I spent three nights (and days) here on business to attend a training course at the hotel. It is by no means a bad hotel, and the rate I paid was very reasonable, but this review is signficantly colored by me NOT having a car since the training course was held at the hotel.
The good:
* Staff - very friendly and helpful
* Room - large, comfortable bed, nice bedding, large desk, excellent bathroom with tiled stand-up shower
* Free wireless internet access everywhere in the hotel
* Free breakfast
* Small swimming pool and fitness area
* Free shuttle to Dulles Airport every half hour
* Business center with three PCs and a printer
The "could-go-either-way":
* Proximity to Dulles Airport
* Very heavy, generic breakfast (eg, microwaved egg products, lots of supermarket-style breads). Healthy/light options (eg, yogurt and fruit salad) were limited.
* It's right on the highway. The view is either parking lot, traffic, or both.
* There is an hourly shuttle bus service to a nearby mall with a half dozen or so typical chain restaurant options, but it's infrequent and slow. If you don't have a car, you're very limited in your meal options.
The bad:
* There is no restaurant or even a kitchen on site. All food (including breakfast) is brought in pre-prepared. The only restaurant within walking distance is O'Malley's pub at the Holiday Inn about 5-10 mins away. They are probably what you'd expect...not great...and have a reasonably wide selection of dishes, but nearly everything includes both bacon and cheese. The prepared lunches for training course attendees came from here so within 2-3 days I had covered just about everything on the menu.
* Lots of ants in the conference room. There's no real short-term solution to this since you really don't want to sit in a conference room that's just been sprayed for insects, so we just had to live with it for three days.
This is not a hotel I would recommend for site-seeing in DC or to stay at for more than a night or two. I'd expect that most guests will be here either for short-term on business or before/after a flight at Dulles, and in either case are likely to have a car. To that end, it's a perfectly reasonable option.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
January 30, 2012
Dear knievel,
We appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed and thorough review of your entire experience at the hotel. We take all of our guests’ feedback very seriously so that we can always strive to improve.
We are happy that you were comfortable and that our team was able to make you feel welcomed and help you out. We are also glad that you enjoyed the room and the other amenities we have to offer our guests at the hotel. We are sorry that you were inconvenienced by our location. We try and accommodate our guests as much as possible with our local area shuttle as you pointed out that service can be inconvenient and restricting for our guests without a car.
We hope that you will give us a second shot if you are ever in the area again.
Sincerely,
The Hampton Inn & Suites Dulles Airport Team
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.