Lodging choices

[taylor90]

Thanks, Donna for a very helpful research and a good list of hotel/motel groups. This information will be a great help for our future trips!

[DonnaR57]

Towne Place Suites review -

When in the Washington, DC area for about a week (7 nights stay), we chose a Towne Place Suites, which is budget-to-mid-price range hotel under the Marriott banner.

This particular one had a full kitchen. It had an "apartment-sized" fridge, a 2-burner smooth top stove, an over-the-range microwave, and a half-size dishwasher for the appliances. The cabinets contained a service for 4: plates, bowls, coffee cups, bread plates, and drinking glasses. The drawers contained a set of saucepans and a fry pan, all with lids (and all of decent quality). The silverware included service for 4: forks, butter knives, spoons, and tablespoons. There was a paring knife and a bread knife, a large serving spoon, "pancake flipper", and a hand-operated can opener. There was also a toaster and a coffeemaker.

This particular Towne Place has a "loan" system. They said they had Crock-Pots, hand blenders, full-size blenders, and a few other portable appliances to loan. Plus cards, board games, umbrellas, pen and paper.

The room contained a good king-sized comfortable bed, plus a sofa that could be made into a single bed. There was a roll-out table with a countertop directly over that, and about 30" above that was a shelf (which we used for stowing camera cases and other things).

The closet had an organizer in it. One shelf was strong enough to hold a suitcase, then there was a slide-out basket, and another shelf (on which they had a plastic laundry basket). There was plenty of hanging space and hangers.

The bathroom was of good size, all in one room (instead of a sink and counter outside the toilet/shower area). Instead of hanging a hair dryer on the wall, it was inside a drawer in a bag. The shower was gorgeous and huge, with a good showerhead.

At this particular hotel, there was plenty of parking. The AC worked beautifully, and with none of those problems that some hotels have with "flying curtains" over the AC unit.

We reserved this hotel several months in advance, for 10 nights. When plans changed that made us cut back our stay in DC to 7 nights, a simple phone call allowed us to alter the reservation without changing our rate.

Just down the street was a Candlewood Suites and a Hampton. Neither of them had an indoor pool like this one. My only "complaint" was that the pool appeared to be open only between 3 pm and 9 pm. This one also had a fitness center, and it was a good sized one. Though there was a sign apologizing for their finicky electronic fitness equipment, the one I used worked perfectly, though I did not use the TV that was attached to it.




Donna