Washington Hilton: January 24-25, 2017

1   Not Recommended
Room 10158 , 1 King Bed
January 28, 2017 by

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Washington Hilton
 Map | 1 Review | 0% Recommended

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Room 10158

1 King Bed

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
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Room
1 King Bed

Why Here?

I’ve been wanting to stay at the Washington Hilton for a while but either travel schedules or lack of availability of rooms at per-diem has limited my options. Unfortunately, it appears that I waited too long to stay here – please see my review below.

The Reservation

I was able to book this property at below per-diem on Concur a few weeks in advance.  The most likely reason for this is that the hotel is being remodeled (also see below).

The Property

As a historical property and one of the hotels that's part of the Historic Hotels of America, the Washington Hilton has an interesting history – some of which is documented on its own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Hilton.

Layout

As shown on the property layout from the back of room door, the hotel’s rooms are laid out in a double arch configuration:

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So, if you could be outside the spine column intersection of the two arches at sunset, you’d see something like this (borrowing an image off of Expedia):

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Which I thought was cool.  Accordingly, if you could pan just east (right), you'd think that you would then get an expansive view of the Eastern arch of the hotel. However, now at the center/focus of the eastern arch, sits a brand new luxury apartment development called “The Hepburn”.  Here’s a Flickr’s user’s stitched view from across the street:

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This is something that photos from the hotel’s website don’t show.  Just below, you’ll see what view you now get from the Eastern side of the building looking south.

Pool & Fitness

Because I got in so late and then had to get going fairly early, I was not able to make it to the “Living Well Health Club” ($10/day for guests but complimentary for HHonors elites). Also, according to the hotel’s website, their outdoor pool is available May 1 through October 31.

The Executive Lounge

The Washington Hilton’s Executive Lounge is a decently sized area that has its own bar (not shown) as well as two computers (one Apple and one Lenovo) along with a printer:

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The Lounge’s breakfast was the standard cold fare for Hilton properties (hard boiled eggs, sliced/cubed fruit, breakfast pastries and baked goods, cereals, yogurts, etc.).  There were mushroom quiches in small ramekins in a warming dish also being served.  Other flyertalkers have already identified what the variety and type of food provided during the evenings.

Location

This hotel is basically at the northern edge of the Dupont Circle area/southern edge of Adams Morgan/western edge of Kalorama in the District of Columbia.  The challenge for this property is its distance from the nearest Metro station (Red Line – Dupont Circle) – about 0.5 mile walking uphill – which could be a pain in weather and/or hauling a bit of luggage. You could take a bus going north along Connecticut Avenue or grab a cab or some ride service as well.  Also, because this hotel is a little bit elevated relative to the Capitol and the Mall, I was also hoping for a view of the city as well – again this didn’t happen.

Check In

At the time I arrived from DCA (between 12:30 and 1 AM), the front desk was located on the hotel's Lobby level.  I don’t have any photos of the front desk when I arrived but it was in the middle of its own construction area. Unfortunately, none of the ongoing construction is mentioned on the property’s web site.

When I awoke later in the morning, the front desk had shifted its location to the Terrace level and signs were posted in all the elevators indicating this shift.  At my check-in, I knew that the Executive Lounge was closed and asked for and then received a small bag with two bottles of water – basically my Diamond arrival gift.

Room

I was given room 10158 which is on the same floor as the Executive Lounge but close toward the end of the Eastern arch. Obviously not an upgrade to a suite which would have been nice but I doubt the hotel’s front desk staff was thinking about being generous at 1 AM. Given that the hotel has 12 floors and how each room is small slice of each of the curves of the two arches, the Washington Hilton has 1070 rooms.

 

Here’s the direction signage after you get off the elevator to decide which way to head:

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Since I was down in 10158, I started walking.  Just as what was reminiscent of other curved Hilton properties (O’Hare, Dulles), what would be a shorter walk in a more rectangular building becomes a much further walk in a curved one.  While I expected this, at around 1 AM, it just made things even longer.

 

This is what it looks like outside of the room and its adjacent corridor:

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10158 is a 1 king bed guest room. As a mini cylindrical section slice, rooms on the inside of the arch narrow out from the door toward the window.  Here’s a 3-photo composite stitched panorama of the room:

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As is common to rooms in DC, this isn’t a very large room.  You get a bureau/dresser, flat screen TV and desk/chair but no mini-fridge:

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The closet has an in-room safe as well as a provided robe:

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In addition, there was a small card posted inside the back of the closet that had the max room rate but I couldn’t take an effective picture of it.

 

The bathroom has a sliding frosted door and has a standard bathtub-sized shower stall:

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Once I got up, I found that the room really has no view - except of the Hepburn.  Because of the Hepburn development, you don’t see much else from windows along the hotel's Eastern arch looking south:

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Also, with whatever vegetation that’s planted between the Hepburn and the Washington Hilton, none of it was alive – or in a very, very dormant state – due to either the season, the lack of sunlight or both.

Overall

If you are expecting a fairly standard property consistent with older mid-20th Century DC hotels, then the Washington Hilton is exactly that.  Clearly there’s history that happened here and others who’d really appreciate it more for those reasons.  I’d had my heart set on experiencing the hotel for its architecture and views as well as what I had hoped would be a more superior Hilton experience. Unfortunately, the construction still going on inside the hotel (again not mentioned anywhere on the property’s web pages) and the recently concluded construction of the Hepburn that now blocks the south side views along T Street NW really disappointed me.  Unless another reason brings me to the hotel such as a meeting or conference, I’ll probably not be going back.

David

p.s. If interested, you can search on the web for images of the Washington Hilton to see what eastern side of the property looked like going back a few decades (since the hotel was completed in 1965). In addition, more photos and images from this stay are located at: http://s1179.photobucket.com/user/leedavide/slideshow/Washington_Hilton_DC_2017-01 (slide show) or http://s1179.photobucket.com/user/leedavide/library/Washington_Hilton_DC_2017-01 (individual images).

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