Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Washington, D.C.

We only stayed because the booking was nonrefundable and we’d been traveling all day. The mattresses were broken, mold showed up in several places, and caulk seemed to be covering mold in the shower. The AC and heat were covered in mold spores. There was no maintenance to speak of, and the location was horrible. In one room, duct tape was being used to stop a sink leak; in another, a trash can had to catch the water. The shower handle was coming off and held by an aftermarket screw, and the controls took some fiddling to operate. If hygiene or safety matter to you, don’t stay here. Corporate or the health department needs to visit.

The bed was comfortable, so I slept well, even though the floors looked pretty dated. Every so often, something in the room beeped. The third-floor hallway was the bigger problem: it smelled absolutely rank last night and again this morning. Maybe there’d been a plumbing issue and it was temporary, but luckily the odor didn’t get into the room.

Breakfast left me feeling ill both mornings, and the pillows made it hard to sleep. There were seven between the two beds, yes, seven, but every one was either tiny and unusable, completely flattened, or both. Once feeling sick could have been a fluke, but it happened two days running. The rest of the room wasn’t much better, with dirty carpets, stained sheets, rusty or broken bathroom fixtures, and waffles that were doughy and eggs that were crusty. Not worth the price.

The front desk staff were polite and tried to help, but that couldn’t make up for the condition of the hotel. I won’t return or recommend it until major improvements are made. The place felt empty, and after staying there I could see why. Bugs were in the room and near the coffee station, which raised serious hygiene concerns, and the breakfast was badly prepared. I saw other guests throwing out undercooked eggs. The room I was moved to had a lamp that didn’t work, and its bedside lamp had no switch. I had to loosen the bulb by hand to turn it off, which felt unsafe. The first room had a broken toilet door. None of the USB ports worked, and the remote, hair dryer, and iron were missing until I asked the front desk for them. The hotel and room both smelled unpleasant, so I bought air freshener just to make things bearable. This was one of my worst hotel stays, and it doesn’t deserve even one star.