Biting my tongue. We all know where this destination fee is coming from and why.

Just stayed here and got hit with the Destination Fee (see below). Not happy about it (Spy Museum/Double Decker bus? Really?), but I will use the Food/Beverage credit. They also gave me two $10 F/B coupons plus the 1,000 arrival gift points.

One other thing - my room had a bizarre design. At the entrance of the room, there's a drop off which could do some real damage if not paying attention. There is a warning sign on the door, but I could see being distracted and ..... So, I put a couple water bottles on the floor, so I'd notice when I walked in the room.

Looks like the destination fee is now $30 and includes the following:

• Daily $30 food and beverage credit
• Georgetown Specialty Cocktails or Mocktails for two guests per stay
• Big Bus Tour tickets for two guests per stay
• Daily Enhanced High-speed internet access

Looks like some rates (e.g. GOV and FedRooms) get the fee waived.

Just completed a 5 day stay here on a deal rate called "Member Rate Write Your Own DC Anthem with Monumental Escapes" which was cheaper than any other rate I was eligible for even accounting for the destination fee. Some nights were $111++.

As a platinum I was given a daily $10 F&B credit in addition to the $30 included in the fee, plus had M Club access and also give the 1000 point bonus.

Hoping to stay in here in couple of weeks, can someone please let us know how is the M Club (post COVID)? Thanks

Fully operational club. Well staffed, good breakfast. Well stocked during off- hours.

Currently here, the M Club is fine, offerings aren't exactly my style (bland chicken with mashed potatoes, some sort of sweet-and-sour broccoli, and then vegetables with ranch, yellow/white cheese cubes, and crackers). It reminded me of what the Sheraton North Dallas would put out 20 years ago. Lounge staff is very friendly though. I had a client meet me in the lounge and the staff served us our (paid) alcoholic drinks and it was a much nicer vibe than meeting in the overrun lobby bar. (That said, the lobby bar is decent and is open until at least 11 every night.)

I stayed here last week too. Rates then and this week have been very low ($160ish/night). The Amex Business Card rate waives the destination fee (I'm not sure why, as the "destination fee" message still comes up at booking, but it is not in the rate and the front desk agent said it was excluded on my rate).

The room itself is nothing special but I'm here for the same reasons that I've stayed at the neighboring HP (location and price). I think I prefer this Marriott over the HP but it's actually a closer call than it should be.

If the rate waives the destination fee, do you still get to use the benefits like the $30 food beverage credit?

Do you know if the MLounge is open on Saturday and Sunday?

No, the benefits are not included if you don't pay the destination fee. I imagine if I wanted to opt in they would let me though (Plat+ get a $10 voucher on top of the $30 F&B credit so it's theoretically a net benefit if you're actually going to use all the credits, but I'm not).

The lounge is open 24/7 but the evening offerings are only available Sunday-Thursday 5:30-7:30. Offerings outside food times are limited: water, chips/pretzels, Pepsi/Starry/Mountain Dew. I spent some time working in there last night. I asked to buy one of the bottled On the Rocks Manhattan cocktails (because the lobby bar was overrun with some group), and the lounge attendant set me up with a glass of ice, chips, etc., so I drank it in the lounge as I finished up work -- probably around 10:45pm. The attendant just happened to be there cleaning up and getting it ready for the morning. Very nice service.

Thank you for the answers! That is very helpful.

I was hoping it was like Hyatt where they still let you take advantage of the benefits even if the rate exempts the destination fee.

Posting a follow-up because of two incidents here during my last 2 stays.

#1 - At the end of my last stay, the power went out in the middle of the night (around 4 a.m.). I use a CPAP, couldn't sleep once the power outage turned my machine off (I had gone to bed around 1, was hoping to sleep until 8ish). Front desk had no ETA on when the power would come back up. I waited until 7 thinking it might come back on, otherwise I could potentially grab a dayroom somewhere. Ultimately I canceled my morning meeting, switched to a 10 a.m. flight, and left the hotel around 8:30 (power still wasn't on).

I learned that the power outage was not caused by the Marriott (a transformer blew or something). On my way out the door, I stopped by the front desk, spoke to the manager on duty, and requested not to be charged for that one night (~$166 out of a $900 folio), but I requested no other compensation (since it was not "the hotel's fault" -- although lost sleep is not easy to make up during a busy travel week, so I was not happy). The MOD stopped me mid-sentence, yelled at me "this isn't Marriott's problem, this is the city's problem, we don't owe you anything" and then when I said "but I didn't have a functional room for the night," she said, "you had a room! and you had power until 4 a.m.!" at which point I just asked for the GM's contact info and left.

On the ride to the airport, I emailed a letter to the GM, explained why she was legally obligated to refund me for that one night, and requested a refund of that night. I added a line to the effect of "I understand that the outage was not your fault, so I am not seeking any consequential or other damages; I am simply sending this request for a refund as a formal letter so that you may submit it as part of your claim to your insurance carrier or against the city." A week later, I received a refund for the amount requested.

Hopefully others also received something. But I think it is truly unethical for a hotel to retain a paid room rate if it cannot provide a room with electricity and water. A short outage is one thing, but once it becomes a material breach (and in my opinion, half the night is well on this side of the line wherever one draws the line), that's not just "tough luck go away." A CGL policy with a utility-interruption endorsement exists precisely to cover this sort of loss. If the hotel doesn't want to protect itself in such a case, that's its problem, but it shouldn't be the guest's.

#2 - on both of my last two stays, I didn't get the welcome amenity choice at check-in. The property acknowledged that I was correct, said that it did not have a procedure in place to pay the cash, but agreed to give me 25k points (in lieu of $100 cash) for the first instance. Then the exact same thing happened the second time. The property offered 10,000 points in lieu of the $100, which I also accepted. It was the same front-desk agent the second time, and she definitely remembered me. She did not come right out and say that she had been told not to offer the choice of the $10 F&B instead of the points, but that was the subtext. (The front desk agent, like essentially all the non-management staff here, was extremely friendly.) I found the whole welcome amenity thing amusing more than anything else.

So, bottom line, I probably won't be back here but I'm running out of hotels in the neighborhood. The HP next door keeps failing to honor the requested 4pm check-out (they say they'll honor it but then they'll knock every 30-60 minutes while I'm trying to work from the room). The Residence Inn by Foggy had several annoying fire alarms in a row last time I tried to work from there. Maybe the neighborhood is just a disaster zone, maybe I've just had a string of bad luck, who knows. But I'm staying at the 4S for my next 3-night stay in DC because these stays are wearing me out.

Any recent reviews, particularly re m club?

Neighborhood restaurant recommendations? Good quality food, need not be fancy tablecloth restaurant

Above average club.

Restaurants - i still really like blue duck (a few blocks over on M at the hyatt) even though its not what it once was. Walking distance. LMK if you need recos that are a bit further out.