Sheraton Silver Spring Hotel (Closed Permanently)

A solid Sheraton hotel in suburban Silver Spring

After spending an evening out in DC, I headed up to Silver Spring to be close to my kin in Tacoma Park for a family function on Sunday morning. Since I knew that I wanted the convenience of being in Maryland, I reserved my room over 8 weeks in advance. While the rest of the family was staying at a nearby hotel, my loyalty to Starwood scored me a $109.65 rate. The Silver Spring Metro is a 10 minute walk away from the hotel. However this particular day, it was very hot and it took closer to 15 minutes to get there. The hotel staff was prepared and made sure that there was a lot of cold water available for guests - three water set ups and chilled bottles of water. It was a simple thing to do, but it was so considerate due to the heat and humidity of the day. I felt welcomed and looked after. Still it’s great to be in walking distance from the Metro station and Union Station is only six stops away on the Red Line. An Uber, by the way, to Downtown DC ran me about $13 each way. When I checked in, I had a nice conversation with the agent and I had commented that the hotel looked very busy. She let me know that they were hosting a wedding as well as having that wedding and another wedding party stay the night, plus there was a large family reunion overnighting there. While a popular location, I didn’t notice any of the activity from my room. I stayed on the club level and had access to the club lounge which included breakfast in the morning and all the cold water and sodas I could want. I would advice anyone who wants to stay there that most of Silver Spring closes before midnight even on the weekends.The area feels very suburban; while there are some good amenities close by, they won’t be open late. For example, the Rite Aid a block away from the Sheraton closes at 10pm every night. Plus, a notable inconvenience was that the lobby Starbucks closed an hour earlier than indicated on Starbucks’ website, but it’s nothing that I would hold against the hotel. It was only a slight disappointment and there was a Starbucks two blocks away. That one was open until 11pm on the weekends. My biggest take away is that this hotel is a great location for being close to my family who live in the Washington metropolitan area, but it’s not my ideal location for an urban adventure in DC. Will I stay here again? Yes, I will have a multitude of family events in this corner of the world and the convenience to the family outweighs my need for city creature comforts. I was happy to find a very comfortable hotel to call home during those visits.