My husband and I, as well as our 12 year old son stayed here for 5 nights in January 2013. We chose the Gaylord because our older son was at the same hotel for a convention of high school students and we wanted to be close to him. Our room was very comfortable and quiet. This hotel is HUGE, which is a benefit when you have close to 2,000 high school students also staying there! We scarcely noticed them. The overall decor is impressive and elegant. Again, this is a LARGE facility with a great deal of walking involved. The hotel restaurants are fine- nothing special but certainly above average. We did enjoy the substantial breakfast buffet every morning. In order to take public transportation into Washington D.C. we had to take a cab ($20 each way) to the station in Alexandria. The hotel shuttle was $20 per person so the cab was a better deal. My only complaint is that a hotel of this size could have offered a more reasonable shuttle service for it's guests. All in all a good experience.

Stayed in Dec. Entire hotel beautifully decorated for holidays. Stayed in a room with balcony overlooking huge indoor atrium. Room very spacious and very well sound proofed . Housekeeping provides 2 bottles of water each day. They had several restaurants. Ate at the breakfast and lunch buffets. Both were good. There is a quick service open for breakfast and lunch. There is a large gym, large indoor pool and hot tub.for he holidays they had light shoes with indoor snow, caroling etc. For a fee there was gingerbread decorating, photos with santa and a small train ride. There was also an Indoor dreamworks ice experience we didn't attend but heard was very nice. There are a number of restaurants and shops all within walking distance..

First I must say that I have never actually stayed at this hotel.

But as a resident of the nearby MD suburbs I've visited the hotel many times since it's opened for conferences and holiday events. As described by everyone and as is standard for the chain, the hotel itself is impressive and quite lovely. It is breathtaking during the holiday season. We attended a conference there and were impressed with the conference facilities including the helpfulness of the staff nearby. Valet parking is very expensive but the valet staff was superb.

Quite a few restaurants in the area and several other hotels to consider for your stay. Since we have small kids, the new National Children's Museum which just opened this past December is a big attraction for us and we will likely continue to visit the area.

Let me start with the positive:) If you are here for a convention that you don't have to pay for, then I think that this could be a great hotel. It is massive and the lobby/atrium area is impressive looking. The area of Oxon Hill is very contrived, but there are shops and restaurants to go to. It reminded me of Downtown Disney (but not as fun and more expensive!).

The negatives for us:
- Zero customer service: we asked for a wine opener, as we had forgotten to bring one, but had a bottle of wine to enjoy after the kids went to sleep. We were told that there would be a $10 room service charge to borrow wine opener and wine glasses. We said no, we just needed the wine opener (we were OK with using the regular glasses provided in the room). They said they would be right up. 3 calls and and hour later, no one came. We finally called back and said that we were going to sleep, so don't send it up. 5 minutes later there is a knock on the door...room service with the wine opener, 2 glasses, and a bill for $10! We declined, but the $10 was still on our bill (even though we did not sign the receipt). I have never been in a "full service" hotel that offered such terrible customer service.

- The area is far from the city of D.C., and there just isn't enough to keep us entertained in Oxon Hill. You can't even grab a cup of coffee except at the ridiculous hotel prices for horrible coffee.

- Everything is VERY overpriced. We decided try all of the holiday events (ICE show, gingerbread houses, etc). While they were OK as attractions, they were nowhere near worth the cost.

- The people who work at the hotel are not helpful or friendly at all. I think that most looked frazzled and annoyed, as the hotel was very crowded because of all of the holiday events that are held there.

I would definitely not stay at this hotel again. If I had to go to Oxon Hill, there is a Residence Inn directly across (and tons of other hotels & everything is close by). I would stay at another hotel for sure.

Luckily we used 2 free Marriott certificates...it would have been so much worse if we had actually paid to stay here.