flyctory.com

DoubleTree Washington Crystal City

Florian Buechting Hotels & Accommodation No Comments

The first stage of my trip to Nashville in 2019 brought me to Washington. As I had a flight connection from Washington Reagan Airport and generally prefer Hilton, I chose the DoubleTree Washington Crystal City. In fact located in Arlington, Virginia, right across Pontomac River, this hotel offers nice connections to the city as well as to Reagan Airport. Here is my review.

 

DoubleTree Crystal City – Location

The hotel is located in Arlington, Virginia. It is close to Reagan Airport and the Pentagon. The area is a mixture of business and living area. There are some major connection roads more or less in front of the hotel. You access the hotel from street level, reception and lobby are one level above.

It is a quite nice neighborhood with a Whole Foods Organic Food supermarket just some minutes away. There are also a few cafes around. The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City Mall is just some ten minutes walk away and offers wider dining varieties. From there, you can connect to the Washington metro system. Alternative metro stations are Crystal City and Reagan Airport.

 

DoubleTree Crystal City – Room

I stayed in a standard room, two bed, for 254 USD for two nights. The rate was definitely nice for the area. There was no breakfast included, but I am entitled to complimentary one as a Hilton Honors Gold member. I got no upgrade (see below). The room looked quite nice, but was quite run down in some points. The biggest problem was energy: like in many US hotels, the power plugs are integrated into lamps. I tried three ones, two at the working desk, one at the bed – all of them were not working or not working properly. I complained about the ones at the workdesk and was just told to use one at the wall. In addition, the air condition failed in the second night.

The room was not too spacious, but fine. The bathroom was US standard with the expected selection of amenities. There were some minor technical problems (like a leaking faucet / shower switch), but overall, the bathroom was nice.

 

DoubleTree Crystal City – Breakfast & Food

Continental breakfast in The Cafe was complimentary with my status. For 5 USD, I was able to upgrade it to a full breakfast buffet. The breakfast was really nice. The staff was welcoming, there was a nice selection of items and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, breakfast is available from 7:00 only on weekends, which I feel is really late at an airport hotel. Thus, I did not have any breakfast at all in the hotel after my second night.

Next to the breakfast place is a shop, which also sells fruit, coffee, sandwiches and similar items. The posh dining option the hotel offers is the Sky Dome restaurant. The revolving restaurant in North Tower, 15th floor looks a bit like an airport tower from outside. I just had a quick view into it.

 

DoubleTree Crystal City – Services

I was not fully happy with the solving of the technical complaint I had about power plugs (see above). The quality of service was limited at check-in already. My status entitles me to complimentary upgrades up to Executive Floor level. There were better rooms available, but I was asked to upgrade for cash, despite being greeted as a gold member and getting the goodies for that (water, cookies) as well. I never had something similar in a Hilton Hotel before. The check-out was not friendly as well. A guest in front of me had to wait several minutes for a reception person to arrive. No question about the stay.

WiFi in the hotel was reasonable. The hotel features a pool, which is having quite strange opening hours – it is just available Saturdays and Sundays (Sunday until noon). The pool looks nice, though. There is also a business center and a gym. A very posh service is the Amazon Locker in the lobby area.

The hotel offers free shuttles to Reagan Airport as well as the next metro station, Pentagon City. They run every 20 minutes each. The buses are quite run down, though. The one which took me to the airport had a mileage of over 200,000, the door was slightly opening again and again and the car made a lot of noise. The driver did not seem to be too awake at that 7:00 morning ride.

 

DoubleTree Crystal City – My View

Starting with the good things: the hotel is not that badly located (though it is a ten minute walk to the metro). The pool is nice, the Skydome seems to be fine and the breakfast buffet was good. Full stop. The staff and the service, apart from the breakfast crew, was terrible. I felt so much attitude towards the customer in other US Hilton Hotels that I was really kind of shocked about this place. Yeah, the price is really nice, but I felt much better in a couple of Hampton Inns. The really best thing about my stay at Doubletree Washington D.C. Crystal City was when I left and survived the airport shuttle. Will definitely choose another stay next time in Greater Washington!

 

Hilton Hotels – More Reviews

Here are all my reviews of Hilton Hotels:

 

USA – All Postings

Here are all postings which deal with the USA:

, , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *