Interesting to hear, and makes enough sense. The high-end independents that the article notes, e.g. The Line, Eaton, etc. have gotten a lot of national press (e.g. T&L etc.) and been very successful, adjusting for COVID impacts. The new-money crowd visiting D.C. is less about chain loyalty and more about unique experiences - this is true not just for leisure but also for a lot of "nontraditional" business travelers e.g. the expanding tech sector. A lot of these folks will be deciding between an upmarket independent hotel and a high-end Airbnb rental. And let's be honest, with Marriott's loyalty program watered down to nothing and corporate leadership constantly putting their foot in their mouths, the affiliation might be becoming more of a burden then a benefit.

Very curious to see what this becomes. I do hope they keep the bocce courts open.

I think location, particularly for leisure, is a strong factor but easy to overlook. The Line is the only hotel with any real proximity to Columbia Heights and Mt. P and is the only hotel actually located in Adams Morgan. As a result, it becomes the obvious and natural choice for friends or parents of twenty-somethings living in those neighborhoods.

Hah! You're showing your age (and mine too). I remember those days. But now, twenty-somethings living in Mt. Pleasant and Columbia Heights? No, the twenty-somethings are back home living with their parents in Westchester / Florida / wherever and working remotely, not paying D.C. rent. The people living in Columbia Heights bought in at $500k+ or are buying in at $1M+ today. The people staying at those hotels are their fellow late-30's, early-40's friends who work in tech or finance (or fintech) in SF or NY, flying in to relive their old glory days of being former 20-somethings partying with owners of said $1M properties...

Hey now! It's my late 20s now, but I'm still a twenty-something in Columbia Heights. There's a decent population of us still buying in at ~500 (in 2019) to 600k (now) up here, but there's typically a stint in biglaw somewhere along the process. We're already back to the office at 60%, unfortunately I don't see fully remote work anywhere in the near future.

Enjoy it while you can! Will be interesting to see how things progress over the next ~5 years or so.

Agree with this -- plenty of folks move from college (or grad/law school) residences (Foggy Bottom, gtown, maybe the old studios on the Hill) to Columbia Heights & Mt. Pleasant (and Shaw). Plenty of late 20s (and early 30s) up and down the 14th and 16th Street corridors for sure.

As for remote work, all my friends in DC offices are slowly trickling back in and, for the most part, are tickled to be back in the office, so I think the lawyers and K Street folks will be back to pre-covid-ish normal before long. (A lot of signs of life are creeping back, which is great.)

Back on topic, I'm more than a little sad to see this place deflag... I had just committed to building it into my rotation. Oh well.

For better or worse, you get to re-sample hotels again...

David

We've got a departure date based on a search on Marriott.com: the last day of availability is August 29th. No availability afterwards no matter when you look.

Peace out, W - hopefully others follow. [PS Please join the Unbound Collection]

khabah

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cf237c711d.png

Agree, that would be great.

I was going to stay here tomorrow for 2 nights, but I just canceled (deadline was 23:59 tonight). Although I had applied SNAs & Fantastic Suites were available, I never got any of the normal "we're working on your request" emails, which makes me think they've already pulled out of the SNA system. I tried chatting the property yesterday and the agent said they'd look into it if it didn't clear by 3pm today. Of course, it didn't clear, but when I chatted them again today, they said I'd have to contact Bonvoy. I asked rates for a paid upgrade and got ridiculous quotes (several hundred per night more than the difference between my booked rate & the available rates online for a new booking... indeed the upcharge for the Wow suite was $600/night on top of my $277 rate, vs. $560/night for a new booking). So I promptly canceled and will return to the Grand Hyatt.