We stayed at the Residence Inn Capitol from Mar. 27-30, 2008. This was the culmination of a road trip for me and my best friend, from Nashville to DC. My fiancee also joined us in DC.

Before I get to the various negative experiences we had, I want to point out a couple of positives: the room was wonderful (bed, pullout bed/couch, full kitchen, free Internet), the free breakfast was delicious, the store downstairs was convenient and offered a large selection of sundries and souvenirs, and the person we spoke to at checkout (Kara, a trainee) was very helpful and friendly. Also, the hotel has great security, since you can only access the rooms by using your room key in the elevator.

The location is decent for the price...about a block or two from the subway station, and 30-40 mins. walk to the Mall. There is a great seafood restaurant a block away, the Market Inn. It looks like nothing from the outside, but it is really nice.

However, I cannot understand why people think this is such a great hotel. We stayed in 5 hotels on this vacation, 3 of them Marriotts, and this was the only one we really disliked.

This is a very busy time in Washington DC, with spring break and the Cherry Blossom Festival, so I would expect every hotel to have adequate staff.

When we checked in, it was 2pm. Check-in is at 4pm, but the hotel did hold our bags for us in a secure room, with tags to keep track. This was another decent point in our stay, since the man who took care of this was helpful.

There were two women at the front desk whom we encountered frequently in the mornings and even early evenings. They were unfriendly, and even rude at times. The second day of our stay, which was the first full day we'd been in DC, we spent the entire day out, and returned to find that housekeeping never came! We purposefully removed the "do not disturb" sign, and even left a tip on the pillow. When I called the front desk to tell them, one of the women responded, "Did you need something?" I told her we really just needed some clean towels, and she said she'd call housekeeping.

After an hour, and without towels, we went to the pool area. It was fairly crowded, but there were NO clean towels. Two women had already gone to the front desk quite a long time ago, requesting towels, and there still were none. One of the women even told me she was having the same issue getting clean towels for her room as we were! The rude woman at the front desk then came in with tiny little exercise-room towels! We told her we already knew those were there, but that they were too small. She said those were the only towels they had. Finally, 20 mins. later, a man came in with barely enough fresh towels for the people in the pool area at that time.

I then went to the front desk and personally requested clean towels. I was rudely told that there is only one man who does housekeeping at night, and then I was shown a list of room #s he still has to visit. The woman then said she'd call him again with our request. When he finally came by, at 9:45pm (right before we were going to go to sleep), I asked him if he wanted to take the dirty towels, but he said no, that I should leave them for housekeeping! I told him that housekeeping never came, and he said it must've been an "oversight." This is hotel of 13 floors and a lot of rooms...one would think that they would have a better staff and that housekeeping wouldn't miss any rooms.

Our last morning, we went down for the free breakfast around 9am, later than usual, and found no free tables. Many people were taking the food up to their rooms, but we managed to find a table in the lobby itself, fairly far from the buffet. Around 9:15 or so, they opened an additional seating area (breakfast closes at 10am).

When I approached one of those rude front desk clerks about checking out an hour late, she told me checkout is 11am, and we could store our bags downstairs. I told her that every hotel (including Marriotts) that we'd stayed in had offered a late checkout, although we'd never used it on the trip. I also told her the reason was that we wanted to see a bit more of DC before our flight in the afternoon, and we didn't have time to check/tag 10 bags. At that point, she relented and told me she'd notate our account. Her attitude was unfriendly the entire time.

If it wasn't for Kara on our way out, we would've left the Residence Inn with a completely sour taste in our mouths. She was kind enough to get us a car to the airport, and did everything with a smile.

Maybe other people had a better experience because it was a quieter time of year, I don't know. Our room had a view of construction, and we were near the elevator with thin doors that left us hearing everyone in the hallway.

I wouldn't stay here again, although for the price I guess some people might be willing to put up with unfriendly staff.