thc

I was at this hotel for the second time. Even though the rooms are kind of small, I really like this hotel. I've had very good service here. The restaurant is great, and best of all, it has free internet in your room, albeit only wired internet is free. But it's been a long time since I've seen any HR, GH or PH with free internet.

And as I mention here, they also offer the free coffee delivered to your room.

Kagehitokiri

just saw on the local news, GM Michel Morauw's dog Scooby was shot and killed by a DC police officer.

the officer claims the 2.5 year old boxer attacked him, which Morauw denies.

Morauw had been taking the dog for a walk.

NickW

I'm at the hotel now, in a Park Suite (the suite upgrade award has to be the best value award any of the frequent stay programmes offer!).

I had room service breakfast, and glanced at the folio: the American breakfast is $28, plus tax and service, but there's a $9.09 deduction shown as 'Gold Passport'. It looks like they deduct the cost of the free morning coffee from your breakfast folio for in-room dining.

I've certainly seen the coffee removed from the folio if I've ordered a la carte for breakfast (at the GH Tokyo back in November), but this is new to me.

SanDiego1K

How sad. Is there a link to news on this?

SEAUAKID

Does this property have electronic checkin kiosks? Or do you have to deal with a front desk agent?

RichardInSF

The one time I stayed there, there were ony front desk agents, most of which seemed not to speak English very well.

stevens397

Also stayed at in the Park Suite on an upgrade certificate. Just got back. Our son got a position at George Washington U and we are committed to going down each month to visit him and his family. I'm Starwood Platinum and decided to stay elsewhere this time because they are being renovated. My sense at this point is that I'm ready to cancel all future reservations and book at the Park Hyatt. It was an impeccable experience. Everyone we came into contact with was perfect in demeanor, helpfulness and friendliness. The hotel is magnificent. The suite was not to be believed. There were some design issues - the only closet is in the bathroom, no dresser or drawers in the bedroom. But it was an enormous suite and could not have been more comfortable. While a bit more expensive than the competition, figure in the free internet and free coffee for breakfast and the difference is worth it.

I probably haven't used my Hyatt points in 10 years - they've been sitting there! There's no question how I'll be getting rid of them. Bravo - it's wonderful to see something so well done.

peteropny

We just returned from a 5-night stay at this property - coincidentally in rom 616 (like Tummy above). I find the service level to be improved. At all times there were about 3 doormen by the front door - at no time did we have to open the door ourselves. There is still some confusion about the Diamond breakfast - on 2 days there was a charge to the room (removed by the front desk at check-out) while the other 3 days no charge appeared - also some confusion in what the credit actually is still (we had the "regular" Continental one day and ordered off the menu the other 4 but ended up not owing anything on any day). Upon arrival, we were told that we had been upgraded to the Park Deluxe (as expected since there are more of these than "regular" rooms) - I asked about the possibility of using points to upgrade to a Park Suite (which showed available the prior day) - they carefully checked and said that we would not be able to have a Park Suite the entire period so it probably wasn't worth it to upgrade (checked online afterwards and it was certainly true since many of the days the hotel was completely sold out - and for Wed night there appeared to be some high-level CEO type conference at the hotel) - their efforts to thoroughly check the availability was much appreciated though. The standard Diamond amenity appears to still be the wine; however, they asked what we wanted including the 1,000 point option (I chose this but still hasn't posted since I had no balance on the folio - so will have to follow up - but this isn't a property issue). As indicated by SanDiego1K, wired high speed internet is complimentary but since we were on the street side of the hotel, we could get the wireless signal from the Fairmont Club Level across the street.

I guess my only quibble with the service at this hotel is with the complimentary car service. Apparently they have 2 of the Audi A8Ls but the service only runs 7 AM - 11 AM. No reservations are taken and despite the fact that we asked every morning when we were leaving the hotel, the car was not available except for the very last morning. This might be a Washington DC thing for "luxury" properties to have a car around so that they can advertise car service - the Fairmont appears to have a silver Lexus LS that never moved from its spot in front the whole 5 days that we were there. Also, a minor issue, but the only day that we had newspaper delivered to the room was on Sun - after no delivery on Mon & Tues, I called the front desk and was given some vague "printing issue" response which doesn't make sense since there were papers in the Lounge for breakfast (none were delivered either on Wed or Thurs either).

