8/10 Very good
Gem on King Street :)
Just got back from our stay in Alexandria at The Grace. My husband and I had a great trip and I'm just going to list a bunch of things to be aware of. They may be positive or negative based on how you look at things but we very much enjoyed our stay. I didn't give it a five star based on a few things which I will outline later.
The area: right in the middle of everything. Food galore. Starbucks nearby, high end restaurants and not horribly expensive restaurants. No grocery store within walking distance. An uber to trader joes or something similiar will help. But be aware cvs and local groceries can be a bit pricey for everyday things. Metro is walkable. We chose to uber places as getting pretty much anywhere has multiple transfers and doubled the amount of time it took to get places. We didn't find it noisy at all. An uber from the airport was like 15$ and then an uber to the mall or other historic places was like $20. During peak times the prices went up. There is a trolly that goes up and down King street if needed.The Grace itself: it helps to be techy. You can open the door with your phone so definitely downlad the app. I had some questions and the chat immediately responded within 10 seconds and everyone was super helpful and nice. The elevator is nice. The steps to your second floor, etc are small and steep. Be aware. Remember these are historic buildings so everything is a bit tight. The lobby area and outdoor area are impeccable and nice. We felt safe leaving our luggage the last day to wander the city. Our room: hubby and I are late 40s and in good shape so most of these things weren't an issue but they might be to others. The bed is low and the one chair in the room is super low. It might be hard to get up and down. We were in a studio and be prepared for a tight fit. It was fine for us, but it's small. Think New York hotel small. It is well layed it though. The kitchen has everything you could need. Well, except a freezer! No biggie. There is a full ironing board and iron, all the cookware and dishes and cups you might need. Reynolds wrap, a full microwave, cutlery, toaster, dishwasher, cutting board, coffee maker and maybe more? I was kind of worried whether there would be all of this stuff, but there is. It's a complete kitchen. The coffee situation (very important for me)...they have a brewing coffee maker (not keurig) and provide filters, decent ground coffee, sugar and powdery creamer. If you are a coffee snob its probably not good enough, but I usually just need a bit of black coffee to wake up so it was fine for me. There isn't a ton of space for clothing. There is one decent size end table that doubles as a dresser with three medium size drawers and there was a small closet with about space for 8-10 hangers for things. It was clean, smelled nice and the bed was comfortable. If you like laying in a marshmallow, this may be rough, but it was supportive. The bathroom is very spacious. Even though there is a frosted sliding door there is only about 3 feet seperating the bed from the inside of the bathroom. Which means no privacy (sound wise). Lol - you can hear everything that is going on in there (butt noises). Again, no problem for me, but kind of akward if you are still in a honeymoon phase! Shower is huuuugge. Super clean and there are shampoos and conditioners and soap and lotion if needed. The only draw back to this beautiful shower was the water pressure and the kind of shower head. It was pretty to look at, but had four holes for water to come out of and the pressure was low so I never felt quite clean. But that's me...I like blazing hot showers blasting my body. And there wasn't a seperate wand for undercarriage cleaning. I usually like that too. I wish the shower had been stronger. Excellent quick hot water though. They have a heater for the floor in there so that was really nice. The shades provide dark coverage. The airport is pretty close so you do hear airplanes flying over head. I am a light sleeper so for the first night I was bothered and then I found the sound machine! Life changer. I didn't hear the airplanes after that. There is an ac unit as well which we didn't need. The distance from the kitchen to the bed was maybe five feet. The bed was a queen size and that was nice. The ceilings were a bit low too. It wasn't a problem at all, hubby just kept hitting his hands on the ceiling when putting a sweatshirt on. I didn't feel claustrophobic, if anything it was cozy. All the history in the area is walkable, the people are nice, we never had a bad meal anywhere. Super clean hotel with a well thought out living space. My only negative is the shower situation. You couldn't change the type of water you get (i.e. spray types) and the water pressure was really low. Other than that, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would totally stay here again!