Vignette Collection Yours Truly Dc

At first glance this hotel looked very luxurious, but under that façade, I felt that some of the basics were missing. We made our bookings directly online with IHG. The hotel lobby had a cool vibe with the general décor and music. At first glance our room looked chic. There were no wardrobes, but there were two clothing racks and there were some cute window bench seats. The room was a fairly good size and was clean and comfortable. On closer inspection, I saw the worn looking rugs did not fully cover the floor and we could see the concrete underneath was very pock marked. I could overlook that but then more cracks started to show. There were so many small things wrong – each one was very minor and most were fixed promptly, but I would not expect to have to ask about so many things at a 4 star hotel. The coffee machine was terrible - it seemed to output brown looking water that did not taste of anything, I am not a coffee snob and I would be happy with instant but this was just terrible. When the coffee machine is working it can spit out some steam and small bits of hot liquid, so don't stand near it and move your stuff away from it. The phone did not seem to work so every time that I found something wrong, I had to pop down to reception to ask for it to be fixed. I forgot to mention the non-working phone at reception though did leave a note for housekeeping, but during our whole stay it never seemed to work – the only times I would’ve wanted to use it was to contact reception every time there was something wrong. Initially there was no sugar and creamer in the room, so I had to go down to reception. They gave me a pack of powdered creamer and sugar and a stirrer. Liquid creamer would’ve been nicer but this was okay. I would’ve expected some to be left in the room by default, but this was just the start of a strange creamer/sugar situation that varied every day. The following day they left plastic packs which contained creamer and sugar but yet had no stirrer in the packs. The following day, when I asked for more packs, housekeeping replied that they had run out of creamer and so therefore the plastic packets they left just contained sugar and a stirrer this time. It’s not housekeeping’s fault, but I can’t understand the lack of consistency with providing a basic like sugar, creamer and a stirrer - how on earth do they get plastic packets containing different combinations each time?. When we went to put the plug into the sink on the first night, the plug would not stay down. Eventually we found a way to put the plug in but then it would not come back up. I went down to reception to ask them for it to be fixed - very soon after a nice handyman appeared at the door and had an initial look, then came back shortly afterwards with some more equipment and got it sorted fairly quickly. There was no place to hang the hand towel in the bathroom. I felt that they prioritised looks over practicality, there were only 2 small spikes to hang our bath towels. The lack of rack for the hand towel meant that it had to sit on top of the vanity which took up some valuable room and we would have appreciated more room to be able to put our toiletries on. Weirdly the sink vanity was a little high and a bit uncomfortable for me being slightly short as I had to brush my teeth standing up on tiptoes leaning slightly over the sink. The safety peep hole in the outer door was also only set for taller people as I could not see through it. There also didn't seem to be proper ventilation in the bathroom, it's probably just a "me" thing but I would sneeze or have a very runny nose after each shower, it only happened once to my roommate, but every time for me. The hotel staff were friendly though not super informative. It would’ve been nice if they told me about some of the hotel features proactively, but instead it was lucky I had read reviews, so I knew to ask about things. I had to ask if the water bottles in the room were free as they were not labelled complimentary and the hotel staff on reception never mentioned them. We put the water bottles in the fridge, and they were quite good in giving us new bottles of water every day – in classy glass bottles, which look good but once again not that practical for carrying around (we just emptied them in to our own lightweight water bottles). There was some water with a light fruity taste in the lobby, but due to the way it was set up, you could only fill something small like the plastic cups they provided, as a large water bottle couldn’t fit under the spout. On every floor of the hotel there were water refill stations that the hotel staff never told us about, and they were not labelled very well - other hotel guests asked us if we knew water was available, because the water refill stations near the lifts on each floor looked more like beer handles that you get at a bar. One spout that output sparkling water never worked the whole time we were there, and the other spout was plain water. It would have been nice to have a microwave and a kettle in the room but both of these don't seem to be standard for USA hotels. Luckily from having read other reviews, I knew to ask about the microwaves as front desk did not tell me until I asked. There were only 2 floors that had shared microwaves so we did use this once. It was a fairly quiet location, and we did catch the bus multiple times so there were bus stops within about 5 minutes walk. There were some eating places scattered around within about 5 to 10 minutes walk of the hotel. We did ask the reception staff once for advice about eating locations and also another time for advice about 4th July activities - they did try their best but they didn't seem to know much more than what I could find out on the internet. The hotel does give you a $15 a night credit at the restaurant but you unfortunately can't accumulate them. We did have dinner one night at the restaurant when we didn't feel like going out and although nothing jumped out at me from looking at the menu (and in fact I would say the menu could do with a bit more description because I had to Google a couple of things and they need to understand guests come from all around the world), the food was surprisingly quite good and we enjoyed our meal. There was also a deli right next door which seemed super popular – we got there before 9am to get a snack and coffee, but saw queues going out the door at a later time on another day. The hotel is also across the road from another super busy café with long queues (though not too busy earlier in the day). Overall I think the hotel seemed to prioritise style over substance. Although our stay was fine, I would probably try to look for another place with a focus on getting the basics right. Also if possible in a busier location with more eating places close by and more lively shopping area - I don't know if that is possible in Washington DC - I can't compare, so maybe this was part was okay for a DC hotel. Read less