My feelings on The Demon Rush
Okay, there's been a bunch of stuff happening since I last visited the hotels, so it's best that I consolidate the info into a new post.
Most of the hotels are in the Dulles area (near where the Crowne Plaza was), but one hotel, the Hunt Valley Inn was near BWI.
If you weren't paying attention, the Hyatt Reston is not an option because they wanted $75,000 for their conference room space. For reference, every other hotel is offering the space for 11-20k before taxes (and this is within conference room budget for PCF).
Things common amongst all of the hotels.
Things that are common amongst the hotels in the Dulles area (i.e. not Hunt Valley Inn):
Hilton Dulles
Pictures
Belmont Ballroom (main one)
Internet
Holiday Inn Dulles
Pictures - Both the hotel and conference center are in this folder.
Internet
Ballroom
ECTC (conference center)
General:
Sheraton Reston
We would be staying at the Sheraton, but the Westin is there in case if we run out of rooms at the Sheraton (it's right across the parking lot).
Pictures
Internet
General
Hunt Valley Inn (aka the one not in Dulles area hotel)
Pictures
Internet
General
Conclusion (the tl;dr part)
Basically, the Hilton is looking the best out of the hotels. The food situation isn't great (fortunately there's at least some food not too far and some delivery), but everything else looks good, though I will admit the rate is a bit higher than the other hotels. The Sheraton also looks good, but its biggest problem is that it doesn't have space to expand for another year, even though they are accommodating, and switching hotels every year is not ideal. The Hunt Valley Inn has plenty of room, but there's too many x-factors to consider it IMO (the internet, renovations). Also, it's very far out of the way (I had to drive hour and a half each way to get there), and there's no airport shuttle. The Holiday Inn just doesn't have enough space and the conference rooms not being in the hotel itself is definitely a deal-breaker, considering how annoying it was walking to the Crowne DIA's conference rooms.
Long story short, Hilton is looking best, as long as I can hash some details out such as the room rates with breakfast.
Most of the hotels are in the Dulles area (near where the Crowne Plaza was), but one hotel, the Hunt Valley Inn was near BWI.
If you weren't paying attention, the Hyatt Reston is not an option because they wanted $75,000 for their conference room space. For reference, every other hotel is offering the space for 11-20k before taxes (and this is within conference room budget for PCF).
Things common amongst all of the hotels.
-All hotels have rates with breakfast included.
-Free wi-fi in hotel rooms.
-Free parking! And there's plenty.
-All of them have gluten-free options in their restaurants
-The food shuttles are not 24/7 (then again the restaurants aren't 24/7). They generally go until 11pm or 12 am.
-All of the hotels have stage risers and stanchions (the poles with ropes).
-All of the hotels have an ATM and complimentary business center.
-All of the hotels have outdoor smoking areas near the conference rooms.
-They all have the standard rectangular tables (6' x 30"), and most also have the skinnier kind (6' x 18")
-All of the hotels have a loading dock for trucks, and carts for transporting equipment.
-None of the hotels have tables with splinters, though one was kind of close.
-Check-in time is 3 PM (Hunt Valley is 4), Check-out time is noon
-All of the hotels have ADA compliant rooms (handicapped-accessible).
-With the exception of one hotel (Holiday Inn), the conference space is in the hotel and not far away from the hotel room elevator
-All of the hotels only allow 4 people to a double (fire code)
-Cots are only for king rooms and they're $10/night
-We would have all or most of the conference room space in the hotel, so what happened at the Crowne DIA shouldn't be an issue.
-Reservations work like this:
Basically you reserve with a credit/debit card, and there's 24-hour cancellation policy (as in contact the hotel 24 hours before your check-in time). Once you actually arrive, the hotel puts an authorization hold on your card (or if you have the names and info of the other guests, split up 4 ways) with incidentals per day (this ranges from 25-50 dollars depending on the hotel).
Now here is how authorization holds work. If it's on a credit card you won't notice because your card won't get charged unless if you use an incidental like room service, However, if the hold is on a debit card, it will be charged for the entire stay until you check out. This is just how debit cards work, and the hotels can't do anything about it. So long story short, use a credit card for check-in if you can.
