Spent four nights here with wife and two sons (8 and 5) while on vacation. This place is great! It's a wonderful place to stay, especially considering the rates offered here compared to DC hotels. Our whole family loved this hotel.

The suite was typical Embassy Suites - big enough for a family of four. Kids enjoyed the fold-out sofa sleeper and "their room." Everything was clean and in great working order.

The staff was friendly and helpful; gift store clerk referred me to a convenience store/deli around the corner (see more below), which was very helpful. The front desk handled check-in smoothly - our pre-arranged suite was not available at check-in, but they quickly found another one. The breakfast and evening reception staff were great, also. The lady cooking omelettes in the morning was particularly friendly and cheery in the morning!

The breakfast was awesome - always plenty of food, even at "rush" times. The food was well prepared and tasty. The evening reception was nice - plenty of salty snacks and they had qeuso (cheese dip) one evening.

The pool did get very crowded at times, we adjusted accordingly. The hot tub is very big!

There is a free business center, as well as a three-terminal kiosk where you can print boarding passes and check e-mail.

The shuttle to the Pentagon City Metro station worked very well. It gets a few minutes off schedule sometimes, but we were never stranded at the station. One morning it left full for the station from the hotel and we didn't get on, but we just took the 10-minute walk to the Crystal City station instead and it was fine. In fact, the boys had fun counting the airplane statues along the way - this is an area theme - there is a walking path that takes you by all of them.

Area tips - there is a convenience store/deli on the first floor of the Hampton apartment building next door (also a Bank of America). This little store had pretty good prices on lots of stuff, we stopped there each night for a frozen ice cream treat. We had food delivered from a Chinese restaurant one night - it has a menu in the hotel notebook in the room. Great prices and huge portions - that's where the fridge and microwave come in handy!

All in all, this was a great hotel. I travel way too much and can highly recommend this hotel.

We also stayed at Homewood Suites Inner Harbor in Baltimore and Holiday Inn Historic Distric in Philadelphia on this trip - will be posting great reviews of those places as well.

Embassy Suites Crystal City is a great hotel. The staff has excellent customer service skills and all were very pleasant. The suites were nice and clean. The daily buffet breakfast was delicious. In addition, the evening manager's reception was a wonderful way to relax after a day of touring. The restaurant menu had many choices and the food was good with great presentation. The hotel is one and one-half blocks from the metro. The shuttle is an alternative if you cannot walk. The pool is small and there are plenty of kids there. I used the business center many times. We would stay there again.

Unfortunately, this was the second time I stayed here. The first time 2 months ago, the special shuttle van never picked me up from the health club. I had to run back to the hotel. Customer service and edicate is definitely lacking. When things do not work properly, employees generally correct YOU.

For my recent stay, despite being a Silver Hilton Rewards member and having a non-smoking preference, I was booked in a smoking room. Considering it was a major convention week, there were no available non-smoking rooms. I couldn't sleep well and woke up with a headache from the smoke residue. I didn't even get an offer to fix or clean the room. It would have been healthier for me to have slept in the hall.

I will never go here again.

This is a great location for easy access to DC. Make sure you book with parking included, otherwise they tack on $18 which I was not aware of the first time I stayed there in January. The metro is a few minutes away. The nightly manager special includes free drinks - that's right, free drinks! The restaurant is adequate if you want to eat there. The breakfast buffet is nice as well with made to order omelets; better than the usual continental fare. The suite was very comfortable and clean, however wifi is not included in the price.