Washington, D.C. has been slow to the boutique/design/lifestyle hotel game so Thompson Hotels' Donovan House stands out amongst travelers looking for a chic stay in the city.
It's also kinda cheap too. Tablet Hotels has rooms listed at the Donovan for $149 a night from July 1 to September 1.
Those rates will get you a queen superior room with a queen bed, the cocoon spiral shower, Kiehl's bath products and free WiFi. If you want a king bed, the rate bumps up to $189.
And the deal is for real. We checked dates both during the week and on the weekend in July and found $149 rates both times.
Reviews on the place are solid with the majority of the gripes about how the restaurant or the rooftop bar wasn't yet open (The rooftop should now be.) But this is Thompson--King of the Piece-by-Piece Openings--so we aren't too surprised.
Listen up, Washingtonians of the DC kind (not of the total abstinence society kind): you will be getting a Thompson Hotel rooftop bar and pool this weekend. ADC at Donovan House.
As with other Thompson rooftops it's only for hotel guests yet will eventually open up to invited guests who will carry a special key card a la A60 at 60 Thompson. A flack for Donovan House wrote in:
For now, food and beverage service is being handled by Il Mulino until the new Todd English restaurant is ready. But ADC will eventually have a bar/nightlife component serviced by the new Todd English restaurant in the hotel.
The Todd English restaurant will open sometime in mid/late Fall. So, another Thompson Hotel that's still only open in bits and pieces. Like Thompson Beverly Hills which will unveil its rooftop pool/lounge sometime this June. And Gild Hall, despite a promise of an April opening for the Todd English restaurant, still doesn't have an on-site restaurant.
Maybe we were too harsh on Thompson about their inability to open hotels on time. Because look at what we have now--half-open hotels. Argh. Back to the drawing board.
Also, Thompson is notorious for not having pictures of its hotels. If you go to ADC, snap a few pics for us please!
Our hotel mavens must be loving the Donovan House in Washington, DC.
Flickr member ScottMichaelNash dropped in a few photos of the hotel into our Flickr pool, including this shot of the bed. Just in case you were wondering: that bear is NOT included.
The Super World Travelers aka the Pitt-Jolie Gang are in our nation's capital today (at least Mom and her sons are) and if they aren't shacking up with some government official or embassy contact, then they gotta be staying at a hotel. Here are some suggestions:
· Donovan House: We think Maddox and Pax would dig the CIA-theme stuff.
If it feels to you like hotel prices have really gone up a lot this past year, you have probably spent some time in New York City, Washington D.C., or Boston. Those are the three markets with the greatest year-over-year uptick in rates since last October, according to the number crunchers at Smith Travel Research.
Prices in New York have gone up 15.4 percent, to a choke-inducing average room rate of $320.87. Rates in D.C. have risen 12.8 percent (average $171.20) and in Boston they have also risen 12.8 percent (average $182.18). We guess when the Watergate--pictured here--reopens, we shouldn't call up looking for a bargain.
The rest of the top-10 is interesting as it's literally all over the map, showing the nation's economy is booming in different places and local supply tightness can have a big influence. Here are the percentage increases, but these markets are far more reasonable then the top three. Average room rates only vary from $96.93 in Nashville to $139.30 in Miami.
The site of numerous presidential inaugural balls and several World Bank conferences, The Marriott Wardman Park in D.C.'s Woodley Park neighborhood knows a thing or two about Code Red security. With visiting dignitaries coming and going, and an entranceway along one of Vice President Cheney's motorcade routes, you know this hotel has a plan for when things go into high alert.
We love ourselves a bit of history when we wanna look all intellectual, so our Washington DC pick of the day is the Churchill Hotel on Connecticut Avenue. The 1906 building belongs to the Historic Hotels of America group, a sub-group of the National Trust organization. All that makes it kind of a private, exclusive place yet still in the middle of things.
At the Churchill you can choose from premiere rooms, junior and deluxe suites and kitchenette rooms--oversize suites with a mini-kitchen for a bit of self-catering. You can also eat on site at the Chartwell Grill Restaurant, from breakfast through to dinner.
The Churchill has a fourth of July special going, where guests can "show their patriotic spirit" by booking one night for $149 and getting full breakfast and metro tickets for two. Or if you're still feelin' intellectual, try the Old Town Trolley Tour package: $169 for accommodation, breakfast and an educational tour of DC by trolley, including a disposable camera to record the most historic sites you see! We love it that they give you milk and cookies when you get back.
The focus of the room is on the open kitchen with its wood-burning oven. Executive chef Brian McBride puts it to good use, cooking up comfort food-ish cuisine that celebrates American farmers. (It is the capital after all.)
As for the menu, Conde Nast loved the duck au jus and the beet salad with goat cheese. We'd be a little more apt to tuck in to the braised lamb shank with a side of fava beans and morel mushrooms. But we all agree nothing's more American than the apple pie.
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by juliana
