Residence Inn by Marriott Springfield Old Keene Mill Review

Booking & Stay Details

Originally, I planned to stay at the nearby TownePlace Suites by Marriott, where a few coworkers are staying already. But they were sold out and I am only staying a few nights and was not planning to move rooms as we had long work days upcoming. Since we would commute together, I looked for a property nearby.  Unfortunately, there is no Hyatt in the area to keep working on the Bonus Journeys promotion. There were a few other hotels in the area, but I settled for a Marriott property as they also have a promo going on and I still need more spend to requalify for Ambassador status. My choice was the Residence Inn by Marriott Springfield Old Keene Mill.

Location

The Residence Inn by Marriott Springfield Old Keene Mill is located conveniently next to a major freeway intersection. From here you can get pretty much everywhere you need to go. From the hotel it is about a 25-minute drive to Washington D.C. as well as to Dulles International Airport. Ronald Reagan National Airport is about a 15-minute drive away from the hotel. Because of its location outside of Washington DC, the prices are way cheaper here, especially during the summer months when all the tourists come to DC.

The Franconia-Springfield Metro station is about a 5-minute drive from the hotel. If you don’t need a car in DC, this is probably your better option to get into town. 

Parking

The hotel has an attached parking garage with three floors. The third floor of the parking garage has a direct access door to the second floor of the hotel building. The hotel building is designed that the elevators are in this location of the building as you enter from the parking garage. However, a room key is required to get in. Same is true for the ground floor entrance. The parking garage also has an elevator. The main entrance to the hotel is just a few steps away from here.

Shuttle Service

No shuttle service offered.

Check-In

Check-in was quick and easy. After a quick I.D. check, I swiped my credit card while the agent prepared my room keys. 

I didn’t get upgraded, because the hotel was sold out of better rooms during a few days of my stay, but I was aware of that ahead of time. I was just hoping for some last minute cancellations, but I guess they didn’t happen. 

Check-In: 3 p.m.
Check-Out: 11 a.m.

King Studio Suite (Room 624)

As you walk into the room, you have the kitchen area immediate to your right. It is a fully stocked kitchen with everything you need to cook most meals. The kitchen comes with pots, pans, dishes, utensils and everything else. Besides that you have a microwave oven, stove top, full-size refrigerator, kitchen sink, dish washer and coffee maker.

There is a small dining table with two chairs next to the kitchen. Following the very short entry way is a work desk with an office chair. It is not a very large desk. Next to the desk is an L-shaped sofa bed. The sofa is set up in a way that it visually splits the kitchen area from the living area of the suite. A TV sits on top of a dresser between the living area and sleeping area of the suite. This dresser also acts as a visual divider. The TV can be turned to be viewed either from the sofa or bed. 

The sleeping area consists of a King bed. Lights are mounted to the large headboard on either side and offer a power outlet. Unfortunately, it’s one of these very lose outlets, where connectors tend to fall out. One side of the bed comes with a nightstand, while the other side just has a small table which acts as a nightstand.

Next to the bed is the entryway to the bathroom. The entryway houses the vanity with a single sink, wall mounted mirror and a large closet. A door separates the bathroom from the rest of the suite. Inside is a shower/bathtub combo unit with wall-mounted soap dispensers as well as the toilet and a rack for the towels.  

There are two windows in the suite, one in the living room area and one next to the bed. From here you face the courtyard of the hotel which includes the driveway and the hotel’s parking garage. The AC unit is placed between the two units.

Public Areas & Amenities

Lobby

The lobby area has a few seating options to hang out which are not really part of the bar or the breakfast dining area. Besides that, it also holds two workstations, which make up the business center of the hotel. Kind of in the middle of the lobby is a fire place, but I never saw it lit. 

The lobby also has doors leading out to the intersection on which the hotel sits, but these automatic doors are turned off and you have to use the door in the back leading to the courtyard and the hotel’s driveway.

Business Center

There are two workstations with a printer each in the lobby. One comes with an office chair, the other one is a standing counter. They are both located in the main lobby area.

Fitness Center

The fitness center is located on the ground floor along the long hallway from the front desk to the elevators. You need your room key to enter and it has a good selection of workout equipment.

Pool

No pool or spa at the Residence Inn by Marriott Springfield Old Keene Mill.

