Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square

We stayed at the Sofitel DC for 3 nights and our stay was plagued with issues. What I found amusing is when we checked out we were asked "Did you have a great stay?" by the same front desk agent who knew about some of the issues. When I mentioned the issues we had he said "Well, except all the issues you had." This shows how much the Sofitel seems to care about customer issues and why I most likely will never go there again. When you book a luxury brand you expect service to be good, sad to say, it seems Sofitel is not up to Motel 6 its former sister brand in terms of service. So what went wrong? Lots of things, too many to fully cover here, except to say we had issues with our room on the first night, the business center was unusable, the coffe machine didn't work, the restaurant was a disaster(to be covered on another review). What's most troubling is the service recovery side - which was a complete lack of it. With everything that went wrong, discussed with front desk staff and escalated to the front desk managers the best we got is a "sorry", but no solution or compensation. All in all, we were pretty disappointed with the hotel based on the brand promise. You book a high end hotel with the promise of better service above all and when the hotel acknoledges it didn't deliver and still consider it acceptable - you've reach the level of Motel 6 without calling yourself that. Won't be back.

1. I checked in on Sept 6, 2026 was charged a bar bill for Sept. 4, 2026, and breakfast on Sept 10, 2026, both were from other rooms and clearly marked as such on the folio emailed to me. Those charges were reverted for 10% of the original charges, leaving 90% of the charges on my bill. When I called the hotel, they claimed that they didn't see the charges and couldn't see the folio emailed to me. The manager then asked me to email their folio back, claiming that there was a different bill. Essentially there is a second bill that the hotel did not show me nor emailed to me as requested. So I had to call American Express to dispute charges. 2. Also, the front desk required my CC twice, once on check-in, once 2 days later, claiming that the first one was missing. The odd thing was I was in my room for two days before they "discovered" the missing CC. Instead of calling me, they disabled my room key, requiring me to go to the front desk to provide the same CC again. Tactic I expected from a lesser hotel, not the Sofitel. Maybe because I was a single Asian female traveler and thus the harsher treatment? 3. Upon checking out, I checked my luggage with the front desk so I can attend a meeting two blocks away. This was a service offered by the hotel. Upon returning, they tried to give me someone else luggage not matching my luggage ticket and then claimed that they couldn't find mine. I had to go in to the luggage storage room and retrieve my bags. 4. There is a $34 Urban Experience Daily Charge, plus tax, essentially for location, no other service associated. The Sofitel Hotel Chain is supposedly a better class chain, but this experience did not reflect that. If anything, it is either incompetent or fraudulent service provided. Either way, I am not using the Sofitel going forward. Caveat Emptor!

Nice hotel. A little run down. Gym is very disappointing. The only 2 machines were out of service. Not what I would expect from a Sofitel

I was checked in by Jekhi(not sure how to spell his name) who’s customer service was excellent. The check in experience set the tone for a pleasant stay. The room was clean, bed was comfortable, and the shower was hot & high pressure. The hotel is in a perfect location.

Great location,Very easy walk to local attractions. Very friendly and attentive staff. Rooms large and well appointed.