The Royal Sonesta Washington DC Dupont Circle

Former intercontinental, great location, total revamp of the rooms. Unclean room upon check in, black curly hairs all over the bed, stains on cushions and chairs, seems like a lot of damage has been done within the few months this hotel has been open under new management. Team came up and addressed promptly but not what I expected paying $900/night for a room here.

I’m writing a follow up review about this place Do not stay here. Sadly, I left a necklace in the bathroom counter next to the sink and it doesn’t look like I’m getting it back. I went back to the hotel the evening I checked out. Over the top rude and unhelpful person “working” the front desk. I called the next morning when the cleaning manager was there and I told him I left a necklace. He said he would call me back but never heard from him. This means when accidentally leave anything in the room when checking out the cleaning people will swipe it for themselves. There are much better hotels in dc with better service and honest employees. Do yourself a favor and avails this dump.

Stayed for a week, much longer than anticipated, but was overall a pleasant stay. Great location, and one can easily walk around.explore, etc. Ben the concierge was very helpful, all around nice guy. The night before leaving system issues beyond anyone's control began to occur between booking agencies and the hotel. Fingers were pointing and I believe a few customers were left high and dry. One woman was even visibly upset, the staff mostly watched, doing little to nothing to help besides the obligatory "sorry for the inconvenience". I expected the same that evening but opted to be patient.
Up to this point, the overall service would have been about a negative three had it not been for the professionalism of Douglas who came in that evening, a gentleman whose integrity and an obvious sense of ownership of a problem that he did not cause, literally stepped-in and began picking up the pieces left behind by others.going light years above and beyond to make things right that evening for the customers that were to come in afterwards. I was one of them. He certainly showed that high quality service is not dependent on a computer. In the absence of all else, a sense of integrity, service, initiative, and professionalism still prevail. A little empathy and understanding is all it takes. Every hotel, school, government agency, even group of randos, etc.can benefit from having a Douglass around. I will certainly stay again.

I’m still here as I write this review because I’m annoyed at this point.

Front door man and the man at the front desk was ok.

I booked for location and room service and the price was bad not the decor. I am only staying one night one of the amenities I needed was food service.

Which I didn’t find out in till I arrived in my room was not being offered except for brunch and breakfast. I arrived at 4!

My room is small and faces a brick wall with Terrance.

No ice bucket
No cups
Fridge does not work!

I will be asking for compensation.

The staff was completely unaccommodating when I requested a late check-out - something which, in all of my other interactions with IHG hotels, is a common courtesy, especially given my Platinum Elite status. My fiancé was running the half marathon in the morning and then the 8k after and would not be done until noon, after which we would need time to walk back. All I asked for was enough time for him to get back to the hotel and take a shower. I was told they could not extend the courtesy of a late checkout beyond 12: 30 and that for any amount of time after I would have to pay half of a day's rate. Since I had no other choice, my fiancé had to shower before we got back in the car for a 3 hour drive, I had to pay half a day's rate for an extra hour and a half of room use, for what should be a courtesy. I was shocked by the lack of hospitality and frustrated by the claim that they needed my room immediately unless I was willing to pay more for it. This is the worst I have ever been treated by an IHG hotel. If simple kindness and general courtesy is important to you, don't stay at this hotel. I wish we had stayed at the Marriott around the block.

Excellent experience! That was my second time staying at Royal Sonesta in DC and I was impressed by the customer service at front desk. All thanks to Dannyboi (hope I spelled his name correctly). He was so thoughtful, helpful and sweet. I can’t thank him enough for being so accommodating. Initially I had an issue with my reservation. When I arrived at the hotel, they told me I didn’t have a reservation. It wasn’t a hotel’s fault but the third party website I made my reservation on. Luckily I was able to book a room at the hotel and Dannyboi upgraded my room for inconvenience we had experienced. We were also traveling with our dog and Dannyboi made sure we were all taken care of. Next time I’m in DC, I will definitely stay at the hotel again.

Would never stay here again, this is more like a 3 start hotel. Lobby needs a revamp; check-in guy was not pleasant at all. Not worth the money at all, room felt so small. Phone in the room didn’t even work! No hand soap. I can go on and on. Wish I would have spend my money elsewhere

Not much to look at on the outside, but it's in great condition - clean and comfortable - on the inside. Staff very pleasant and professional.

Rooms were clean and hotel close to everything. The charges were outrageous. They charged me $24 a night for guest amenities fee and $49 a night for parking. Would not stay here next time.

The hotel is sketchy, and their valet service is very poor because they are understaffed.
The room are not like the pictures at all.
Not worth the money. There was some blood on the wall and on the bathroom door.

