Riggs Hotel DC Review: Inside A Former Bank Where The Boardroom Became My Suite Upgrade

I stayed at the Riggs Hotel DC for the first time. Regular readers know I’ve been on a quest to change up my stays there. I’ve been working remotely in Austin from my job in D.C. for twelve years. At first I was a creature of habit – same hotel, they’d often even assign me to the same room. But that got very boring. I’ve cycled through Hyatt Centric, Westin and Hyatt Places in Arlington, and I’ve been far happier lately trying different hotels downtown. Riggs Hotel DC History The Riggs Hotel DC is another GHA Discover property in Penn Quarter, directly across from the National Portrait Gallery and close to both Gallery Place and Metro Center. It was originally a bank built in 1891. I booked through Chase’s The Edit and stacked GHA benefits, and wound up with the hotel’s best suite, daily breakfast, a really substantial welcome amenity and a $100 food and beverage credit that I used for a couple of room service orders. The 181-room hotel is in Penn Quarter. It has marble columns, ornate ceilings and a former bank vault. Check-in was genuinely friendly. Guest room doors and hallways evoke safe deposit boxes, minibars look like small bank safes, and the main restaurant occupies the old banking hall. The concept is carried through but it isn’t overdone, so it has a history but isn’t a ‘theme’ property. While it’s called the Riggs Hotel DC after the old Riggs National Bank, the building was originally opened as Washington Loan & Trust Company. That bank merged into Riggs in 1954 and was known as the “Bank of Presidents.” 23 presidents or their families held accounts there. This isn’t the first hotel in the space. It was a Marriott Courtyard before Lore Group (which also owns The Lyle in DC) restored it and opened Riggs in February 2020 just as the pandemic was getting underway. The two most interesting spaces are the Riggs Suite (my room!) which was the bank’s former boardroom, and the Silver Lyan cocktail bar (the actual bank vault). Booking And Benefits Riggs participates in Chase’s The Edit. The published benefits include: breakfast for two described as $30 per person per day $100 property credit welcome amenity early check-in subject to availability late checkout subject to availability room upgrade subject to availability It was status, though, more than booking agent that secured my upgrade, although the two combined and benefits stack. (I’d have had breakfast and late checkout as a status benefit in any case, but the $100 property credit was nice, breakfast can be taken in the Café Riggs restaurant or via room service, and I used the credit for room service.) My welcome amenity was a beautiful cheese tray, but again that was stacking status and booking path. The Riggs Suite The Riggs Suite isn’t a conventional presidential suite. The living room occupies the former bank boardroom, and is connected to a Superior King room (and can be connected to a second one). It has an ornate ceiling and fireplace and chandeliers, oak floors, a large living room lounge, wet bar and a dining table for 12. The hotel will use it for cocktail receptions of as many as 40 people. The room feels more like an unusually grand private salon than an oversized hotel bedroom. My configuration had two bathrooms, although both were small. That was the odd tradeoff. The rest of the space was memorable and genuinely special, while neither bathroom felt like what one normally associates with a top suite. Here’s the bedroom. This was the view – it’s not really a view hotel as such. Standard rooms are only around 250 to 292 square feet, so the Riggs Suite isn’t what most guests receive. There are has 406-square-foot Atelier Suites, 690-square-foot Gallery Suites and four unique First Lady Suites, including the flower-filled pink Ida McKinley Suite and a Louisa Adams Suite with a baby grand piano. Dining At Riggs Hotel Café Riggs occupies the original banking hall beneath Corinthian columns and a 22-foot coffered ceiling. The set Café Riggs breakfast is $28, pancakes and avocado toast are $18, an omelet is $20 and a croque madame is $23, before coffee, tax and gratuity. You can ge the set breakfast and the Chase benefit covers that. I am not certain if in practice they truly limit you to $30 but if they do you wouldn’t have all breakfast choices, coffee and juice fully covered. I would have liked more options, honestly. Downstairs, Silver Lyan occupies the former vault and is a generally well-regarded bar and draws plenty of non-hotel guests. The hotel also, by the way, has a 24-hour gym with Peloton bikes. There’s no pool. How Riggs Fits Into The D.C. Hotel Scene Riggs is at 9th and F Streets NW, opposite the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum, near Ford’s Theatre and about two blocks from Capital One Arena. The White House and National Mall are walkable, and Gallery Place and Metro Center together provide access to all six Metro lines. Penn Quarter is busy. It doesn’t have the historic charm of Georgetown or the residential feel of the West End. But it’s a good spot for museums and meetings in much of downtown. This isn’t at the luxury end of Four Seasons and Hay-Adams. It doesn’t give you the monumental public spaces of the Waldorf Astoria, and it isn’t part of Marriott Bonoy. It’s: a central location a genuinely interesting historic building solid restaurant and bar excellent service and much warmer than you’ll usually find ina ‘design’-oriented hotel GHA Discovery, which I increasingly find useful Bookable through various card travel progams (like American Express Hotel Collection, Bilt Home Away From Home, Capital One Premier Collection, Virtuoso) It’s also frequently much more affordable ($300s and sometimes even $200s) vs the top places Stack the hotel at a great rate through THe Edit, Virtuoso, etc. with breakfast and a $100 credit and it can be one of the better values in the city. Topics on this page