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Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
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$$$
7 reviews for Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
So when I check-in they tell me I'll be staying in the"Retreat." Which sounds vaguely spa-like. Or vaguely cult-like. It ends up being in Siberia. The Retreat is, I think, the original hotel and has sort of an "I was luxurious in the 1980's" vibe. The room (a king) was huge - but it's not like I'm throwing a party in my room. (I was here for a conference). I had a balcony so I had access to outside air, which is pleasant in a hotel and pretty unusual. The room was tired and dark. Also, this is a pet peeve of mine - I wish they'd do something about the cracked tiles and rusty grout in the bathrooms. I think Hiltons are so large that they're hard to maintain, but dirty grout automatically lowers my perception of a place. You can't be a 4 star hotel and have a bathroom that looks dingy. Standards, people, standards.
The internet connection in the rooms sucks. 12 mbps. Wireless is the only option (and it isn't free). Some other attendees got so frustrated with it thaty they gave up completely. It's a business hotel - that's hard to do business in.
Between the trek to Siberia, the bad internet, and the dingy bathrooms...there have to be better options in this price range.
Staff was actually very friendly, from housekeeping to the hotel staff working on this particular conference.
Stayed over the weekend and was less than impressed. Expect to be nickel & dimed - internet costs $10 a day and parking $9 a day... and since there is no nearby street parking, you're pretty much forced to use the pay lot. The actual entrance to the hotel is poorly signed, and once you get into a room, you'll find a musty odor (we switched rooms after the first one and it smelled just as bad in the second), and a lot of dust (both of us had allergy issues while staying there).
Service is perfectly adequate. Food delivery people are not allowed past the lobby to deliver to rooms, which would be nice if that was anywhere in the literature. Didn't try any of the food or room service (but they'll be happy to get you booze in the middle of the night, at $50+ a bottle, plus fees, tax & gratuity). There's a taxi stand at the hotel, as well as a shuttle to & from metro, so you could, in theory, skip the car. Still, would not recommend.
Ok, I'll admit, I can be a hotel snob. But all I want is a clean room and friendly staff. That's all. Really.
If you're looking for that at this Hilton - RUN FAST!
Their staff is so obnoxiously rude it's unbelievable. First, it was at check in, when they couldn't guarantee any rooms for us until 6pm, and got into a hip shaking-head bobbing yelling match with us when we pointed out that check out was at 11am. Doesn't fly when our convention sold out your property for a full week, and you demanded to know everyone's arrival times and flight numbers so that you could properly block all of the rooms according to when we all arrived.
Then, it was housekeeping who just WALKS into your room unless you have the door latch over the lock, and even when you do, they'll still try to come in and beat down the door until you answer and tell them to go away (happened 5 times in 3 days). Housekeeping never announced themselves, just knocked once, then tried to enter (or they did enter - regardless of the Do Not Disturb sign on the door).
The head of housekeeping also demanded that she place a rollaway bed in our room after we had ordered it. Nope. Sorry. We didn't. I literally had to shove the bed out of the doorway and shut the door for her to get the hint that we didn't order it and we didn't want it.
When we checked in, our fridge was missing from the room (we called and asked if we could get one - was turned down). There aren't any fans in the restroom, so you have to turn on the a/c when you take a shower so the whole room doesn't fog up. The stains on the carpeting are an eyesore at best and the whole hotel is in dire need of an upgrade - which was made apparent when a sudden thunderstorm came over and exposed a major leak in the atrium which drained right onto the escalators. Elevators worked half of the time - but were clogged with workers using them as freight elevators.
We'll probably come back next year for our convention, but won't be staying here - we'll make sure we're at an overflow hotel.
There are many one or two star reviews for this Hilton. Add mine to the pile, holmes. My review, though, is not about the rooms. I came here for a fundraising dinner. The food that this hotel serves is straight up garbage. I had this super dry BBQ chicken with wild rice full of little beans that made it even dryer. Their desserts were worse. Coffee tasted like mud. Sigh. On the brightside, I was able to sneak into their "Capital View" room on the 30th floor and got a decent view of the DC area. I took pics of myself, of course. That was fun. When it was time to leave, I asked the concierge about the parking situation and I don't think he understood anything I said. I asked my companions later on if I was speaking English, and they confirmed that I was, indeed, speaking da English. The concierge's answers, though, were nonsense. I mean, it was like I asked "Where can I find oranges?" and he would answer "The moon is in the waxing stage of its unicorn cycle, sir." Maybe he was just some random guy arranging the maps and brochures at the conciege desk for no reason?? I dunno.
Unlike Robert's review, I found the people to be average friendly. Nothing over the top, but not unpleasant either. The room was just ok. Becuase this is an older hotel, there were somethings which could have been upgraded. The bathroom in my room was not entirely operable. And the heater didn't spit out that much heat.
The food at the restaurant was fairly decent. I had the chicken sandwhich which wasn't too bad.
The location was a little awkward....but this was probably because I had to drive 35 miles to my next appointment!
Wow, where to begin...I have to begin my review by stating that I did NOT pay for my room, my company booked it for me, but thought others might want to know what they should expect if they made the worst decision ever and decided to stay here. I stayed at this property in February for three nights. From the moment I checked in it was no smiles, attitude and made to feel as if it was too much to ask...for ANYTHING. The room itself was decent, rather large with a great view of the city. But again, with the exception of Kim working at the bar, the hotel staff needed a SERIOUS attitude check. My first night I decided to "dine" at the hotel restaurant "Blue Fin." I was greeted at the entrance after three minutes with a "yeah?" by the "server." Eventually seated, everything took forever to receive and when I had to stand up to ask for a side of thousand island for my burger, was told they did not have any. Really? A restaurant without thousand island? Ten minutes later, halfway through my burger, it arrived. Stay away, stay away, stay away. I would not recommend this hotel even to any of my exes...and that says A LOT!
The Hilton Mark Center is a really nice business hotel located right near 395. The place is huge. The building is 30 stories. The lobby is really nice and spacious with plenty of seating. I found nothing wrong with the employees at all (although the only times we really interacted with them were at check in, breakfast, and check out). The rooms are nice and spacious. We stayed in a standard room. The view from our room was nothing spectacular, but I've heard that you can get a great view of DC from some of the higher floors (we were on 9). The bathroom was decent, although it took me a minute to figure out the shower. The other complaint about the room was that it was really stuffy, which isn't unusual in hotels. The breakfast buffet was great. They served Starbucks coffee and the food was on par with Embassy Suites, which I think serves the best hotel breakfast. One standout was the eggs with salmon and spinach in them. They were phenomenal. While this hotel is close to DC and Old Town, the hotel is surrounded by a business park, so I don't recommend it for tourists. Overall, if you're looking for a hotel and you're visiting Northern Virginia for reasons other than seeing the sights in DC, I highly recommend the Hilton at Mark Center. It has it's flaws, but I had a great stay there.