Students housed in the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center are raising concerns about the lack of amenities available to them as opposed to other traditional on-campus housing complexes. 

Residents of the hotel, which houses around 300 students, are complaining about the lack of laundry facilities and common rooms in the hotel as well as reporting problems connecting to Wi-Fi. The hotel reopened this August as upperclassman housing for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years after previously serving as quarantine rooms for students who tested positive for COVID-19. 

The hotel was previously used for residential housing in 2015 and 2016 to meet housing requirements set by the 2010 Campus Plan, while Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Hall was under construction.

In June 2023, Georgetown University began the demolition of Henle Village, an apartment-style complex that housed nearly 450 students. The new Henle Village, an apartment-style complex that will house approximately 780 students, is expected to open at the start of the 2025-2026 academic year, according to an email from the Office of Planning & Facilities Management.  

To accommodate students, rooms in the hotel have been equipped with traditional dorm features such as bunkable beds, dresser drawers, armoire closets and writing desks. Additionally, each room in the hotel has its own bathroom and microfridge. 

Despite being converted to campus housing, many of the amenities that other on-campus students receive from the university, including laundry and common rooms, kitchens and fully functioning Wi-Fi, are still not available to hotel residents. 

“The fact that the laundry room and kitchen haven’t been completed yet is a bit unfair to students, as we are expected to drag our full laundry baskets across buildings in order to wash our clothes in a totally different dorm,” Victoria Ryan (CAS ’26) told The Hoya. 

Ryan said students living in the hotel have also experienced issues connecting to the university Wi-Fi network, SaxaNet. 

“SaxaNet also does not reach hotel dorm rooms, and our room router continually disconnects from the internet, making it impossible to get work done in a single sitting,” Ryan said.  

Construction on hotel laundry and common rooms, as well as kitchens, could not begin until the university received proper work permits, according to an Aug. 20 email obtained by The Hoya from the Residential Living to hotel residents. 

The university expected to receive the work permits for constructing additional facilities on Aug. 24, four days after undergraduate move-in, according to the email. 

The university did not respond in time for publication.

Students like Max Pisarek (SOH ’26) said they enjoy living in the hotel despite the issues reported by other students.

“I love the hotel’s location, personally. While it may be far from Leo’s, there are still plenty of places to get good food in the Leavey Center like Chick-fil-A, Uncommon Grounds and Royal Jacket,” Pisarek said in an interview with The Hoya. “I also go to Yates almost every day and play pickup soccer on Kehoe, which makes living right across the street super convenient.”

Pisarek said living in the hotel was particularly convenient for him because of its proximity to many medical and science buildings and study spaces.

“I have classes in St. Mary’s, Regents Hall, Reiss and the Medical Campus, all less than a five-minute walk from my dorm,” Pisarek said. 

Even though the lack of amenities has made living in the hotel a disappointing experience so far for Ryan, she has hope that the situation will get better over time.

“I am finding it difficult to live in this space that is not fully completed and has not fully been converted into a liveable residential space,” Ryan said. “I do have hope that once the projects are completed, living in the Hotel will become much easier. Hopefully, that’s soon.”