Hello all. So we checked in the 24th and we chose a room with "city view" and "Jet Tub" which was NOT given to us at front desk so my fiancé and I went back downstairs telling the front desk "Danny Boy" to please change our room because it's not what we asked for via expedia which he has no problem doing. He sends us to another room and no city view, carpet smelled like extreme MOLD/MILDEW and it was hot in there, I turned on the A/C; it was not working so I requested via front desk to come fix it and the engineer came upstairs and he said "it's not going be working properly, you should switch rooms. " At that point my fiancé went back downstairs and at this point front desk wasn't Danny Boy, it was another guy there so he didn't know our situation initially. My fiancé was trying to explain to him what had occurred of our room not being city view and the carpet smell and also the A/C not working and he said that there is "NOTHING he can do for us. " Is that how you handle guests who are spending a lot of money? That we need to stay in that room which was abruptly rude and not handled the correct way. The other guests said to my fiancé that my fiancé is correct 100% and he wasn't being rude, he just wanted the room he had requested. We are extremely disappointed in what occurred on this day. The front desk new guy was acting on his emotions and instead of solving the issue and he did have other rooms because we had checked via Expedia at that very moment and there were many other room options available with "City view. " I had a wedding to go to within an hour of arriving so I was in a state-of-mind where I just wanted to be comfortable and I was sweating by doing my hair and make up and getting dressed. My fiancé was on the phone with Expedia trying to resolve this issue. The front desk at Royal Sonesta Washington DC was honestly disgraceful on how they handled the situation. I also had my pet at the time and it was a crazy inconvenient to even switch hotels and my fiancé going back and forth up and down the elevator trying to accommodate us. The front desk was extremely rude, disrespectful, not a people pleaser and definitely not accommodating to our needs when we were in the right. We just wanted the room we "purchased. " Which was very expensive. They were trying to give us a cheaper room which is insane. I will not recommend this hotel to any of the people I know for future reference. At the end, we just wanted what we purchased and the "customer is always right. " We were definitely treated unfair and we were kicked out at the end. Which gave me only 15 minutes at this point to get to the wedding when I wasn't fully dressed. I had to rush to get to the other hotel first. Expedia accommodated us because he felt for us and he was on speaker when speaking to the front desk and also spoke to the front desk and he also lied. The front desk said that we don't have anymore rooms which is not true because Expedia was willing to pay for another room (as was available through Expedia site) and the front desk said "No we do not. " Moreover, we were kicked out so Expedia THANKFULLY found another hotel that we requested to be in and they really helped us and through this craziness of a situation. My fiancé and Expedia did a great job in finding another hotel in the last 10 or so minutes that we had. Expedia also had said that the Royal Sonesta Washington DC were lying and it was extremely unprofessional on there part. I am dissatisfied. The hotel I stayed at which was The Zena Hotel which was beyond my expectations. I am so grateful and thankful we stayed there. So clean, smells so fresh and rooms were beautiful overlooking the city. We had a gorgeous room. Thank you to the Zena Hotel for understanding our situation and being super accommodating to us. Being kind really goes a long way.

Very clean and quiet room. The bed is very comfortable but it has one of this frames that comes off the mattress and it’s very easy to bang your legs against the corner

The room was nice, simple and clean. The staff was friendly, but there was a lot of overcrowding in the lobby. Also, we waited 30 minutes to check in our car and 30 minutes to take it out. The car was sitting there, but no one came to get us to hand us the keys. The only real perk is that it's walking distance from a lot of restaurants and shops.

I absolutely loved my stay in this hotel…Probably one of the best hotels I have stayed in DC (not only because of the location but because it’s very clean and you don’t find that very often) The hotel is modern, very spacious and the staff is super nice…did I mentioned the hotel is very clean? Haha
I was a little bit nervous because I kept reading the reviews talking about the broken A/C but that was not the case this past weekend. They fixed the A/C so we had a very nice time…no issues at all.
If you are like me that when looking for a hotel I like to find good prices in good locations and really clean hotels then this is it

This review is overdue. I checked in to Sonesta for a staycation before returning back to work full time in person and I was super excited because my puppy was allowed to join me but this place is smoke and mirrors. Beautiful appearance on the outside and my room was even beautiful but what I didn't understand was the open snacks in the nightstand drawer. Like several snacks that were half eaten, just sitting in the drawer. Major red flag! Also, when I was changing the bedding, I noticed that the mattress (not mattress cover) had several urine stains. Could be from a dog or human, none the less, gross. Additionally the amenities suck. The pool is awful. Who puts a pool in between two buildings? No sun, no tanning, water freezing- even while hot. The fitness center I guess was basic and that's a compliment, but after paying nearly $1k for my weekend stay, I expected much better. I tried to get some type of compensation from corporate because any decent business could understand how this could be off putting but I alas. I stayed At the sonesta and it's the very same vibe. A scam for your money. Front desk staff were nice though.

