Spend two great nights at the Washington Court in mid-October.

Very friendly staff and hotel is in a great location - about 2 blocks walk to Union Station where all the tour buses stops. About 3 blocks to the Senate.

Reception area very impressive and breakfast room perfectly adequate.

Rooms themselves were great. Very comfortable beds and very quiet rooms. Lots of added things in the bathroom like coffee, hairdryer and very rubbish little TV! Shower was fab.

Would say that the area is "up-and-coming". Other people have mentioned the homeless shelter nearby - didn't find it a problem and to be honest you get people begging pretty much everywhere in DC. Not many shops etc nearby - just a Starbucks across the road.

I’ve stayed on Capitol Hill in Washington a number of times over the last several years for various business meetings and conferences, but none of the hotels at which I’ve stayed measure up to the Washington Court.

When I arrived at about 1 p.m., I was offered a room with two double beds immediately, or the option of waiting until about 4 p.m. for a king room. As this trip was only for a single night and I had some things I wanted to accomplish before my meeting (including reviewing some documents and getting in a light workout), I took the room that was available.

The room, which opened into the interior courtyard area, was beautifully decorated and included a desk, a reading chair, and an alarm clock one did not need a manual to figure out.
The bathroom, which has a small black-and-white TV and telephone, was nicely decorated with the usual amenities. The only drawback was the main bedroom's rather tired 27” television with a picture that got fuzzy every few minutes. I certainly wasn’t going to pay to watch a movie on that television…

Service was very good. In addition to accommodating my (very) early arrival, housekeeping brought a robe within minutes of my request, and everyone I encountered was friendly and helpful.

The lobby bar served as a nice meeting place. The service was good and the prices reasonable.

Only a few negatives (in addition to the television issue I mentioned above). The fitness center is a little light on cardio equipment, though it does have plasma TVs to watch during your workout. It would be better if the plasma sets were in the rooms.

The business center was also somewhat sparsely equipped and, unlike the Hyatt across the street, did not have a kiosk offering complimentary airline check-in. A colleague said it cost him about $14 to check in, counting computer time and the cost of printing out the boarding pass. I’ll admit it: I walked across the street to the Hyatt (where I have stayed recently) and used their complimentary kiosk.

This area of Capitol Hill offers quite of few restaurants (some of them very good, like Bistro Bis in the nearby Hotel George), and is convenient to Union Station and the Metro. The homeless residents get a bit more aggressive after dark, but such is the case in many large cities.

The biggest challenge, as with virtually any hotel in the District, is getting a favorable rate. The father in advance you can book, the better – and it’s likely to be better still if Congress is not in session. If you can get a competitive rate (or if money is no object), I’d highly recommend the Washington Court Hotel.

Great hotel for the cost. Good location.

First impressions are important. My family and I arrived at the hotel at 2pm. We were tired from long flight/amtrak connections from Buffalo, NY to BWI to Capitol Hill that started at 5:30am for us coming from Toronto, Canada. Anyways, we did not know that check in was at 4PM! The hotel clerk was very rude to us giving us attitude. I kept my cool and was very patient with her. My wife on the other hand, well...that's another story. I can only assume that the only reason we were treated like that is because most of the guests are dressed in business suits when we were dressed down for comfort. Anyways, the room cleaning service was substandard. The TV in the washroom that other guests spoke about in their reviews was a disappointment. Although having a TV in the washroom was nice, the TV was a small 6 inch portable one that only had 4 channels. We were expecting like a flat panel plasma/LCD. Half the time the door men were too busy talking to each other that we had to open the doors ourselves. No big deal, but what are these guys being paid for? One review we read prior to our trip mentioned that there was no where to eat close to this hotel. This is half true. You can eat at the Union station food court where there is a variety of food to choose from. We also ate at Capitol City Grill next to Union station. The food was pretty good there. If you walk about 10 minutes to 7th St/ H St, chinatown is there. The chinese food was not as good as Toronto's but there are several other restaurants to choose from in that area. Do not walk around after it gets dark! It appears to be dangerous in this area with many homeless people that are scary looking. BUT there are cops everywhere which brings a sense of security. I think we saw a cruiser or secret service vehicle during the daytime every 10 seconds while we walked around the sights.