After having just stayed in a very nice 5 star hotel, the Omni just doesn't hold a candle. There are a *lot* of rooms, and only 4 small, very slow elevators that often were stopped for long periods at the 2nd basement level. Thankfully, we were on a lower level and could take the staircase, although it was an emergency staircase and ugly. It seems like every room is a bit different, but ours was drafty, the bathroom had zero counter space, and seemed to be the victim of a bad re-do. The light fixture wasn't centered over the sink, but off to the side by over a foot, and there was a huge 4 foot gap between the sink and the shower (counter space potential!). The hand towels were hung over the toilet, so you had to lean over the toilet to dry your hands, not very 4 star at all! The bed was rock hard and they had no mattress pads. The wifi isn't free (except when you sign up for their Select Guest program which they don't mention is free when you want to log on at the hotel). The guest room doors slam shut and have no sound-proofing to the hallway. So when other guests arrive back at 1 am, you get to hear their whole conversation in the hallway plus their door slam shut behind them. The hotel restaurant, Robert's, has passable yet expensive food in an elegant room with Mexican music (huh?) playing in the background. If the doormen were supposed to be opening doors for guests, they weren't doing their jobs most of the time. Often, we would walk past three doormen chatting amongst themselves while we opened the doors ourselves. Besides the doormen, the rest of the staff was very courteous. We were here for a convention and would not return for pleasure.

We stayed at Omni Shoreham for an anime convention February 14-17, 2008. (You can read about the anime convention, Katsucon, on atthecon dot com)

The hotel offered an online check-in. This was great! No waiting in line at the front desk. Just grab your key and go straight to your room!

The restaurant served a low price lunch and dinner buffets. Low price but first rate food and service!

Room service was fast, friendly, and accurate.

The hotel itself has been renovated and it is beautiful. It’s a great mixture of having large rooms of a historic hotel, and flat screen TVs like a modern hotel.

Maid service was prompt and meticulous. The turn down service in the evenings added a very nice touch.

5 out of 5 across the board!

I've stayed at the Omni a dozen times over the last ten years, but this was my first time consigned to the "Park View" wing. This building as a good 5 minute walk from the front desk, and though the route is fully enclosed, it does go over some stairways so that rolling bags must be humped up or down - unlike the rest of the building. But that's just the beginning of the second class treatment one receives in this section.

The Park View wing was an addition from the 1960s, by my guess. Imagine a Holiday Inn grafted onto the Waldorf Astoria and you'll get the relationship between the main building and this annex. The rooms are less than half the size of the main building, closets are tiny and there are no windows in the bathroom area. The walls are paper thin, and you can hear television, phone conversation, and sneezing and coughing from adjacent rooms - not to mention babies crying.

Upon arrival, the safe was inoperative (dead battery) and no bathrobes were in the closet. These were corrected within 24 hours.

The housekeeping service is also substandard here. Three out of four nights, my bed was short sheeted (i.e., the bottom sheet was not tucked into the foot of the bed and there was several inches of matress pad left open). The housekeeper did not vacuum very well, but did throw away plastic covers for my hanging shirts and suits that were on the floor of the closet. One day, my breakfast order was left on the door overnight, rather than collected between 1 and 5 am. I got my breakfast half an hour later than planned by calling room service, which must have expedited the order.

Do whatever you can to avoid this second-class section of what can be a very fine hotel.

Work brought me to a conference in Washington, it was being held at the Omni Shoreham. I don't really know DC all that well, but I was told the hotel was in a great neighborhood, and since the conference was taking place at the shorham I couldn't miss.

For a large hotel I was very impressed with the service, and with the hotel itself. It was clear the hotel had a lot of history and yet the rooms were refurbished, spacious, and very comfortable.

While I was there President Bush spoke in one of the ballrooms. I didn't attend, but I did get to watch him arrive via motorcade through my hotel window. It was very interesting to watch the precision the process of transporting the President relies upon, I'd say that experience was one of the highlights of the trip - that and an evening visit to the Lincoln Memorial.

I suppose the only frustration I had was with the elevators. With over 5000 conference attendees and hotel; guests I spent a lot of time waiting to get to my room. But in the end it was a minor frustration compared to the overall hotel experience.