The Mayflower Hotel, Autograph Collection

Character and identity

D.C.'s longest-operating hotel, open since 1925 and on the National Register of Historic Places, sits in a prime downtown spot within walking distance of K Street and Dupont Circle. The lobby goes full grand-hotel: marble, gold, ornate detailing. The 581 rooms, refreshed in 2015, dial things back into restrained greys and whites, with a clever touch of accent walls papered in famous-guest signatures (JFK among them). Edgar, the in-house brasserie, handles shared plates and a social hour that pulls in lobbyists and political fixtures, and the bar is a reliable after-work perch for the city's power crowd.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What you're really paying for is the address, the history and the lobby-bar scene, not the rooms, which are perfectly comfortable but unremarkable. Book it if you want to be in the thick of downtown for work or politics; skip it if you want design polish. Higher-floor rooms and weekend rates are the value play.