Watergate Hotel, The - Washington, USA     

We booked online and when we arrived, we were allowed to check in early and were provided with an upgrade to a Georgetown room. The room was huge, and very nicely furnished, but showing its age. The TV was old and small, with a CRT screen (and electrical tape on the frame!!). The bathroom was nice, with a fabulous walk-in shower and separate tub, but the bathroom door had a gap in it, which you faced when you were using the toilet. It made me feel a bit exposed! The bathroom had an excellent magnified mirror in it, and the toiletries were very nice. One thing that annoyed us over the course of our stay was the way higher-end hotels charge separately for everything that is included in business hotels or lower cost hotels. For example, internet access was $10 a day (but if you have a wireless connection, you may get lucky and find a network that is open to use from your room!). A mini-fridge cost extra as well, as did local phone calls (or access to 800 numbers). Parking is valet only (I think it was $26 / day) so you also have to keep in mind all the tips you'll be handing out, especially if you are going in and out a lot. There was a coffee machine in the lobby, and it cost $2 (I think) a cup (it said it was Starbucks coffee). When you get a good deal on the room, it can kind of be eaten up by things like the parking and internet fees, so keep that in mind (this is typical of higher-end hotels, particularly in DC, I realize). The room had a refrigerated mini-bar that was kind of old-fashioned. The view we had was beautiful. If you don't like airplanes, though, you might not like it - we were right on the flight path for DCA. We like watching planes, so it was very good for us. It wasn't super noisy, but if you are a light sleeper, you would probably notice it (I'm not sure how late planes were landing). The location was quite good, but we didn't try out public transportation (in our experience, the traffic wasn't quite as horrendous as the guidebooks all make out, but it could be kind of confusing to get to the hotel during rush hour, as they made a 2-way street into 1 way, and our GPS unit didn't know this). There is a Safeway, a CVS and a liquor store right nearby - you have to go down below street level to get to them, so you might miss them. Overall, this was a nice hotel to stay in, and I'm glad we chose it, but we will probably try somewhere else next time.