An 80s establishment that looks more like a motel than a hotel. The room was tired, small, old, and trapped in the 80s. The bathroom was like a dorm room toilet. The tub drain was partially blocked, and the drain stopper couldn't keep the tub of water. The saving grace were the big flatscreen tv and the good wifi. The front desk and the service personnel were friendly but couldn't save the 'hotel'. I can understand why the 'hotel' offers complimentary breakfast and happy hour snacks - enticement for the family travelers. As to proximity to DC, there is no proximity. It is far away in Alexandria unless you rely solely on the metro to get round. Driving is a pain and rush hour is horrible due to the location as a popular posh DC suburb. In short, avoid March in DC and book early to get a great deal on a good hotel either in DC or Crystal City. This is not a 3 star establishment as claimed by expedia.

First night there we pulled back our mattress and it was wet . We had to change rooms at midnight. The front desk staff were as helpful as possible but couldn't do much since we booked on Hotwire . The whole hotel is dated and needs renovating. The rooms were not exceptionally clean and the cleaning staff did not replace our face cloths dish towels or dish cloths when they took out the old ones. Could not check in without going steps with heavy suitcases

First off, I would like to compliment the hotel on their service. Every employee we encountered was very helpful and pleasant. We couldn't have asked better service. The hotel is acceptable, nothing fancy by any means. It was clean. The "suite" is pushing it a bit. It's nothing but a regular sized room with a very small kitchen area. There are only 2 very small elevators in the hotel and with 9 floors you can imagine they get quite busy. The managers reception Monday through Thursday evenings was a nice touch and a free breakfast is also convenient. The worst part of this hotel is its location. It is by no means in Old Town Alexandria- that's a drive or a metro ride. Although the hotel shuttle will take you to a metro station, it's pretty far from the hotel (not walkable) and the station is one of the farthest stops on the blue line from DC. After 10 minute ride on the hotel shuttle, expect a 30 minute metro ride til you get to downtown DC. We did drive into downtown once and found it much faster than taking the metro (15 minutes tops in good traffic-but then you'll have to pay to park in town). Also, the hotel is sandwiched between I-395 and a busy local road so no matter which side you're on, it's noisy. The noise from room to room isn't great either. I could hear the neighbor quite clearly while he sang in the shower. Overall, it's ok. We didn't pay much, the staff were very nice, breakfast was free as was parking, and we had the convenience of a kitchen. I'm not sure that outweighed the inconvenience of a very out of the way and noisy location, though. I would not choose to stay here again as I'd rather be closer to either Old Town or DC even if it means paying more. I guess it really depends on what's most important to you.