-Free wi-fi in hotel rooms.
-Free parking! And there's plenty.
-All of them have gluten-free options in their restaurants
-The food shuttles are not 24/7 (then again the restaurants aren't 24/7). They generally go until 11pm or 12 am.
-All of the hotels have stage risers and stanchions (the poles with ropes).
-All of the hotels have an ATM and complimentary business center.
-All of the hotels have outdoor smoking areas near the conference rooms.
-They all have the standard rectangular tables (6' x 30"), and most also have the skinnier kind (6' x 18")
-All of the hotels have a loading dock for trucks, and carts for transporting equipment.
-None of the hotels have tables with splinters, though one was kind of close.
-Check-in time is 3 PM (Hunt Valley is 4), Check-out time is noon
-All of the hotels have ADA compliant rooms (handicapped-accessible).
-With the exception of one hotel (Holiday Inn), the conference space is in the hotel and not far away from the hotel room elevator
-All of the hotels only allow 4 people to a double (fire code)
-Cots are only for king rooms and they're $10/night
-We would have all or most of the conference room space in the hotel, so what happened at the Crowne DIA shouldn't be an issue.
-Reservations work like this:
Basically you reserve with a credit/debit card, and there's 24-hour cancellation policy (as in contact the hotel 24 hours before your check-in time). Once you actually arrive, the hotel puts an authorization hold on your card (or if you have the names and info of the other guests, split up 4 ways) with incidentals per day (this ranges from 25-50 dollars depending on the hotel).
Now here is how authorization holds work. If it's on a credit card you won't notice because your card won't get charged unless if you use an incidental like room service, However, if the hold is on a debit card, it will be charged for the entire stay until you check out. This is just how debit cards work, and the hotels can't do anything about it. So long story short, use a credit card for check-in if you can.
Things that are common amongst the hotels in the Dulles area (i.e. not Hunt Valley Inn):
-All but one hotel have a shuttle on demand going to and from the silver line Wiehle avenue metro station, so good news for those coming in from bus/metro.
-All the hotels have multiple airport shuttles.
-There aren't many restaurants within walking distance of the hotels.
-All the hotels have multiple airport shuttles.
-There aren't many restaurants within walking distance of the hotels.
Hilton Dulles
Pictures
Belmont Ballroom (main one)
Internet
Wired: 
Room rate is 109 dollars/night+12% tax with continental breakfast (fruits, cereal, pastries, juices). This might be subject to change, they are working on the rate as I type this, and there will be a rate with hot breakfast too.
+Plenty of conference room space, there's about 19k sq ft of rooms (and we're getting all of it) that are within decent range of each other, and there's another 12k or so that's in a different area of the hotel in case if we need to expand for the future. For reference, it's about a minute and a half walk to the main ballroom from the elevators, and the other rooms are either closer or roughly equidistant.
+Belmont Ballroom is nice and big, it's 8k sq ft and can be divided 4 ways and has floor sockets.
+we can set the thermostat
+they have vending machines
+free parking
+15% discount at restaurant (for anything non-alcoholic)
+449 rooms total so running out of rooms is not a concern
+microwave + fridge in rooms (at least in the standard doubles)!
+airport shuttle is every 30 minutes from 6am-midnight, and they are willing to pick someone up if they arrive past midnight. There are also 4-5 shuttles and the smallest shuttle holds 14 people and the largest holds 30. IIRC, I was told the hotel is getting some more shuttles so that number will probably increase to 6-7.
+there will be a dedicated shuttle that takes people to Maclearen Square* (1 mile, maybe a 5 minute drive) which has about 8 restaurants and a grocery store, and world gate centre (the shopping center right across the street from the crowne, about 3 miles, roughly 10-15 minute drive).
-Yes, the fact this shuttle exists means there really are not any restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, it's in an office park.
-Room rate is the highest amongst the hotels.
