華盛頓威拉德洲際飯店(Willard InterContinental Washington, an IHG Hotel)

The hotel is amazing! Spacious and nicely located with long term history.

Read the fine print about this hotel - you are charged a daily valet fee. Also, don’t pick up any of the mini bar items as they are on a weighted sensor, so if you pick it up you get charged, and don’t open up the fridge either. If you need a separate fridge for your things you have to request one. No microwave. Clean and beautiful space but my first 20 minutes of this place I was frustrated for having to pay for valet service (my fault for not reading the fine print) and for accidentally picking up a mini bar item (I didn’t eat it but I picked it up).

The Willard was billed as a 5-star luxury hotel in a fantastic location located right next to the White House. That’s true. It’s a large hotel with 12 floors and the rooms even my basic room was the kind I would be expecting at a Shangri La hotel. The view however was considerably smaller with a just less than 1 metre round window. Perhaps this encompassed what I paid for. Soaps, shampoo/conditioner and hand/body lotion were from Byredo's Bal D'Afrique collection. My personal view was the smell was okay, but, I’d rather stick to what I brought. The shower whilst looking quite fancy in a golden shine was rather underpowered unlike the sink which was very good. The hairdryer sadly is Conair’s Cord Keeper which looks quite tacky and very much a 3-star style hairdryer. A 3 and 4-star hotels in Venice, Italy have $300 GHD hairdryers for a third of the nightly rate, so why couldn’t Intercontinental get something a little higher end here? They had an iron and ironing board which is unusual for 4-5 star hotels. The fridge and cabinet for snacks are controlled by sensors which automatically bill you the moment you pick anything up (regardless if you actually eat/drink it). The fridge is full and will cost $40 for housekeeping to empty should you want to cool anything you brought or just the free water bottles x2 they provide. I had a good stay. I’d stay here again, but I’d be brining my own shampoo/conditioner and hairdryer.

Next time I will reach out to proper bike rental City system terrible Would not accept out of country Visa or Amex to secure city bikes with any consistency Not city tourist friendly!