United States Capitol

East Capitol St NE & First St SE, Washington, DC 20004, USA

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 4

A Private User

The following email went unanswered. There was an obvious lack of concern. Dear Management: I waited on a call from you regarding this matter yesterday when we checked out from your hotel. This was our first visit to D.C. When we arrived, we were told that you did not have any parking. This was very surprising to us, as we have never been to the area. We rented a car for the trip and were told that we could park it with your valet service for $32. We were in a tight position not knowing where we were or exactly what to do. I specifically asked the clerk at the desk if we would have to pay $32 a day, or just every time we had the car parked. She said that it was $32 every time we had the car parked. In fact, I asked this question twice to avoid any confusion on my part, and was assured that it was $32 every time we had the car parked. So we decided that we would just leave the car parked for the entire weekend, which we did. When we received our bill on Monday morning to check out, we were shocked to see 3 charges for valet parking. When I mentioned this to the front desk when I checked out, the young lady told me there was nothing she could do about it. She was in fact the same young lady who told me that it was NOT a daily charge. She claimed ignorance of this, even though the day we checked in I had a 10 minute conversation with her about how we had never been to D.C. and had no idea of the transportation situation. She took the time to show us maps and how to get to the Metro station. She even indicated that we might consider taking the rental car back to save money. Not once did she mention that we would be hit with a $96 charge at the end of our stay for a car that we never used. I was logging on to TripAdvisor this morning to leave a review about this rather unethical and inconsiderate service, but I decided that even though I had not heard from you, I would give you one more chance to rectify the situation. Perhaps my husband and I are tourists from the south and somewhat unsophisticated and ignorant to the ways of D.C., regardless it is still unfair to assume that a traveler should be privy to these things without being told upon making a reservation. My husband is a soldier and works in excess of 100 hours a week; we were ill-prepared to throw away almost $100 dollars on parking. Other than this issue, and having no hot water the first night while it was in the 20s and 30s outside, generally our stay was satisfactory. I hope that you value customer service enough to take responsibility for this lack of communication on the part of your hotel staff. I would love to recommend your hotel to fellow soldiers traveling to D.C. on business and also to friends who would love the convenience of your location. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.

Debbie William

I took my family here for the first time and was so excited to finally get to see it. What ticked me off the most is that AMERICANS have to go through writing their congressman and plan way ahead of time just to get tickets to the House of Rep and Senate. Yet TOURING INTERNATIONALS just walk up to the desk, show their passports and get 6 of them for their family immediately while an America family of 4 was told they could not go in and needed to write their congressman. What the heck!! WHOSE country is this anyway??? Its OUR tax dollars, OUR capitol and OUR country. It means more to an American to go inside their Capitol than it does to tourists. Something is VERY wrong here. Its true, the capitol has very stiff security, has ugly scaffolding around it (not good for pics this summer) and you have to throw all food and drinks away at the guards checkpoint. Also, every guard, food service worker and tourist center worker we encountered for the entire week at the Captiol and around town were really rude African Americans that acted like they could care less about their jobs and had zero customer service skills.. No, Im not racists and am in a bi-racial marriage. It was just way TOO obvious while in DC that they are being catered to with jobs with low expectations of their serivce. Such bad attitudes from them if you ask the slightest question, no smiles, no eye contact, no "thank you" nor "youre welcome".... not even a grunt. The capitol is awesome and my teens totally loved it, but dealing with who theyve hired at the Capitol and the many other visitor centers around DC is not!

Mr. Wilkinson

Well, it wasnt the most uncomfortable position Ive ever been in, but it sure was the most memorable. I started my day off walking towards the capitol when Paul Ryan came up to me and said "hey dude, your fly in open". I checked to see if it was, then paul flicked my nose and said "Made you look!". I didnt think much of it, so I decided to just keep walking up to the capitol staircase. I get near, when all of the sudden, Nancy Pelosi and her posse are all calling my name. I say "h..hey Nancy, can you stop picking on me?" to which she said "Why, its the most attention youve ever received!", to which she and her posse started laughing hysterically. Embarassed, I ran up the stairs and into the main foyer, where I passed security and was making my way into the chamber. Suddenly, Chuck Schumer and Mitch Mcconnell come from out of nowhere and block my path. "Hey, if it isnt Mr. Short lil congressman" said Mitch. I told him to leave me alone, to which Schumer said "Or what? You gonna cwy to your mommy?" I started to tear up, when out of nowhere Senator Cruz came from behind and told them to get lost. They quickly scuddled away as Ted approached me, and wrapped his arms around me, like a big brother helping his younger sibling. He then whispered in my ear "A true constitutional conservative™ always helps a friend in need" Truly graceful words 10/10, would recommend visiting.

A Private User

The worst tour in DC, hands down. Despite having to sign up for a specific time-slot, we started at least 15 minutes late. The introductory movie is boring, uninformative, is a general overview of American history rather than Capitol history, and is a very idealized history at that. The tour itself consists of 3 roomes--you spend a half hour in the rotunda alone, which is not worth nearly half that time especially since you cannot wander around to take a closer look at the paintings and sculptures that may interest you. The "crypt" (no dead bodies, just a few statues and some interesting architecture) is another 10 minutes, but is worth no more than 5 (again, especially since you cant wander around), and the whispering chamber is the remaining 20 (again worth only half that time, and again only if you could actually explore it). The tour guides are more concerned about keeping the overly large groups in one spot and reciting rather basic facts about each room instead of engaging the group. Instead of the basic tour, try to get a tour from your representatives office (this is often led by an intern who knows nothing about the history of the Capitol, but at least youll have some free reign) or just get the passes (also from your reps offices) for the House and Senate floor so you can see how Congress actually functions instead of a few unused rooms.