It's a beautiful hotel in a great location. But a beautiful lobby doesn't make up for poor service, inadequate business accomodations, and outlandish prices.

Within an hour after I had checked in (at 10:00 pm) the following occurred:
1) The desk clerk was delightful. Best part of my stay so far.
2) I got into my room and discovered that the lighting was very poor. There are two lamps in the entire room. One between the two beds, and one at the desk. Even the desk lamp would hardly qualify as task lighting. No hallway light. No reading light. No overhead light. (Why do hotel rooms never have overhead lights??) There is an armchair by the window which would be nice for kicking back with a book, except that you couldn't possibly see well enough to read there except in full daylight. The desk is also quite small and internet access is $10 per day.
3) I decided to order room service as I had not had dinner. Room service took my order, then lost it and called me back to have me repeat it, then delivered my eggs without the promised toast, then delivered the toast dry with no butter or jam. For my scrambled eggs with 4 slices of potato and dry toast, and about 6 oz of iced tea, I paid over $20. And that was the bargin on the room service menu. They were at least very fast.
4) The metro train went by three or four times. It's loud. And it keeps going till 2 in the morning or so. (I was on the 4th floor facing Connecticut Street. It might be better on the other side.) The street noise in general is pretty bad, and that's at 11:00 pm. I'm wondering what it will be like in the morning.
5) I discovered that there is nowhere to buy a soda except the in-room bar, where it costs $4.25.
5) I hung a skirt (not a heavy skirt, just a skirt) on the shower rod and the shower rod fell off the wall. The bracket had clearly broken before, and was now beyond repair. Fortunately I take baths, not showers, so I told the desk clerk not to bother trying to fix it till the next day. (We'll see if it actually gets fixed.)

Another minor annoyance: Every time I call room service or the front desk, the phone rings MANY times before they pick up. I'll grant you that it's now close to midnight, but not what I expected from a "full service" hotel.

For my money (and a lot less of my money at that), I'll give up crystal and marble next time for better service and more business-friendly accomodations at one of the Marriott's less prestigous properties.

A beautiful hotel...no doubt about that. The bed was the most comfortable one I have ever slept in! The 4 star service ends there, however. The door man only opened the door if you were wearing a suit or fur coat...he ignored the rest of us. My room was very small...but VERY clean. No fridge (cost extra), no coffee maker (in lobby only), no internet (cost extra). I'm a walker and loved walking around the city...but there isn't a whole lot around the hotel itself. Just banks, businesses, hotels, and churches. I do recommend the Improve comedy right across the street...and the Daily Grill (expensive), Fudruckers (moderate), Chipoletes (moderate). If you want to do anything in the city ,the metro is right across the street. Cheap, fast, and convienent. Walking to the White House was a waste...you come up to the back side of it, and it's another 1/2 mile to see any other landmarks. Take the metro instead.

This is such a boring, mediocre hotel. I think that it was last decorated during the Reagan administration, by Nancy herself.
If that's your thing, then you'll love this place. It's not mine, so I didn't.

Didn't Monica Lewinsky stay here during the trials? The best thing about the hotel, like many in DC, is the whole politician-gone-bad undertone that makes you think you might run into someone like Tom Delay or Marion Barry.

As me and my friend were parking our car on the quiet hotel side street, we saw two 50-somethings --ahem -- enjoying one another's company in the side entrance of the hotel, which, albeit very amusing, didn't really make me feel great about staying there. When I walked through the lobby, either secret service or some other body-guard entourage was hanging out at the lobby bar. Maybe their client was the one [---] the PTA mom outside?

I paid around $425 per night for this piece of Connecticut Avenue magic, which is crazy. I had a suite, but it was decorated so horribly that I hid in the bedroom. Every morning, when I woke up and walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, I had the distinct feeling as though I had spent the night at my grandparent's house. They even had the same tv-in-console contraption that was all the rage in the 80's. No wireless internet, only one ethernet connection in the living room. I'm sure they'll add wi-fi around 2015, since that seems to be the pace of things in this place.

The location is great, making it very easy to quickly slip away from your awful hotel experience.

Overall, I cannot imagine a stuffier experience. The silver lining to this type of place is that it makes you appreciate places like Kimpton Hotels so much more -- so it provides a nice amount of contrast to truly nice hotels.

I just stayed four nights at the Mayflower. Unfortunately, my room was on the fourth floor on the back side of the hotel. The last night of my stay I was awakened at two in the morning by loud noises from the huge ventilation system right under my window. It was too late to change rooms, and the front desk didn't offer any other solutions, nor call me back after they said they'd research the problem.

Otherwise, a nice hotel.