-hotel only has dry-cleaning
-the beds might be a little skinny but it's hard to tell.
+/- the beds are in between (not hard but not really soft).
*The restaurants I saw at Maclearen Square are Vocelli pizza, Asian garden, super pho, mikaku (Japanese), popeyes, burger King, chanab kabob, and Quiznos. The grocery store is a Food Lion.
+Plenty of conference room space, there's about 19k sq ft of rooms (and we're getting all of it) that are within decent range of each other, and there's another 12k or so that's in a different area of the hotel in case if we need to expand for the future. For reference, it's about a minute and a half walk to the main ballroom from the elevators, and the other rooms are either closer or roughly equidistant.
+Belmont Ballroom is nice and big, it's 8k sq ft and can be divided 4 ways and has floor sockets.
+we can set the thermostat
+they have vending machines
+free parking
+15% discount at restaurant (for anything non-alcoholic)
+449 rooms total so running out of rooms is not a concern
+microwave + fridge in rooms (at least in the standard doubles)!
+airport shuttle is every 30 minutes from 6am-midnight, and they are willing to pick someone up if they arrive past midnight. There are also 4-5 shuttles and the smallest shuttle holds 14 people and the largest holds 30. IIRC, I was told the hotel is getting some more shuttles so that number will probably increase to 6-7.
+there will be a dedicated shuttle that takes people to Maclearen Square* (1 mile, maybe a 5 minute drive) which has about 8 restaurants and a grocery store, and world gate centre (the shopping center right across the street from the crowne, about 3 miles, roughly 10-15 minute drive).
-Yes, the fact this shuttle exists means there really are not any restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, it's in an office park.
-Room rate is the highest amongst the hotels.
-hotel only has dry-cleaning
-the beds might be a little skinny but it's hard to tell.
+/- the beds are in between (not hard but not really soft).
*The restaurants I saw at Maclearen Square are Vocelli pizza, Asian garden, super pho, mikaku (Japanese), popeyes, burger King, chanab kabob, and Quiznos. The grocery store is a Food Lion.
Holiday Inn Dulles
Pictures - Both the hotel and conference center are in this folder.
Internet
Ballroom
ECTC (conference center)
General:
89 dollars/night+13% tax for free breakfast for two people 99/night+13% tax for three or four people, not sure about 4 people.
Best Western, which is in the same lot (but less rooms), is $75 for a king and $84 for doubles. Both of those rates include breakfast.
+Free breakfast is a thing
+250 rooms out of 297 have a fridge and microwave
+airport shuttles every half-hour, there are 4 and most hold 12-17 people with the biggest holding 26 people.
+free parking
+free wi-fi
+shuttle to Dulles Town Center and Dulles 28 Centre for restaurants and eating.
+vending machines
+they have laundry on-site and it's $1.75 per load, that's for washing and drying each (so $3.50 per load). Coin laundry is one mile.
-The biggest room wasn't that big, it was 4.1k sq ft, which is only about 1k more sq ft than the stream room at the Crowne Plaza Dulles.
-Most of the meeting space would be in a conference center which is about a 5-minute walk from the hotel. I actually timed it walking slowly from the conference center to front lobby, and it was 5 minutes 45 seconds. That's also not including distance from hotel rooms.
-Cell service was a bit spotty in the conference center
-If we need more than 10k sq ft of space (which is likely), we'd have to use the space in the hotel itself, which would separate space.
-There is not much food nearby, there's one or two pizza places, a sandwich place, indian food, and I think a mexican restaurant within walking distance.
Best Western, which is in the same lot (but less rooms), is $75 for a king and $84 for doubles. Both of those rates include breakfast.
+Free breakfast is a thing
+250 rooms out of 297 have a fridge and microwave
+airport shuttles every half-hour, there are 4 and most hold 12-17 people with the biggest holding 26 people.
+free parking
+free wi-fi
+shuttle to Dulles Town Center and Dulles 28 Centre for restaurants and eating.
+vending machines
+they have laundry on-site and it's $1.75 per load, that's for washing and drying each (so $3.50 per load). Coin laundry is one mile.