Guest Laundry

The guest laundry facility is very spacious. It’s located along the hallway to the elevator. Inside you find multiple pairs of washers and dryers but all coin-operated. The room is very large and almost seems like it is a bit of wasted space. 

The hotel offers dry cleaning, but they only pick up every other day from Monday – Friday, beginning Monday. However, the paperwork they give you states that they pick up every day from Monday – Saturday. 

Housekeeping

Housekeeping is available daily. I got asked during check-in if I needed housekeeping daily, every other day or what my preferred schedule was. I opted-out altogether, as it was just a short stay.

Dining

Breakfast

Breakfast here is actually okay. You get some decent food. The standard is scrambled eggs and potatoes. Then they also rotate between sausage and bacon throughout the week. You also get your usual food choices like cereal, toast, bagels, yogurt, orange juice, etc.  The breakfast staff was always super quick to restock items and very attentive to cleaning off tables.  

Lobby Bar

The bar is pretty much the opposite of what you are used to from the breakfast service. The bar, even though it is open, is sometimes unattended. You need to find the person or wait a long time to show up. It depends on who is running the bar, they are not familiar with mixed drinks and had potential customers walk out. The food menu is available in the elevator, or you can scan a QR code at the bar. 

I already figured they wouldn’t do room service, but it was a big task to get them to put in a pick-up order over the phone. You can call only the front desk, which is never busy, and I had to really ask if they could be so nice and walk over to the bar. Unfortunately, they don’t call you when the food is ready. It seems like the hotel has some issues with quality personnel who know what it means to run and operate a hotel. So strange. 

Market Place

Next to the front desk is a small marketplace. It used to have a pretty good selection of food items and snacks when I first arrived but pretty soon the selection got thinner and thinner. However, the shelves were still full. Why? Because they just spread out the same items over multiple shelves to make it look good without giving you any good choices. From the time I first arrived, it went downhill within one month. Frequently, stuff doesn’t even get restocked like beverages in the refrigerator. I don’t know what’s going on. I am not sure if the staff isn’t trained well or just have a bad attitude when it comes to service.

Conclusion

I had multiple long-term stays at the Residence Inn by Marriott Springfield Old Keene Mill over the last few months. When I booked the hotel, they only had the same room type available. At times the hotel gets very packed. However, the management needs to improve service. The bar service is not so great. You wait for 10 minutes to get the barkeeper’s attention as he is busy serving other customers and then when you want to order food, he tells you no more food, because we are one minute past the deadline. I just came home from a 16-hour workday and was hoping to grab at least a snack at the hotel. The Market next to the front desk is horrible too. When I first stayed here, there were lots of different items on the shelves. Now all the shelves just get filled up with the same but fewer different items, to make it look full. The coffee dispenser in the lobby is empty most of the time or has been sitting so long that the coffee can now be called “iced” coffee. 

I am also disappointed that laundry only gets picked up every other day. I don’t know what the big concern for the hotel is. They only need to call it in, I get charged for the service anyway. Makes no sense, or am I missing something here?

Unfortunately, prices are through the roof in D.C., and a few co-workers are staying at a hotel across the street, which is most of the time sold out too. Luckily, I always got a room at least here. As I said, the rooms are fine but nothing special either. Just the service is the big downside of this hotel. 

Be Aware: Hotel Bill

If you have a long-term stay booked, the hotel checks you out and back in every week. The hotel is doing that by itself. Normally if you book two consecutive stays at the same hotel, the hotel merges it into one single reservation. Maybe they don’t know that you can charge the credit card every week or at a certain threshold without having to check the person in and out all the time. This shouldn’t be any issue, even for Marriott promotions. You can always call Marriott Bonvoy and explain it and that the hotel is actually doing the check-out and back in on consecutive nights. 

This could be a problem if you want to avoid the transient tax hotels charge. In Virginia you don’t have to pay transient tax for a hotel room if you stay 90 days or longer. You have to pay for the first 90 days but they will later be reimbursed to you and after the 90th day you don’t have to pay the tax anymore. I haven’t had a stay that long. 

However, I had one other issue. Because of their checking me out and back in, there was a glitch on Marriott’s website and for a 10 day stay, I got only credit for 6 days in my Marriott account as for the system it looked like I had two stays at the same time. One for 6 days and one for 10 days. This was because the hotel charged me on the 6th day and checked me out and back in. I have kept an eye on my account ever since and no other issues so far. Be aware and double check your account.