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This Conrad Washington DC and Sakura Club Review is from our Washington DC site inspection trip. The Conrad DC opened in 2019, as the last major component of CenterCenterDC, of which Qatari Diar is a major investor.
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Conrad Washington DC Location and Check-in
The Conrad Washington DC is located at 950 New York Ave NW, about an 8 minute walk from the Gallery Place Chinatown Metro Station and an 18-20 minute walk to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the National Mall.
A Concierge staffs the ground floor entrance, but guests need to take an elevator to the reception and main lobby on the 3rd floor.
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The Lobby Lounge has plenty of comfortable armchair and sofa seating, some of it near cozy fireplaces.
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TravelSort Clients enjoy these Virtuoso benefits at the Conrad Washington DC:
- Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
- $60 daily breakfast credit for two guests per bedroom
- $100 USD equivalent Food & Beverage credit to be utilized during stay (not combinable, no cash value if not redeemed in full)
- Early check-in/late check-out, subject to availability
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
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Conrad Washington DC Sakura Club Room
The Conrad Washington DC has 360 rooms and suites. We recommend reserving one of the Sakura Club Rooms or Suites, which provide access to the Sakura Club Lounge on the 10th floor. Note that even Hilton HHonors elites do not receive upgrades to Sakura Club rooms, they must be reserved outright. The Sakura Club Room, the Sakura Club Studio Suite, Diplomat Suite, Park View One Bedroom Suite, and Presidential Suite all provide Sakura Club Lounge access.
Sakura Club King Rooms are 416 square feet, while Sakura Club Rooms with Two Queens are 465 square feet; the rooms are located on the 10th floor.
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Our room had two queen beds, and because we'd requested in advance for an extra mattress pad to be added to both of them, they were quite comfortable.
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The only issue was that the window was angled towards the Sakura Club Lounge, so we ended up keeping the sheer drapes drawn most of the time, since it's not great to have full visibility into your room from the Club Lounge.
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The nightstand by the bed was conveniently equipped with power outlets and USB ports, and there was a control panel with a Master switch for lights, as well as the Do Not Disturb sign.
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Many of the rooms with two queen beds interconnect with a king bedded room, as did ours; unfortunately that also meant being able to hear noise from the adjoining room.
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Noise from the other room wasn't the only problem; our room door had an inexcusably large gap underneath it that let in light from the hallway, but worse, all comings and goings of other guests. Extremely poor design to allow such a significant gap. Even after placing a towel by the door to try to muffle the sounds, I lay awake for at least 1.5-2 hours due to the hallway noise of other guests before finally being able to get to sleep.
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The bathroom door is a solid door that slides close, so that at least is a decent design, and not the open plan or glass door approach taken by some hotels.
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The bathroom has double sinks:
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There's a walk-in shower, but no bathtub. If you want a soaking tub, you'll need to stay in one of the higher category suites.
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Bath products are by Shanghai Tang:
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Here's our Conrad Washington DC Hotel and Sakura Club YouTube Video Review:
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Conrad Washington, DC Sakura Club Lounge
The Sakura Club is open 24 hours, and staffed from 6:30am-10pm. It offers the following meals:
- Breakfast: 6:30-10:30am
- Lunch: Noon-2pm
- Dinner: 5-8:30pm
The lounge, while not as large as some lounges, has quite a few tables and seating areas.
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There's even a distant view of the Capitol Building:
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The breakfast buffet included an array of fresh fruit, smoked salmon, chees board, pastries, homemade granola, hot dishes such as bacon and sausages, and a made to order omelet station.
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Each day the lunch and dinner offer dishes from a different region. On the evening we stayed, it was South American, with different types of ceviche, guacamole, a delicious Moqueca (Brazilian fish stew), Pollo a la Brasa (Colombian rotisserie chicken) and Shrimp Diablo.
In addition to the buffet, there was a plated main dish offered in the open kitchen (see the Conrad Washington DC video, above).
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Lunch on our departure day was Middle Eastern in theme, with build your own lamb kebabs, hummus and other dips, marinated vegetables, baklava, etc.
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The Sakura Club Lounge staff can assist with wines and cocktails; the lounge is also known for its Japanese whisky collection.
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The Verdict
Usually domestic U.S. club lounges are nothing to write home about, even Ritz-Carlton Club Lounges. So far, the best club lounge we've been to in North America was the Fairmont Pacific Rim Gold Lounge. But we were very impressed by the Sakura Club at the Conrad Washington DC, from the nicely provisioned Club Lounge fridge with fresh fruit and yogurt to the South American themed dinner and Middle Eastern themed lunch. Not only was there ample food to make a true dinner, the dishes were imaginative and well presented, with a plated entree for dinner, and an omelet station at breakfast.
The hotel room itself, while certainly new, was nothing special, and the poor sound insulation meant it was hard to get to sleep, even after putting a towel by the significant gap underneath the room door. I heard every guest coming and going down the hallway and every door slam, until quite late.
I also disliked not having a soaking tub in the bathroom, and that there was no swimming pool.
Overall, however, we'd return to a Sakura Club Room during an off-season period if we could be allocated a room away from others, to minimize noise, given how good the Sakura Club was.
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Do you know what benefits Hilton Diamonds receive? Thank you.
I believe Diamonds receive $25 per person dining credit per day. Highly recommend reserving a Sakura Club level room with Virtuoso benefits, however, as the Sakura Club offerings are excellent.