-The biggest room wasn't that big, it was 4.1k sq ft, which is only about 1k more sq ft than the stream room at the Crowne Plaza Dulles.
-Most of the meeting space would be in a conference center which is about a 5-minute walk from the hotel.
-Cell service was a bit spotty in the conference center
-If we need more than 10k sq ft of space (which is likely), we'd have to use the space in the hotel itself, which would separate space.
-There is not much food nearby, there's one or two pizza places, a sandwich place, indian food, and I think a mexican restaurant within walking distance.
Sheraton Reston
We would be staying at the Sheraton, but the Westin is there in case if we run out of rooms at the Sheraton (it's right across the parking lot).
Pictures
Internet
Diamond Ballroom (main)
Wired:
Wifi:
Conference rooms:
Wired:
Wifi:
Wired:
Wifi:
Conference rooms:
Wired:
Wifi:
General
95 dollars a night + 12% tax. This includes breakfast.
+the sales manager has dealt with an anime convention so he knows how nerds work (i.e. they like to save money), and he seemed willing to work with us on free breakfast and providing affordable food options in the hotel. For example, he was going to contact places within a 4-5 mile radius about delivery orders.
+free wi-fi
+they have a 60 amp switch and a 100 amp aux switch so breaking a circuit should not be a concern.
+free parking
+15% discount at the restaurant (likely for anything non-alcoholic).
+There is a shuttle that goes to Reston Town Center, which is nearby (it's a 5-minute drive)
+airport shuttle is every 30 minutes, there are 7 (!) shuttles and 14 people per shuttle. The shuttle is also 24/7.
+the bed was really comfy
-no fridge or microwave in room (fridge available upon medical request)
-bathroom is small
-157 doubles in sheraton, 46 in Westin. That should be enough but might be cutting it close?
-No laundromat in the area, I don't know what the hotel laundry rates are.
-No vending machines (sheraton policy), but there is a front-desk kiosk that is open 24/7 with snacks, sandwiches, and sodas
-Diamond Ballroom is a bit small at 5.5k sq ft, and has pillars. :-/ It also has low-hanging lamps.
-Not a lot of food in the area, there's a popeyes, 7-11, kabob place (it's really good), chili's, and a gas station.
+the sales manager has dealt with an anime convention so he knows how nerds work (i.e. they like to save money), and he seemed willing to work with us on free breakfast and providing affordable food options in the hotel. For example, he was going to contact places within a 4-5 mile radius about delivery orders.
+free wi-fi
+they have a 60 amp switch and a 100 amp aux switch so breaking a circuit should not be a concern.
+free parking
+15% discount at the restaurant (likely for anything non-alcoholic).
+There is a shuttle that goes to Reston Town Center, which is nearby (it's a 5-minute drive)
+airport shuttle is every 30 minutes, there are 7 (!) shuttles and 14 people per shuttle. The shuttle is also 24/7.
+the bed was really comfy
-no fridge or microwave in room (fridge available upon medical request)
-bathroom is small
-157 doubles in sheraton, 46 in Westin. That should be enough but might be cutting it close?
-No laundromat in the area, I don't know what the hotel laundry rates are.
-No vending machines (sheraton policy), but there is a front-desk kiosk that is open 24/7 with snacks, sandwiches, and sodas
-Diamond Ballroom is a bit small at 5.5k sq ft, and has pillars. :-/ It also has low-hanging lamps.
-Not a lot of food in the area, there's a popeyes, 7-11, kabob place (it's really good), chili's, and a gas station.
Hunt Valley Inn (aka the one not in Dulles area hotel)
Pictures
Internet
So I don't have a speedtest picture, because when I tried the wired connection, I got 14.13 download, and the upload continually plumetted (it was seriously like a cartoon) until it arrived at .17 and just hung there. Yeah...
The hotel said they can increase upload, but I'll believe it when I see it.
The hotel said they can increase upload, but I'll believe it when I see it.
General
Room rate is 75 without breakfast, 89 with continental breakfast, and 99 with hot breakfast.