stephem

We stayed here last week for a night, my biggest gripes are a bit superficial... why didnt they replace the elevators with something a bit nicer? and the hallways have some cheapish trim that makes it seem like a cosmetic refurb was done where a deeper one was needed? Finally, tile in the bathroom was nice quality, but poor installation, some uneven areas and uneven lines. Overall, there were a number of "lipstick on pig" type renovations, not at all what I would expect at a newer PH. The rooms are nice though, far better than the Westin or GH which I have previously stayed in. When our lowest corp rate is available, this place is a decent value in comparison to neighoring properties, but when it's in the $500 range it's hard to justify. I saw the previous comments about service, we had no such issues, really good service and staff interactions. No 1k amenity yet though, which is a pain to have to call about!

peteropny

I agree totally about the hallways - the cheap trim, color scheme, and lighting makes me feel like I'm in a hospital or upscale nursing home - not a "luxury" hotel - totally unsuccessful design.

Elevator renovation even changing panels in the cab is very expensive so they are rarely more than superficially touched in renovations - I consider what was done to them at the PH to be fairly major actually. I'm not sure why elevator changes are so expensive but when I was a general manager of a large office building - someone had scratched the inside door panels of one of the cabs and it was like $10k to replace. So actually telling the "real" age of a building is pretty easy when you see the elevator.

IncyWincy

[quoting peteropny;. find the service level to be improved. At all times there were about 3 doormen by the front door - at no time did we have to open the door ourselves. ...The standard Diamond amenity appears to still be the wine,,,]


Glad to hear things have improved. When we were there last year, almost everyone was new and there were quite a few aspects that were not consistent with a true 5-star hotel. Eg, the doormen were openly counting their tips and happily comparing notes as guests were waiting next to them, the Diamond amenity was a small vase of sorry looking flowers etc.

stevens397

We're going back for three nights and once again used the 6,000 point suite upgrade. We had been booked elsewhere when I saw the rates drop significantly - down to $380 on Thursday and $299 on Fri and Sat. Booked the room and the upgrade and have been checking periodically to see if it goes down any further. Now I see it's actually gone back up another $30/night.

Are any of you who are familiar with this property aware of whether I should keep looking or is the $299 weekend rate the lowest I can expect?

Many thanks.

stevens397

Okay, I'll answer my own question. After watching the rates increase for 10 days, it abruptly turned around today and I was able to save another $100 as the weekend days went down to $249.

stevens397

Returned from another recent stay and absolutely still love the place.

Interesting experience. I had Hyatt comp me to Diamond status based on my Starwood Platinum (almost instantaneous and no problem whatsover). Includes free breakfast which is expensive at the PH.

The second day, I got charged for the breakfast (room service)so I brought it to the attention of the servers at the restaurant on day 3. My issue was that the front desk had deleted the charge, but I felt badly that it meant the server did not get a tip and I was happy to pay that portion.

it took a while to get the answer but they explained that the hotel and the restaurant have two different computers. The hotel actually pays the restaurant for the "free" meals and they do include a tip. He was grateful that I cared enough to ask. Struck me as a bit weird but just another example of how they dot every "i".

Going back next month and can't wait.

superbobx2

Recently had a one night stay at this property on a free night, to boot. It was fantastic- perhaps not quite as nice as the PH Chicago, but definitely exceeded my expectations. I was even in fear of the elevators from some earlier posts, but they are fine, with LCD screens in them and seats as well! Anyways, got ug'ed to a Park Deluxe room (as someone said, more of these than the regular ones) with a view of the Fairmont across the street. The room was great, with a LCD TV swiveling between the bedroom and the living/sitting area. The bathroom was large, with a open shower area, as someone mentioned earlier. The tub is a bit small though. Amenity was a half bottle of wine and fruits (although they offered cheese tray, which might have been the better choice). The fruits turned out to be three huge asian pears, whole, which was kind of strange because I don't think you're supposed to eat the peel- at least I've never done so- and the only implements they provide are a knife and fork. Breakfast was at the lounge area downstairs adjacent to Blue Duck. They said the complimentary breakfast was good for the continental breakfast, or a equivalent amount in other items (I think it ended up being $28). I got the continental breakfast, my gf got french toast. Both were ok, but I couldn't help remembering how spectacular NoMi was at the PH Chicago. Last thing to note is that the gym/pool is kind of in a strange location. You have to walk to the end of one of the floors and take a dingy old stairwell down one flight to the gym/pool area. Kind of like how there's a random closet in the room itself that looks like it totally does not belong there (it's like they transplanted a Days Inn closet unit into this great hotel). Anyways, it was a great experience overall.