State Plaza Hotel - Washington, USA     

This hotel is very convenient for visiting the GWU. Especially for parents visiting students in the halls that surround the hotel. The hotel itself is quite outdated (reminds you of your grandma's house, but it's not!), but clean and reasonably priced. It is within walking distance of the metro, the mall, and Georgetown. There's a well equipped convenience store right next door. Every room has a kitchenette, excluding a microwave (?!). Continental breakfast is pretty good, coffee is especially good. Staff is a bit stiff but still helpful. I've tried several other hotels in the area, and have returned to the State Plaza the last few times due to its extremely convenient location.

One of the main problems with review sites like this is that anywhere you search for will have good reviews and bad reviews, it's inevitable. I booked 5 nights at the State Plaza after getting an incredibly cheap deal on Expedia, then looked at TripAdvisor to see if it was any good. As you can see if you've read through them, a lot of people had a pretty awful time there, so that made me wonder what it was going to be like. As it turned out, the State Plaza is a brilliant hotel, and a great base for the Mall sights in DC. The room was clean and enormous, and having the kitchen was an extra bonus. Sure, the paint on the kitchen cupboards was a bit cracked - but if you have a hard time with that, or complain about faded bedspreads or worn carpet, then pay $100 a night more and go somewhere else. This is a budget hotel, and a very good one. The staff are incredibly friendly and helpful, and personally showed me round when I was confused by the two-building layout (happened a lot!). The breakfast is in a small room as the restaurant is still under decoration, but you can grab stuff and take it back to your room. The location is perfect, two blocks from the Vietnam/Lincoln Memorials with the other Mall sights beyond. To the person who couldn't find anywhere to eat nearby, if you walk 5mins north to I Street then there's a mini-mall at 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue (2000penn---) with restaurants, bars, food shops and a newsagents. I'm a frequent traveller, having stayed everywhere from insect-infested hostels in the remote part of New Zealand, to the Tokyo Hilton - believe me, I was very impressed with the State Plaza in that location for that price. If you want to spend several hundred dollars a night, then good for you. There are some excellent top-range hotels in DC. If you want to spend a more reasonable amount on a clean, safe hotel with friendly staff, then I can't recommend the State Plaza enough. I would have given it 5/5 if they hadn't charged me $18 for using a minibar, when my room didn't actually have a minibar (Expedia are looking into it). Even that hasn't put me off going back, if I return to DC.