+Rates are reasonable, even with breakfast
+Near food, it's a block away from the Hunt Valley Towne Centre, though it is a wide street you have to cross (4+ lanes). It's about a 10 minute walk from front lobby to Towne Centre, mostly because of the intersections you have to cross (yes I timed this).
+Conference rooms are not too far away, and there's an elevator that goes straight down to the floor with all of the conference rooms.
+vending machines
+engineer is on-site 24/7 (this is actually pretty rare for hotels)
+Coin-operated washer and dryer.
+There's a shuttle that goes to the Towne Centre and to and from the rail station.
+Bed is pretty comfy.
-Yeah, rail station, you have to take a rail from BWI that takes over an hour to get to the rail station near the hotel (it's the last station). It doesn't close until midnight, and it's only $1.60, so in *most* cases it wouldn't be difficult to get to the hotel, just time-consuming.
-The shuttle doesn't go to the airport (which is a 25 minute drive away), it goes to the rail station.
-The internet result, yeah. The sales rep said they can upgrade it, but still, I need to see proof.
-No fridge except upon request.
-Tables were not great-looking. They looked better than Crowne DIA, but didn't look like they were in great condition either.
-The Maryland Ballroom smelled kind of stale. :-/
-We can't set thermostat because it's on the roof???? Yes, that is the answer they gave me.
+/- The hotel is in the middle of renovation, and it is supposed to be done by November, but you never know when it comes to projected dates. I was able to see one of their renovated hotel rooms, and it looked nicer than the older hotel rooms. However, I have no clue if the conference rooms will be done by then.
+Rates are reasonable, even with breakfast
+Near food, it's a block away from the Hunt Valley Towne Centre, though it is a wide street you have to cross (4+ lanes). It's about a 10 minute walk from front lobby to Towne Centre, mostly because of the intersections you have to cross (yes I timed this).
+Conference rooms are not too far away, and there's an elevator that goes straight down to the floor with all of the conference rooms.
+vending machines
+engineer is on-site 24/7 (this is actually pretty rare for hotels)
+Coin-operated washer and dryer.
+There's a shuttle that goes to the Towne Centre and to and from the rail station.
+Bed is pretty comfy.
-Yeah, rail station, you have to take a rail from BWI that takes over an hour to get to the rail station near the hotel (it's the last station). It doesn't close until midnight, and it's only $1.60, so in *most* cases it wouldn't be difficult to get to the hotel, just time-consuming.
-The shuttle doesn't go to the airport (which is a 25 minute drive away), it goes to the rail station.
-The internet result, yeah. The sales rep said they can upgrade it, but still, I need to see proof.
-No fridge except upon request.
-Tables were not great-looking. They looked better than Crowne DIA, but didn't look like they were in great condition either.
-The Maryland Ballroom smelled kind of stale. :-/
-We can't set thermostat because it's on the roof???? Yes, that is the answer they gave me.
+/- The hotel is in the middle of renovation, and it is supposed to be done by November, but you never know when it comes to projected dates. I was able to see one of their renovated hotel rooms, and it looked nicer than the older hotel rooms. However, I have no clue if the conference rooms will be done by then.
Conclusion (the tl;dr part)
Basically, the Hilton is looking the best out of the hotels. The food situation isn't great (fortunately there's at least some food not too far and some delivery), but everything else looks good, though I will admit the rate is a bit higher than the other hotels. The Sheraton also looks good, but its biggest problem is that it doesn't have space to expand for another year, even though they are accommodating, and switching hotels every year is not ideal. The Hunt Valley Inn has plenty of room, but there's too many x-factors to consider it IMO (the internet, renovations). Also, it's very far out of the way (I had to drive hour and a half each way to get there), and there's no airport shuttle. The Holiday Inn just doesn't have enough space and the conference rooms not being in the hotel itself is definitely a deal-breaker, considering how annoying it was walking to the Crowne DIA's conference rooms.
Long story short, Hilton is looking best, as long as I can hash some details out such as the room rates with breakfast.
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