Americana Hotel

Pros: A deluxe queen bed room for $ 67, Free parking, Free breakfast, Nice desk workers, Clean rooms, Close to the metro.
Cons: The beds were horrible. Our neighbors woke us up having sex at 4am. Leaky toilet.
Overall, my only major complaint was the bad bed. It was a great location for a great price.

What a cool property. If you like Route 66, you will love this place. Classic basic terrazzo floors in the lobby that you’ll find after you locate the dark street entrance to the back parking lot off of Eads. I circled twice thinking there must be a service road to the front entrance. The framed picture in the lobby confirms how easy it was to drive up to the lobby in the early days before VDOT raised Jeff Davis Hwy eliminating the original front driveway entrance. Time goes by though and the best things remain. From the outside, though, you’ll question this property and you’ll read all the reviews and you’ll wonder if you made the right decision — until you get to your room and realize, hey, this place is just fine. If you grew up in the 70’s, or you are a fan of the Route 66 era, you are going to love the rooms and especially the bathrooms in this hotel. Mine in room 112 had square ceramic wall tiles and classic tiny square floor tiles in nearly perfect condition. What a great throwback. The smaller tub and toilet were so retro. The shower controller is a museum piece. It all works! Shower pressure is outstanding. I haven’t experienced water pressure like this since I visited a hotel in Niagara Falls. The carpet was new and the bed was comfortable — and new. I don’t know why others were complaining about the beds. The pillows could be better, though. Towels and linens were clean and good quality. And while the furniture is old and worn — we’ll call it real wood retro — there is a mini-​fridge and a small flat screen TV. The operation and maintenance of the hotel room is fairly amazing given the age of the property. The exterior needs some attention — just some concrete repair and paint — and a better sign to mark the only street entrance in back. On the definite plus side; the WiFi, like the parking, and breakfast coffee, doughnuts, cereal, and bagels are all free. For the price, good service, clean room, retro look, and name — I give this property 4 stars. If you prefer brand new bathroom fixtures — and don’t mind paying 3x the room rate and you want to pay $ 28 to $ 40 per night for parking, and $ 12 to $ 15 for WiFi — then choose any of the adjacent name brand hotels. I’ll be at the Americana, reliving my childhood. Cheers!

I needed a hotel to stay in, for an early morning interview in D.C. The following day. I chose Americana Hotel due to the convenient location as well as the numerous positive reviews.
The hotel was nice and clean. They had given me a king size deluxe room, even though I had only booked the standard double bed room. The bed was comfortable. The heating as well as a.c. Worked well. The TV was a flat screen with cable. A small fridge was also in the room. The bathroom was slightly out dated and it took a few minutes for the hot water to heat up. Not a problem though.
It was really easy to find. About a block away from Crystal City metro station, which I took to travel into D.C. The following morning. The metro will take you anywhere for sight seeing. Whether it’s in Arlington or D.C. There are also numerous restaurants nearby.
I would definitely stay here again, even if it’s just to visit the Arlington, VA/​Washington D.C. Area. You can’t beat the price, comfort, and location!

Was in town for a night on business and found a deal for this place through Expedia. Don’t let the exterior fool you, this is a quality spot. My room was originally for a full size bed, but when I checked in they upgraded me to a king size for free since they had an abundance of rooms that night.
Staff is very nice, and they offer free breakfast in the am along with the regular stuff like wifi and the like. Very close to a local shopping center and the DCA Airport. Whole place has a very retro feel which I loved. Photos in the lobby show the hotel throughout the years which was also a nice touch. Would def stay again.

Stayed there on December, 8. The hotel is small but comfortable. The staff is friendly and the rooms are seriously awesome (clean, fresh and cute). Great quality for low price.

Tired, worn, old, but cheap and close to Reagan National Airport. All three staff members that I dealt with were very nice. Free shuttle to airport. Good breakfast bar in the big and well lit lobby.
3 stars if you know what you are getting into. 1 star if you thought you found some super deal.

