A few months ago, I had a few days in DC over a weekend, and I wanted to stay in downtown DC. I was expecting just to stay in the Westin DC City Center or maybe the Westin Georgetown. When I was checking the hotel websites, I saw that the Mayflower (a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel) was offering a sale for stays of 3+ nights. I jumped on the opportunity to stay at the historic hotel that would, hopefully, also have more character than most generic large city hotels have.
The amenities
The primary amenity that I used, as per usual, was the gym. The Mayflower has a great gym overall. It had both a substantial number of cardio machines:
And a weights area:
The gym always had a few people in it, but was never too busy, which speaks to it both being a good gym and pretty right-sized for the size of the hotel.
The room
I received an upgrade from a standard room to a “larger” guest room. I was somewhat skeptical that it was much of an upgrade, but when I got to the room (just after midnight), I was happy to see that it was in fact a legitimate upgrade!
The room consisted of a sitting area and a desk/coffee area and then a left turn to the bedroom. It didn’t have a door between the bedroom and sitting area, so I might be inclined to call this room a “junior suite”.
The sitting area consisted of a couch, a small table, and a TV. The table was pathetically small in my opinion, but the desk was very good for what I needed.
The bedroom and bathroom were quite comfortable as well. The bed was normal (which is good).
The bathroom had gorgeous finishes, but there was no fan that I could find, so everything in the bathroom fogged up and left the bathroom (and the room to some extent) feeling a bit damp. I don’t actually know if there was supposed to be a fan in the bathroom; when I tried to tell the front desk that I thought it might be broken, I was met with indifference and a “we’ll send someone up to check,” where she clearly had no intent to do anything of the kind.
I really liked the room layout at the beginning, but over the course of a couple of days, the lack of natural lighting in the room did start to get to me, and it was hard to balance the air conditioning sounds with the street sounds around the hotel.
The food
The best part of the Mayflower for me was the breakfast offering. Attached to the hotel is the “Edgar” restaurant, which, as far as I could tell, was a popular brunch place even for non-guests.
Over the course of a few days, we were able to try the French toast, the pancakes, and the duck confit hash multiple times to get a good sense for the dishes and any variation. We also tried a few different areas of the restaurant to sit in. I can confirm the food was consistently excellent but the service was consistently fine, but leaned a bit on the indifferent side (especially with the hostesses).
Elite benefits and recognition
As an Autograph Collection hotel, this hotel participates in the Marriott Bonvoy scheme. As a Bonvoy Titanium member, the elite benefits I’m supposed to receive at the hotel are (1) 75% bonus points; (2) space-available complimentary room upgrades; (3) a welcome gift of points or a food/beverage amenity; and (4) Club Lounge access (or breakfast if there isn’t a club lounge). I can confirm that I received all of the above!
The bonus points and welcome points posted correctly. The space-available upgrade was to a “Larger Guest Room”, which was as good as a junior suite in my opinion. This hotel doesn’t have a club lounge, so I received breakfast instead. Breakfast consisted of a roughly $50-$60 credit at the hotel restaurant. I wasn’t actually told how much the credit was beyond it covering a main course and a coffee at Edgar. Each breakfast came out to something like $60-$70 for two, and then I saw charges for <$20 on the room, which is good enough for me given the high quality of the breakfast.
Score and summary
This hotel is truly gorgeous and historic. I love the entry way, and the food at the restaurant was great. The location is also great, but service (and the elevators) was a bit hit or miss. Given the upgrade, the room was very good, but it wasn’t a room I’d want to stay in longer than a few days due to the lack of natural light (4/5). The service at the hotel was pretty hit or miss; when it was on point, it was great (such as our midnight check-in attendant), but most of the time it was impressively indifferent (3/5). The food was great (5/5), and the gym was very good (4/5). I also give them a 5/5 for elite recognition (which is actually pretty good for an Autograph Collection hotel in my experience). Overall, I give the hotel a 21/25.
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