Park Hyatt Washington - not what it used to be
We’ve stayed at this property probably 20x over the years, and while it’s always been one of the more “value luxury” options in the city, the “luxury” part of that has been diminishing steadily over the past few years.
I’ll start with the good, since this will still represent a decent option for some: the location and the rates.
While it’s not the best location for being a tourist on the mall, it’s my preferred location in the city given the easy walkability to both Georgetown and Dupont Circle, the two neighborhoods I tend to spend most of my time when in DC. With the FS and RC within a few blocks, though, this isn’t as much of a competitive advantage without the lower rates.
With Hyatt Prive’s upgrade at booking, you can regularly get into a full suite here for ~$500 or so, which is great value for the square footage.
Now, the bad:
The rooms and amenities are in increasingly poor condition. See attached for a photo of the minibar in our Georgetown suite, and for a photo of the bathrobe we were given with a massive hole in the sleeve. We left the robe on the bed with the hole clearly showing, and housekeeping just hung it back up.
Housekeeping service doesn’t happen when requested. I’ve requested service multiple times via chat to be done while we were out, the chat agent confirmed it would be done, and the room is untouched on our return.
In-room dining service has gotten really basic. Breakfast trays were brought into the room and left on the table, not set up or anything. This is a new development, as they definitely have set up place settings for us before. Even after I mentioned it, it happened multiple times. Champagne problems and all that, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to order IRD with a 20% service fee and not have to set your own table.
More minor but annoyingly, the hotel does not seem to be able to handle Hyatt Prive bookings properly. We stayed twice in December; both times we had a confirmed upgrade at booking, and both times at check-in, we were assigned to non-upgraded suites. Prive benefits are not automatically applied, either. I always had to ask to have our breakfast credits applied.
More than anything, it just seems like the attitude has changed. They used to have a wonderful director of operations, Philippe, who was very hands-on and would proactively get to know guests and make stays exceptional. I would always see him working the room in the lobby and BDT lounge.
Now when I reply to the pre-stay automated emails from the current director, my emails get replied to by front desk staff.
And since I’m usually the first to think “what happened when you told the hotel about your concerns?” when people complain on here: nothing. I emailed both the director of ops and the GM over a week ago and have heard nothing. I’m not looking for anything personally from the hotel, I just want (1) anyone considering the hotel to see this so you know what you’re going into, and (2) for someone at the hotel to start taking guest experience seriously again and return this place to what it once was.
Sidenote: I’m also completely unsurprised that Blue Duck Tavern, the in-house restaurant, lost their star. What used to be a magnificent eatery is clearly phoning it in these days. They brought us a semifreddo (literally means “half-cold”) that was rock hard, apologized that it just came out of the freezer, and suggested we give it a few minutes before eating. By the time I could stick a knife in it, everything around it was melted. To their credit, they took it off the bill when I complained, but the fact that it was even sent out says a lot about the level they’re operating at now.