Before deciding to book my 5-night stay here I read almost all of the reviews, so I was expecting a typical Holiday Inn Express experience.
Arriving at the hotel the propery appeared old from the outside, however the premises were clean and pleasant. The check-in was very friendly, I was recognized as a platinum PC member and assigned the type and location of the room I had requested in the reservation. Moreover, Stacey explained in detail how the shuttle and the subway work, how to get to downtown DC, even provided a map and also made some dinner suggestions.
The hotel lobby, hallways and elevators were very run down, the doors to the room badly scratched, dented, bumped, the whole property appeared very, very tired. The room itsself had been updated to some extend. However the worse part was the bathroom, which was tiny, with very limited space to put your things on. Moreoever, the metal parts of the sink were rusty, the tap would not close completely, so there was constant water dripping and the bathtub would drain extremely slowly. There were also quite some problems in the room: on our first day there was no bar soap in the room, on our second day the housekeeping didn't leave any coffee, there was one light bulb missing in the table lamp, the room was only vacumed on our 3rd night and the bed matresses were overused and producing squeeky noises with every move. Contrary to some reviews here the room was not at all soundproof, the noise from the traffic was quite bothersome. We also used the laundry room, which was rather dirty. I also found it somewhat unpleasant that you could enter the hotel from the side door at any time of night. Even though the doors were supposed to be locked at night, they were not.
On the positive side: the complimentary shuttle to the Metro station is great, it is fast and very convenient, every member of the staff is very friendly, polite and professional. It is too bad the hotel is not renewed completely and managed in a better way.
Had I been paying their usual USD 100+ a night rates, I would have been rather angry for choosing this property. As I redeemed my PC points I was OK with staying here.

The location is great. Right off the highway 95. We had a king room with a sleep sofa. The room was clean and the bed was comfortable. The bathroom was small and cramped. We had a drainage issue where the water flowed slowly down the sink and the shower. We called the front desk and a maintenance person was sent immediately to address the problem. He fixed the sink, but not the shower. It wasn't a pleasant experience showering in standing water.

The weather was cool and we needed another blanket on the bed. Guess what? No extra pillows, blankets or sheets. How was someone going to sleep on the sleep sofa?

They serve a hot breakfast. However, it really wasn't that good. The quality of the food wasn't good. The eggs were flat with melted cheese inside. The fresh fruit was old looking. It wasn't a Hampton Inn breakfast. There is a Bob Evans and a Dunkin Donuts within walking distance.

Stay here if you're on a budget or if you're passing through for one night.

One night stay for business trip stay only. The ustomer service was excellant, the rooms were clean, the bedding was decent, and the free breakfast in the morning worked for me. This "Express" was a little older than some of the ones that I have stayed in, but they updated the inside to match with the newer ones around. Bathrooms could have used a little more updating, but not bad.

The rooms are very clean and everything seems fairly new. Nothing seemed old or over used. We had a leaky bath tub but customer service took care of it right away. If you're going to DC and your room key doesn't work when you come back, don't panic. Front desk told us that the metal detectors in the museums and government buildings sometimes deactivates them. Only thing I didnt like is that there were only sheer curtains and the thick ones couldn't be pulled down. I felt like I had to hide in the bathroom to get changed! Overall inexpensive place without being scary or dirty!