk agents to be extremely familiar with rates like this, airline vouchers, crew rooms, etc. I can just imagine this agent in a storm trying to check in customers during a busy period. He finally was able to book the reservation.

Then because of a problem with my credit card, I needed to pay in cash. Sure enough, the agent had never processed a cash payment before. This was also compounded as they wanted to charge me a $50 deposit which I told them I was not inclined to pay. Mainly I did not want to have to go back to the desk on checkout to get my change.

Finally after I told them I was a Diamond member, they found a way to waive the $50 deposit.

It was kind of funny in the negotiations they were trying to pronounce my name, and its an unusual one. I was thinking to myself I really dont' care if you can say my name just get the tangible parts of the business we need to get done eg in this case waiving the $50 cash deposit. They were just looking at each other trying to say my name.

Finally we got done with the checkin, and the cash payment. I want to say it took about 15-25 minutes, but I would have to more closely examine my Foursquare records.

I can understand mistakes are made, so at that point, they should have just proactively offered some compensation like 3 free drink coupons or 5,000 points. But I just got a meager "sorry."

In my room I called the Diamond desk to have the reservation emailed to me so that I could add it to TripIt. They could not find my reservation. I called the front desk and they said because I was "walked in," meaning a booking made on site I "did not have a reservation."

There were also no Diamond benefits offered even though I asked if my Diamond number was on file. I could have asked for the benefits, but you see the trend.

Then in the morning I received the web checkout email, but it didn't work. I tried to manually go in outside of from the link, but this still didn't work.

On the way out it seemed like the front desk people were a little more compitent though I didn't talk to them.

The shuttle was quick and efficient, and I think this is one of the closest hotels to DCA.

Still it was an underwhelming experience complete with a lack of service recovery initiative.

GP gave me 2,000 points which is meager, I mean they give you 2,500 points for something silly like bed type preference not met when you are traveling solo.

Maybe I'll try the Holiday Inn next time to maximize the Crack The Case promo.

Also they have completed some rennovations.

I tried to use the T-Mobile WiFi with my iPhone, and could not find an option for free WiFi for Diamond members. Also it wanted me to create a T-Mobile account in order to access the WiFi. That is the last thing I want to do at midnight. At most I'm willing to enter my gp# but not willing to go through hoops to access the WiFi.

The telephone was also locked out such that I could ot make 800 number calls likely because of the cash.

thc

I stayed here yesterday night as well and also had a bad check-in experience.

I arrived at around 12pm, and was told that I had been pre-blocked into an Ambassador Suite because of my Diamond status. But the room wasn't ready yet, and I was told to return at 1:30 to pick up my keys.

I was fine with the wait because I had some things to do on the computer. It would have been nice to do them in a club lounge, but the lobby area was fine.

At around 1PM, I got a bloody nose. I went to the bathroom to clean myself up and try to stop it. After about 10-15 min, it was clear that I needed to get to a room.

Since it was close to 1:30, I waited. When it got to 1:30, I went back to the front desk and asked about my room. The front desk agent knew I had a bloody nose because I explained my situation to her, and plus she could see the tissue stuffed up my nose. At any rate, my room wasn't ready.

I was really annoyed because I was told that it would be ready by 1:30. The front desk agent, this time, was a different one, so I guess she didn't know I was told this.

At that point, I was so uncomfortable, that I told her to just give me any room.

I think the situation could have been handled better, but at least I finally got to a room. Also, when my new room assignment was made, I asked the agent to make sure my Diamond amenity would be delivered to my new room. She assured me it would. A couple hours later, I called downstairs and no one had any record of it and they said they would call me back. A few minutes later, in-room dining called me to ask me what I wanted for my diamond amenity. I explained that I didn't remember what I picked from the card since I filled it out 5 hours before, so they would have to read it out to me. They called me back with the choices, and I got my amenity. But overall, it was a bit unprofessionally handled.

Otherwise, the hotel is fine if you need to stay near Reagan airport. The free breakfast is good for the buffet at the restaurant or for anything you want from the coffee shop downstairs.

RichardInSF

I've stayed here twice and both times they were kind enough to upgrade me to the Presidential Suite, which is huge -- and has furnishings that are lost somewhere in the 60s. I suspect there haven't been any recent stays by presidents!

Still it was a nice gesture and in both cases, my stay was fine. Unlike the above posters, I had no problem at the front desk; both check-in and check-out went very smoothly.