The Dupont Circle

Located at the intersection of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire Avenues in Northwest Washington, DC, Dupont Circle has served as the anchor of a neighborhood of diplomats, government officials, war commemorations, and the LGB community for over 200 years.

I stayed here with my wife for four nights after a cruise. I picked this hotel because it is part of the American Express Hotels Collection, so I had high expectations. Firstly - it is well positioned, being only a hundred yards or so from The Dupont Circle metro station. This means it is very easy to get to or from Dulles airport, requiring only one change and costing a ridiculously inexpensive $2.50! The hotel itself is fairly drab, with lots of muted shades of brown and beige. The lobby area is very small with few seats. As we had booked through Amex, we were given a room upgrade, which meant we were on the top (8th) floor, overlooking the Circle. This was undoubtedly better than looking at pipes (from another review) but we were subject to traffic noise, and especially police sirens, throughout the night. The room had a comfortable bed, and did have a small couch and a desk with a chair, plus a safe and a minibar. A 55 inch TV was wall mounted and showed HD programming. The ensuite bathroom had one basin, a toilet and a shower (no bath). The shower pressure was weak. There were two problems with the room: 1) there was no room to leave one case, never mind two, such that they could be easily accessible. We had to leave them on the floor next to the desk which meant the desk was effectively out of action. I did try storing them in the wardrobe but it was not deep enough; 2) the room windows had slatted wooden blinds and an electric blackout blind which were effective when used together. However, the ensuite had an exterior frosted window, and no blind, and the door to the ensuite toilet/shower was also frosted glass (no door at all from the bedroom to the ensuite), so once dawn had broken, light spilled in to the bedroom from the bathroom. Anyone using the toilet during the night and needing the light would automatically light up the bedroom. This is definitely a design flaw. On balance, the accommodation was adequate for the price, but nothing special. However, we were woken on our second morning to the sound of incessant barking coming from the room opposite. I spoke to the manager who agreed to speak to the owners of the dog, who seemed to have locked it in the bedroom while they went for an extended breakfast. I was surprised that pets were allowed, as I had not noticed that when booking, and my wife is allergic to dogs, but the manager assured me that this is a pet friendly hotel and dogs are indeed welcome. Our room rate included breakfast as well as a hotel credit, so we chose to eat at The Pembroke for dinner one evening, and this was also where breakfast was served. Breakfast is not a buffet, it is an a la carte menu, for which we were given a $45 credit per person per day. We didn't come close to exceeding this amount. There was nothing simple about the dishes. The full American came with sautéed kale, and the eggs had herbs all over them; the French toast was covered with Nutella and peanuts as well as maple syrup. I ordered two soft boiled eggs, and only one came, and then when I reminded the server that I had ordered two, another came but both were hard. The next day I tried two soft poached eggs. They came soft as ordered, but again covered with herbs, and also cold. Our last day was a Sunday and we came down to breakfast at 9:30. There were no free tables, and we were told we should have made a reservation - because "everyone knows" to do that. I do feel that as out-of-town guests, this might have been mentioned at check-in. The service on this day was *incredibly* slow. Before we had dinner in the Pembroke, we went for a cocktail at Doyle's bar. At 6:30 in the evening, the bar was rammed and rowdy. It looks like many business folk use this hotel as a base during the week, and after a hard day's negotiating, many of them seemingly like to kick back with their colleagues at Doyle's. For the two of us, it was a relatively unpleasant experience. Service was slow, and we couldn't hear ourselves speak. We left after one drink and never tried again. Our dinner at The Pembroke was good in parts. The starter of asparagus veloute was delicious. For mains, I had the heritage pork chop, which was huge but so fatty I left over half of it. My wife had the herb-crusted chicken, which was again huge but smothered with coarsely chopped herbs and so much oil it looked like the top of the bottle had come off over the plate. She found it inedible. The service was good, however. On checking out, I noticed that I had been charged tax on the breakfasts. I questioned why I was paying the tax when breakfast was supposed to be included, to be told that tax was not optional. I argued that the hotel should be picking that up, but I was obviously not explaining myself well enough to the receptionist. The invoice I had been given was only a summary of the daily charges, without showing the line items, so I asked could I see exactly what had been put through to my account. Having gone through this exercise, instead of my arguing about $20 worth of tax, it became apparent that I had been overcharged by $89. Once this had been removed, I was relatively happy. Finally, I think it worth noting that over the weekend, the hotel were servicing two weddings. From our experience, service was noticeably worse leading me to feel that they were overstretching themselves. On balance, I found this hotel disappointing, especially as it is by no means inexpensive, and were I to visit Washington again, I would look for somewhere else to stay.

I love this hotel, it is elegant and very cozy, and the location is perfect. It has a very nice restaurant and bar, and the lobby is artistic and it smells nice. But the room maintenance leaves considerable room for improvement.

We had a wonderful stay at this hotel. After some initial confusion over our room, we were given a beautiful room with views over the city. Winston Cortez, the director of the front office , was courteous and helpful and made sure we were happy with our eight-night stay at the hotel. The food in the Pembroke restaurant was extremely good and the staff friendly and efficient even with the hotel so busy for the Blossom Weekend. We would love to stay here again - thank you all.

Feels like I'm in a prison. Never would have booked this room if their online pictures were accurate and truthful. Rooms look fine online but arrive to a surprise. All standard rooms face inside to a very ugly sea of duct work. Im claustrophobic by nature snd always book rooms that are open and airy . Will be canceling my reservation for august to find something more appealing. Shouldn't be hard as these rooms are expensive