This little place was perfect for our short getaway! Clean, cozy room with a comfortable double bed.
No smoke odors whatsoever, which some might expect in an older hotel.
Bathroom is charming vintage, but looks new because of how clean and well-​kept it is!
Very convenient FREE parking! (Hotel also has shuttle service, but we didn’t use it.)
Breakfast (FREE) was a pretty decent selection of pastries/​donuts/​bagels, cereal, and fruit. Coffee was good.
Excellent front desk service.
Location was great; took 10 min to get to everywhere on the mall!
Can NOT beat the price for everything this place is. Sometimes when we book a «cheap» hotel, we resign ourselves to staying in a place «we only have to sleep in.» But this place was truly better than that for us! We will definitely be back!

Stayed here overnight on short notice. Very reasonable rates! The outside and lobby looks grody, to be blunt, and you won’t find a kitchen /​restaurant /​room service like some of the larger chains, but the staff are incredibly personable and the actual guest rooms are cosmopolitan and virtually spotless. They also have an AWESOME shuttle service– picked us up and took us to a nearby steakhouse within 15m.
Would ABSOLUTELY stay again.

Looks can be deceiving and I admit that if I had judged this place by the outside I would have missed out on a good hotel. The Americana is in a prime location right next to a subway station, had affordable prices for the area, clean basic rooms, good water pressure in the shower, the beds are super comfortable and the AC worked incredibly well in my room (but there’s no thermostat, so it’s either on or off). More importantly the staff went the extra mile to accommodate the special requests of our group! Everyone on their staff was friendly, professional and customer service oriented.
Another cool perk is they have a shuttle that runs pretty much all day and it’s FREE! And they have a small morning breakfast (basic stuff: donuts, bagels, fruit, coffee, oatmeal, juice, etc.)
I took off one star because the hallways were warm, they need more counter space in the bathroom and the outside of the building could really use a remodel.

When considering the prices of hotel stays in this area and what’s included in your stay, this hotel is a solid four. However if you’re comparing it to other hotels that’s when you notice the difference. This is a no frills hotel; you are not going to get a gym, bar, pool and even internet connection in your room which was a huge negative for me and extremely frustrating. I’ve never stayed at a hotel where the internet connection was so bad. However you will get a clean room, free shuttle service to the airport and areas around the hotel, free basic breakfast (donuts, bagels, muffins etc) but get there early I noticed they clean up about 30 mins before they are supposed to, free parking and decent prices which is not a bad deal for the area. The best part is that you are walking distance to Crystal City and the metro stop which is a huge plus. So overall, not a bad place to stay for a few days while you’re out exploring the area.

Don’t expect anything too high-​end, but the beds are comfortable, the place is clean, the front desk staff is helpful, and the breakfast is pretty ok. It’s walking distance from the Crystal City metro stop and the mall there (food, shops etc). The hotel has a free shuttle that will take you to the metro stop, Pentagon city mall, and to the airport (Bonus!). It was one of the last rooms we could find for a reasonable rate on a Saturday night, and walking up to it, I braced myself for the worst. The furniture is older and the bathroom tiles look like they are from the 1950s, but for 1 night, it was fine.
Breakfast was fresh doughnuts (they actually looked pretty good but I don’t eat doughnuts), cereal, fruit, and coffee/​tea.
I wouldn’t recommend this for a lengthy stay in the area, but if you need to get to and from the airport quickly, this is great (only 5 minute drive). free parking too.

If it’s this hot in may, these rooms must be awful in the summer. Air conditioning is rattling constantly and only cooling a foot in front of it. Also held in place with a dirty towel. Shower is terrible, no pressure. Room itself is adequate, Arlington is a great option for Washington. Subway station is five minutes away (walk). For what you get, it’s not cheap, too pricey. The sign outside looks cool!

I hate to leave a one star review. I’m leaving this in the hopes that the owner/​management see this and learn.
The good:
It was clean, most of the staff was very friendly, it was near a metro station. There’s free breakfast (donuts, bagels, cereal, basic fruit, coffee). There’s free parking. Free wifi. And a shuttle. Nice!
The bad:
The wifi was terrible — we were on the fourth floor. Maybe it would’ve been better in another room. When I asked if they could restart the router, they said no, and to come sit in the lobby. Watching a 3 minute video on youtube was out of the question — it would’ve taken an hour.
The staff also does watch you eat breakfast. Definitely off-​putting.
So why one star? Because we lost power at 11:30 at night, and the hotel didn’t handle it very well. This wasn’t a hotel-​wide power outage, it was just our room and the room next door. We weren’t using the hairdryer or tv. We wound up having to change rooms in the middle of the night. The staff was disorganized and we kept having to re-​explain the situation. No real comment from management or apology. Not even an explanation. Bupkes. A little would’ve gone a long way.

