I attended a conference at the DC Convention Center, but wanted to save money, so I didn't stay in the conference hotels. This place was perfect! Free parking! (I drove up from Richmond) Free wireless internet! The room was nice and had a minifridge and a microwave. It was one block from the Metro yellow line, which stops directly at the Convention Center. If you fly in, instead of driving, the yellow line also stops at National Airport. Breakfast was not free, but was good and not as expensive as in many DC hotels. The place was a bargain. They are in the process of renovating the hotel, so I don't know whether the rates will go up when they are done, but right now the place is a deal! My only complaint is that they don't carry a PBS station - weird! I missed my favorite shows on Sunday night.

When I first started researching a hotel for our trip to Washington, DC, all that was available within DC were places that were charging several hundreds of dollars per night. The less expensive places in Arlington and towards Dulles were offering shuttles to the Metro, which suggested to me that access to DC was not as convenient as I would like it to be. I finally found this Holiday Inn in Alexandria.

Not only is the price very reasonable, but it is located right beside a Metro station that is only a 20 minute ride to The National Mall. The area around the hotel seems fairly new, as there is not very much to see around there. But you are only one Metro stop away from the heart of Alexandria, where you can ride the free trolley along King Street and enjoy many restaurants and boutiques. Reagan Airport is also just a few stops away, which could potentially save the cost of a taxi ride. The hotel offers a small but good, hot buffet breakfast for an extra charge. The rooms were clean, quiet and were a good size.

My theory when staying in a large city is that you can sacrifice being close to all the attractions as long as you have close and convenient access to a subway or other rapid transit. With this hotel, you get quick access to DC without paying the DC hotel prices.

Had a very enjoyable stay at the hotel and they have an excellent place to eat breakfast too.

I am a platinum member of their loyalty club so when I reserved & paid for a King sized room back in March I expected to at least be given this type of room. We arrived from the UK at 11.30pm very tired and was given room 209. Up we go, key does not work, back down we go and up again to find 2 Queen beds and outside of our window was a flat roof with umpteen air conditioning units on it & cans of paint, in other words a building site. So back to reception and we are told that all the King sized bedded rooms have gone. In other words someone at reception had changed our booking? Nothing could be done that night so we had to stay the night in this room. I saw the manager the next morning and I was absolutely mad and he gave us the room we had booked but at no time was we offered an upgrade (I was so annoyed I for got to ask) as later we saw a door open by the elevator and there was a very large room here so better rooms do exist.

The trouble is this hotel has major building works due to end I believe in January 2012. There is no pool or gym, they offer you free use & transport to a pool on 1st street but all we would have liked was a quick 10 minute swim after a day out. There is no buffet at breakfast and the menu is not very big, but the staff were very friendly & helpful.

The plus side, there is happy hour in the bar from 3.30pm to 6.30pm very good prices. The hotel is so close to the metro. It might be an idea though to wait until the buidling work is finished, I'm sure it'll be very nice then.