The Royal Sonesta Washington DC Dupont Circle
3.6 ★ average from 5 reviews
Chic property with stylish rooms & suites, plus an outdoor pool, loaner bikes & Italian dining.
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Recent reviews
- ★★☆☆☆Scott Robillard
While a recently renovated hotel that has decent room and public areas, the absolute lackluster (and frankly detracting service), makes this a 1 time visit only. Majority of the team at the front desk will respond “no” to simple requests: 1. On arrival - we had asked the gentleman checking us in if we could have help with bags, he said “there are 2 agents at the door, go ahead and get their attention - let them know you need help and they can help you”. 2. This morning, we left to tour the city at 7am, and let the agent at the front desk know we are going out - could they please clean our room. We returned at 2pm, to find 2 cleaning carts in the hallway - and they still had not cleaned our room. Fully understand they work certain hours - but as a Customer who had requested this - assuming that not every other customer did the same - should have been an easy yes. On returning and letting the agent know the room was not done - and asking couldn’t it have been prioritized / his answer was “I can’t answer for housekeeping). 3. Last night we wished to buy a bottle of sparkling water - the hotel sells no drinks except at the restaurant (when it is open only), so we had to walk a half mile to get this. The issues we are sharing are so easy to fix - all about attitude, nothing we asked for would cost any additional money for the property, and some would have driven additional revenue. Very disappointing we will not be back.
- ★★★★★Sarah Guardia
Very clean and comfortable room, can control the AC if it gets too hot! LOVED the bathroom, very spacious with dim lighting and a makeup mirror. Soap smelled GREAT. Definitely recommend doing the valet parking ($61), all other parking options we found weren’t as good.
- ★★★★★Peter Kim
I've stayed at The Royal Sonesta in Dupont Circle twice before with my family, so when I was planning an end-of-school-year trip for my son and 7 of this best friends to go to DC, it was a no-brainer to choose this hotel we've always had a good time at. The trip almost started going off the rails before it started when I called the hotel to ask if we could get connecting rooms. The person I spoke with was at the central reservations call center. He said he couldn't do that for me (which was fine!) and added a note to request rooms on the same floor. A few minutes later, I got an email indicating my room rate went up by $40 per room! I tried calling the hotel repeatedly, only to get automatically transferred to the call center, where they said there was nothing they could do to fix the issue and they were not able to transfer me directly to the hotel front desk where they could fix it. I was at the point of cancelling my reservations and taking my business elsewhere when I decided to give it one last ditch effort and reached out to an employee I found on LinkedIn. I really hate doing things like this, but I was just so frustrated with the inability to talk to a human who could fix the issue. Fortunately, she forwarded my message to one of her colleagues who called me right away and assured me I would get the original rate that I booked the reservation at. So thank you Edith for making my day and restoring my hope in Royal Sonesta. Both Edith and her colleague reassured me that our group would be taken care of during the weekend; thank you so much for fixing the issue with the reservation and demonstrating a level of empathy that is so often lacking in our world today. I'm looking forward to this stay and future stays at Sonesta hotels.
- ★★★☆☆Sage Patalano
I’m giving this place 3 stars because, at best, this is a 3 star hotel. The staff is very friendly but the dated rooms, state of hotel (which seems to be getting a lobby facelift at least), amenities (or lack thereof) offered, and overall value would equate to a dated holiday inn. Besides a 70/night valet (we did not book a car with the hotel) and a very basic gym( no scale small) there were 0 available amenities. Room service closes at 9:30pm in D.C. maybe it’s that way in DC but I’ve never stayed at a 4 star hotel with these kinds of prices without available room service (or any amenities whatsoever) available past 10 pm. We did stay for the last week of the cherry blossom festival so maybe we just paid a crazy premium and the prices are usually lower(for what you get they should be) The onsite restaurant is in a conference room and is not an actual restaurant. Moldy spots in the grout, dusty light fixtures, torn couches, bathrooms not being mainted (we had to scrub the tub down to use it and scrub the cold water faucet to get enough grime off to turn the actual faucet) old dated furniture, and old grimy looking throw pillows and blankets. These things just don’t add up to a 4 star hotel for me and my expectations. Pros were friendly staff, huge (albeit dated and dusty) suite, easy walking distance to metro and some restaurants available on the street- also enjoyed the elevator being locked so not just anyone could enter. All in all would I stay again for the price? Absolutely not. If the price were reflective of a 3 star hotel given that is what the hotel offers it’s a possibility. If you’re expecting a 4 star hotel this place will leave you considerably wanting.
- ★★★☆☆Arvind Eyunni
Hotel is amazing. The service is very poor though. I was missing an iron and asked the front desk for one. They promised to send someone up, but no one showed up. Next day, as I was getting into the room, I asked for one again, promised to have one delivered to my room, but again, no one showed up. Cleaning staff were great though. But stars lost due to unkept simple commitments.