Washington Gains Luxury Hotel, First-Class Refinements
<B>Washington Gains Luxury Hotel, First-Class Refinements</B>
By Barbara Cook
The St. Gregory Hotel and Suites, Washington, D.C.'s newest luxury property, opened June 22, offering 100 guest rooms and 54 suites.
Room rates at the nine-story hotel, located at 2033 M Street, N.W., begin at $189, with club level rooms priced at $209. One-bedroom suites begin at $229, while club level suites are priced at $249. Corporate and promotional rates are available. All rooms are wired with dual phone lines with dataport/high-speed Internet connectivity and voicemail.
The St. Gregory is targeting the small meetings market with 3,000 square feet of facilities, accommodating from 10 to 150 attendees. The space includes a ballroom, which can be divided into three sections, and two executive boardrooms. The meeting area has teleconferencing and videoconferencing capabilities, a dedicated conference services staff and an onsite audiovisual technician. The hotel's restaurant, Donna's Café and Coffee Bar, has an outdoor terrace.
The hotel is within walking distance to three Metro subway stops: Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle and Farragut North. It has a fitness center onsite and access to a nearby health center. The hotel is managed and operated by Capital Hotels, which also operates the city's St. James Suites and the Governors House Hotel.
In other Washington hotel news, the historic Willard Inter-Continental in May began a five-month, $14 million renovation of its 303 guest rooms and 38 suites and an overhaul of its telecommunications system.
The Westin Grand in the West End of the city recently completed a renovation of its 12,000-sq.-ft. conference level, including all new furnishings and wall and floor coverings. In addition to the facelift, all 10 meeting and reception rooms now have updated audiovisual equipment and will be receiving high-speed Internet connectivity. Hotel general manager Bill Petrella said the hotel will install a broadband service "that's more than just a phone jack."
The Swissôtel Washington-the Watergate last fall finished a $13 million renovation of the 250 guest rooms and suites. Guest room additions for the business traveler include fax machines, two-line telephones with dataports, voicemail and oversize work desks. In-room safes are large enough to house a personal computer. Early this year, the hotel completed a multimillion dollar renovation of its meeting rooms, lobby and Potomac Lounge. As part of the renovation, the hotel introduced a new business center, the Swissôffice, on the lobby level. The Swissôffice offers guests such services as Internet accessibility and language translation, as well as personal secretarial services.