Residence Inn by Marriott Arlington Ballston

I generally think that Residence Inn hotels are solid, but I was disappointed by this one. Somewhat spacious and nicely styled room but a huge complaint and problem is that the AC/heat blows directly onto the bed. This is not a light air flow but strong enough to actually blow my hair around. My eyes and face got completely dried out every night. I tried moving the vent direction, but no matter what, it blew directly onto the bed. There was no lotion provided in the room, but I asked at the front desk and they gave me some poor-quality watery lotion. The toilet sits very low to the ground. You cannot turn the shower water on or off without getting wet. Whatever the temperature is right out of the chute, you are going to feel it. The breakfast is free, that's the upside. The hot food selections are pretty lacking. There were three each day: scrambled eggs, some kind of breakfast sandwich to go, and a rotating protein -- turkey sausage, chicken sausage, pork sausage, bacon. Most of them were pretty tasteless. No potatoes. The juice was also very low quality.

A 10 minute walk from the metro station. Very good place to take a family when visiting Washington DC. Good nice rooms with kitchen facilities. Breakfast is good, fairly standard for this kind of hotel in the US. Short metro ride into DC. Children beds was not made when we arrived late and jet lagged and one set of bed linen was missing from the room. The receptionist fixes it and we got what we needed fairly quickly. Big new and nice playground outside. All in all I would recommend this to friend and family visiting DC with kids.