I came to stay at this Embassy Suites on a trip from Virginia.I am a young professional and came with my boyfriend for a much needed vacation the goal of the trip was to go out explore the city, enjoy the weather kick back and relax. At check in the female working was very rude and short with me. I have stayed at numerous embassy suites using the FF program, she made check in a pain, said the passport was missing ( I faxed it in a month before our stay) didn't explain how to re-send it properly and had a nasty overall attitude. She told me I would need faxed over by the 'end of business' that night or the discount would not be applied. The time difference still made it difficult but I got a friend to resend it from the location in Richmond VA. This check in experience set the tone for how I felt about the hotel the entire stay. The next morning I came down to make sure it was faxed over and the woman working was very cheerful and said it was. The lobby was beautiful, the room was well kept and clean (although there was some sort of sticky stain in the ceiling that you would notice in certain lighting) but I just did not feel welcome. The manager on duty during breakfast was delightful every morning and very accommodating, on the 3rd day I was there the eggs really upset my stomach so I stopped getting the full breakfast and would just come down for coffee near the end and he would always ask if I needed anything or got enough to eat. He really seemed to care and that improved the feeling of the stay. I do not think the eggs were bad I just have a sensitive stomach my boyfriend ate the same eggs and was fine, the complimentary breakfast is a beautiful spread and you really can not beat a free hot breakfast with so much variety. The manager or hostess working the complimentary happy hour was not as friendly she would say hi but every night she would make me pull out the card to get marked and my ID but let other guests come right in, as I was shuffling through my purse to get the cards out 1 night 2 huge groups came in and she greeted them and said come on in with out having to get out their cards , it made me feel discriminated against and once again very unwelcome. I understand that you have to use the cards to mark but I don't think its fair to only ask certain guests for theres and just let other ones in with out it, either have everyone do it or no one do it -treat guests equally. It honestly felt embarrassing to have to shuffle through my purse like that while others glided on in those nights on the last couple nights of the stay I just chose not to even attend rather than go through that process. The bartenders were nice though. My boyfriend and I ate dinner dinner in the hotel restaurant one night, the service was good our waitress was really sweet, we kept it simple I had a club sandwich he had a cheesesteak they were both fine. You keep a beautiful hotel, but some of the attitude from the staff (check in and the refreshment hour hostess/manager) just took away from the whole experience. Another note: one night we had a bottle of wine in the room but forgot a cork screw, we went downstairs to ask the front desk if there was a corkscrew we could use to open it (we brought the bottle with us so we wouldn't be taking the cork screw with us or anything) and the man working the front desk said there was no cork screw we could use. I found it odd to believe there was not a cork screw in the entire hotel ( in either of the 2 bar areas ??) he didn't seem to even go look. This wasn't a huge deal but it was an added inconvenience. I love staying at embassy suites anywhere I travel, I usually feel so at home and the accommodations are outstanding but unfortunately at your location a couple of members of the staff made me feel unwelcome and discriminated against. I would not recommend this particular Embassy Suites to others and will not stay in this location next time I am in town.