The service and booking was extremely poor and dishonest. First of all the pricing was not what is posted. Then I get there, I was charged additional fees that caused me to have an overdraft to my account. Secondly they allowed someone other than me to make changes to my stay. And I was told my funds would be credited back to my account the next day (which was a lie). Its been 10 days. And the whole staff is just non-professional from top to bottom.

In addition I had to call down for toiletries and napkins. I was just disappointed with the service.

False advertising! I chose this hotel primarily for the pool and it was nothing like the photo advertised. There was also mold in the air vents!

Gave us a bad clean room at first. I was stuck in a elevator for 5 minutes. Nobody cleaned the room in over 3 days. Area was nice. Amenities were nice

Overall, the hotel looks nice, the bed was comfortable, the pool was fairly clean, and it's in a great location. When we arrived, one of the ac units was down so they couldn't tell which rooms didn't have ac. Ours luckily did but it never got below 75. Wasn't their fault but it wasn't too comfortable. The ice machine was down but you could get a bucket at reception. One thing that annoyed me the whole time was how humid it was in the room. I've seen several reviews saying the same thing, that seriously needs to be fixed. We left an open bag of chips on the coffee table and they were stale the next morning. The staff was friendly but the hotel prices are honestly ridiculous. The incidentals were $100 per night, we were staying 6 nights and could not afford to just loan $600. They were able to knock it to $50 per night. And then the resort fee is $25 each day. They have it hidden on their website and the amenities that you are supposed to get.weren't every offered except the wifi which wasn't great. The city of DC is trying to get rid of resort fees, they are currently suing Marriot hotels. We got ours waived after talking to reception. The last thing, I left a bag of face serums and CBD oil in a baggie on the bathroom countertop. I understand they are busy but I've had to call twice and have them search for it, no one will call me back. I can always replace it but that was $150 lost in that bag. I get if they threw it away on accident but no one is looking, no one cares honestly. But everything looks good and everyone seems nice but they have some problems to figure out.

If you're the type of person who likes to keep the room they stay in COLD. This is NOT the place for you. Look at some of the other reviews before booking. This place has an Air Conditioning issue. First off, the lobby is completely un-air conditioned. It's sweltering when you walk through the front door. Then when you get to your room, if it's 90 outside, you'll be lucky to get the room below 76 degrees. We complained to the front desk, and they act surprised. They offer to send a maintenance person, who fiddles with your unit in the room hoping it will make you think it's fixed. It's not! We then requested a new room, and had the same issue. Only after putting us into a 3rd room on the side of the building that's always shaded was the room even close to comfortable. We had to buy a box fan at the CVS up the street to make it habitable. We ended up leaving a few days early from our trip because it was supposed to get to 95 in the coming days, and we knew it wasn't going to be cool enough in the room. In addition to the AC not cooling, it would also get very HUMID in the room, which would negate much of the effectiveness of the AC. I'm not sure I've ever been cold and hot at the same time, but for a room to be 72, but everything be 'sticky' is NOT a comfortable feeling.

So, that's it. If you keep your AC at home at 76 and are totally fine with that temp - you might enjoy your stay, except the lobby is a hotbox. But if you're like me and my family, who like the room in the low 70s, this is NOT your place.

I will say though, had the AC been working right, the rooms were very tastefully decorated, and it's a really nicely executed place. It's just frustrating that they play games with you and pretend that there isn't an issue when they know there is. Whatever corporation that owns this place is doing their employees a huge disservice by making them deal with patrons like this. The employees pay the price for corporate dropping the ball on the property's upkeep. They have to work in suit jackets in a lobby that was at least 90 degrees the day we showed up. It's terrible working conditions. The location is pretty good, it took about 5 minutes to walk to the Dupont Circle Metro station which takes you pretty close to most attractions. Lots of great restaurants in the area as well. The neighborhood always felt very safe and I even let my teenage son go out by himself one night to walk down to the National Mall. It takes about 30 minutes to walk it. Along the way there are lots of guards and police because you walk past all sorts of government buildings so we always felt very safe.

Hopefully they get the AC issues worked out sooner rather than later. If they do this would be a pretty great place to stay.