Hotel Conrad di Washington D.C.

In summary it’s a pleasant, very well-located hotel, and FOH staff work hard to keep customers happy. But poor fit and finish in rooms, chaotic housekeeping, billing issues, and slow customer support aren’t in keeping with the luxury positioning. In depth: Reception staff were superb: friendly, helpful, professional, and a surprise upgrade to a suite was most welcome. The restaurant is also very good and its staff, while occasionally overattentive, do a good job. Location couldn’t be much better for easy walks to a plethora of DC’s sights, museums, restaurants, shops, and transport. The rooms lack a luxury look and feel. They’re spacious and afford impressive views, but blandly and sp****ly furnished in a way that feels very cost conscious. Sound insulation is poor, to the extent that conversations and TVs in neighbouring rooms are clearly audible, as is street noise during peak times. Water pressure is extremely low, so the rain shower is rather more like soft drizzle . As with other Hilton hotels since the pandemic, there’s no minibar, no menus, no guest directory. It all feels rather spartan. Housekeeping is poor. Carpets and soft furnishings seemed grubby. The sofa, in particular, had several stains that looked like they could be removed if anyone cared to try. Clean glasses placed in the room had lip marks on the rim. Our coffee supplies were often not replenished. The second time we mentioned it, on returning to our room, we found two plastic bags stuffed with coffee, sugar, and cream dumped on the table — a distinct “here, stop bothering us” vibe. The breakfast, though very nice, is costly if you’re not getting the Food & Beverage Credit. There’s no end of alternatives nearby. There’s an obligatory 25% tip plus $5 delivery on room service. Laundry costs are such that I found it more cost effective to simply buy some extra clothes. Finally, our Food & Beverage Credit wasn’t applied to our bill. Hilton don’t answer replies to your receipt, so you have to fuss with corporate contact centres, chatbots and web forms. Took nearly a week to get a response, though to their credit they cleared our food bill as a goodwill gesture.