*edited for length, there's more but yelp has a character limit*
We arrived at The Line in D.C. for a one night getaway shortly before the holidays. We had booked the "Snowed In" package via their website which included valet parking, breakfast in bed, and two free cocktails at the bar. Since this hotel goes for $159 on travel sites, this looks to be $91 more expensive for those three things. Hardly much added value, but we figured it would be nice to have an easy experience where everything was included.
I pulled up to the valet parking, where someone showed up after a few minutes waiting beside the car to valet park for us. I mentioned it was included in the "Snowed In" package we had booked and the guy remarked he didn't know anything about it - just take the ticket to the front desk.
So, we make our way to the front desk to check-in. The guy who was waiting there was clearly doing ten jobs so after getting us halfway through the process he turned it over to another girl who slowly finished the check-in.
I mentioned the "Snowed In" package to her because I was curious to get clarity (I was ready for my free cocktail) and she said she 'had no idea what was included' - but instructed us to just tell the people at the bar about the deal because they probably know. She wasn't sure, but said she would find out and let us know.
As we made our way up stairs the manager who had run off in the middle of our check-in stopped to make sure we were all set. I told him I still had questions about the package and he told me the following:
For the valet parking: It will come off when checking out of the hotel
For the free cocktails: It will come off your bill when checking out of the hotel
For the free breakfast in bed: Call them in the morning, tell them you have the package, and they'll have a special menu for you and you won't be charged.
From here we went upstairs, briefly dropped off our stuff, and then made our way out into the neighborhood to give my girlfriend a brief tour of Adams Morgan before we headed to the hotel bar, Brothers and Sisters, for our free cocktail.
From the bar we made our way upstairs for dinner at A Rake's Progress which I felt was decent but not much more.
After a short trip out to a local Hanukkah themed bar (fun!) we made our way back to our room. We quickly went to sleep and were anxious to warm up after walking a few blocks in the cold. So we did that, and slept.
I woke up a few hours later far too warm and realized that we had gone to sleep without turning the air on in the room so I got up to fix it. Problem: the air doesn't work. This AC didn't work...we had only been in the room briefly before and hadn't noticed...and now it was like 3:30 AM and we were miserable. We were too tired to move rooms, so we figured out how to open one of the windows and tried to get some sleep.
We made it until about 7AM, mostly just tossing and turning, waking up feeling pretty miserable and not at all rested. Shit, this was not fun.
The room had finally cooled down after the window had been open for 4-5 hours so we could stand being in the for it. My girlfriend calls room service, explain our package and ask for the menu for it, and they... and this was really disappointing.... said they had no idea what we were talking about. She tries to explain to them one more time and the person on the other end of the phone just starts to read of the regular menu printed inside the hotel guide. She is so frustrated at this point we just order the first thing they mentioned, which was apparently just for one, and the guy brings it. It was listed as $25 in the guide (we had given up on any of this being free) but the guy brings a bill along with it for $37 plus tip...what? How is this $12 more?
We are so frustrated by now. The night before I had shrugged it off but the heat/air in the room not working and the breakfast experience had really just made the whole thing something I was ready to be OVER instead of enjoying. I held out hope that everything would be sorted on our bill and maybe they would listen to me downstairs.
Amazingly, we had been charged for the drinks as well as the breakfast, and the full package charge. I, patiently and clearly explained to him that we had booked the package and he told me - can you guess? - he had no idea what it was all about or what was included. Amazing. He took the breakfast charge off the bill but said he couldn't do anything else regarding the package.
Flustered, I proceeded to tell him this was insane and not only had we had a once-hopefully-frictionless experience turn into something really confusing and exhausting but our room the night before had a broken AC/heat/fan and we had gotten zero restful sleep. He LAUGHED at me, smiled and said "Ok sir we'll have someone take a look at that, is there anything is there anything else we can do?"
No, I thought, it's best I see myself out at this point. read more