I was in a bind at Washington/​Reagan due to a cx’d flight. I’d already turned in my rental car. so I was even more stressed. I searched Unilocal and found the Americana! Free shuttle to and from the airport. right in the heart of downtown. clean comfortable. and reasonable. Great staff. nice brekkie:-) Btw. the Institute Swiss brand Ginseng toiletries are Bomb! I’d stay again:-)

Excelente hotel, el check in fue en segundo gracia a Girma el chico del front desk, el desayuno esta bien por el precio que pagamos, la calidad de sueño fue exquisito. Gracias muchachos

I usually laugh when people say this, but I’m hesitant to review this hotel because I’d hate for it to get popular and change. This is definitely not the hotel for everyone. The rooms are definitely a bit dated. The walls are paper thin. The Internet is a little slow and the tv’s don’t have the best picture/​connection. There is no coffee pot or alarm clock in the rooms.
So, why the four stars you ask? The prices are incredible reasonable. There is free parking (which in the DC area, is a huge plus). There’s free basic continental breakfast. It’s in walking distance to two metro stops, shopping centers, and restaurants.
This is the place you stay when you want to explore DC, but don’t want to spend a ton of money… which for Mr. Husband and I, was just what we were looking for. We’d definitely stay here again.

I’ve never stayed here, I drove by it every day when I lived in Alexandria and drove daily to work at an other government agency. I did see it featured in a pretty good film with Russell Crowe «State of Play». if you want a bit of fun, rent the movie & pick this hotel. Can’t do that with a chain hotel.

Great little hotel very close to the metro. It is a little outdated but you can’t beat the prices and the beds are very comfortable.

Opened in 1963 when the road was lower. Now you have to take a ride around to the back of the hotel to get in.
The bathroom s are pink and black tile with full bath tubs. I felt like I was visiting my grandparents when I showered.
We had a deluxe room with new bedding, new curtains, updated paint and ceiling. It was comfortable and clean. Inexpensive. Convenient location. Friendly staff.
Lobby furnishings are new, doughnuts are super fresh. Coffee was bad but there is a Dunking Donuts on your way to the Crystal City metro station.
Stayed Friday — Monday and it came to $ 498 after taxes and fees.
Super happy!!!

Little rough on the edges, but don’t judge a book by its cover.
They have done a lot of renovations over the last couple years. Most rooms have new beds and flat screen TVs. The bathrooms in some of the rooms are small but adequate for there purpose.
Nice down to earth staff. Always have good things to talk about and very helpful to find your way around DC.
Make sure you do not miss free donuts in the morning in the free breakfast. The donuts are the best in crystal city. They also have bagels, muffins, cereal, and coffee.
Free shuttle to the Washington national airport (DCA).
They are always the lowest rate in crystal city.

In general, this old-​school hotel is a good place, but it could use a renovation to fix the peeling walls, chipped/​peeling appliances, and dark hallways. (If they renovate though, I really hope the old-​school feel is maintained!) The rooms are clean, but they’re definitely well-​worn. They (at least the one I was in) are somewhat cluttered with furnishings — a desk, a large cabinet with lamp, bedside tables with lamps, a large old TV, and the A/​C unit on the wall, all in relatively compact space. The room’s entryway gave some space for bags and movement, but it was otherwise a bit squeezed. As others have mentioned, the bathroom has wonderfully old-​school tiling. The now-​nostalgic architecture is great to see, but, other than the lobby, the inside public areas were mostly dark and dingy feeling. (Clean, but they just –felt– dingy.)
That said, while I’m giving this three stars overall, there were a few standout aspects that I’d grade differently. The friendliness/​helpfulness/​flexibility of the staff would be 4 – 5 stars. The clean, bright, retro-​feeling lobby would be four stars. And the location — easy access to Rt. 1 and to shops, restaurants, Metros, and parks in Pentagon City and Crystal City — would be 4 – 5 stars. The price is also very good and, combined with the location, would at least make me consider another stay, regardless of renovation.