Getting Some Shut-eye in My Old Office

When I told a former colleague I was returning to Washington for a few days, she said, “Why don’t you stay in the hotel that used to be our office building?”

What a great idea! This suggestion came from Courtenay Mullen, who visited our bed and breakfast in South Boston, VA., a few months ago.

Great idea, except: Why should I pay my good money to sleep in a building where I used to get paid to sleep from  1992 to 2009 (well for maybe 15 minutes around lunch time.)

The Hampton Inn hotel was built 10  years ago shortly after the Kiplinger Editors building was sold and the company moved to new offices. There was a nice display in the lobby of the new hotel with some photos of founder Willard Kiplinger, Austin Kiplinger and a staff meeting. The main floor, which used to be the company’s art gallery, is filled with tables for breakfast. What were all of those tourists in shorts doing in this historic space? Is some kid spilling cereal where the founder’s typewriter used to be on display?

The first thing I asked the front desk attendants was to have my old office back on the 8th floor. “We can only give you what is available,” one said. (Hey, that’s MY office!)  I got a room on the 7th floor, which used to be occupied by the magazine staff, but I was on the separate newsletter staff.  What? Sleeping with the enemy?

It overlooked an alley, and you could still hear the terrible beeps from the trucks backing up.

One of the elevators didn’t work. Well, that made me feel right at home! The elevator repairmen used to spend so much time with us, I thought they were employees! I wonder if it they still use the same guys?

 I sneaked into the basement and found two meting rooms, one called the Editors Meeting Room and the other the Kiplinger Meeting  Room. I tried to open the door of one. What should be the lead story this week? Was I late for today’s staff meeting? Oh, today was Saturday.  It was locked. The basement even had a swimming pool! Wow.

The neighborhood surrounding 1729 H St. NW seemed to have fallen on hard times. Citibank was still there, but so many office buildings were emptied out when employees could work from home. Even Starbucks was gone. The International Square food court may be kaput, but there is a new one, with mostly Spanish food. The tapas restaurant was fully booked on a Saturday night and the food was quite good. There is still hope!

How did I like the hotel? Well, not much. It was cheap for Washington, in the mid-$200s per night, but the rooms were small, one desk clerk was unfriendly and the breakfast was not very good: watery  oatmeal and rubbery eggs. After reading this article, my former boss, Knight Kiplinger, told me this Hampton Inn has the highest occupancy rate of any Hampton Inn in the country.

Our storied organization, just three blocks from the White House, certainly deserved a Ritz-Carlton or a Four Seasons chain. But that’s OK. It’s lunch time, where’s my sofa? Time for my 15--minute power nap!