A new boutique hotel is set to open in the Georgetown neighborhood at the end of February.
Canal House, managed under the Marriott Bonvoy chain, will open its doors a few blocks away from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and aims to honor the Georgetown neighborhood’s history and charm. The property will feature 92 guest rooms, 10 specialty suites, a private courtyard, two townhouses attached to the main hotel and a library lounge.
Jessica Suess, area director of sales and marketing at TPG Hotels & Resorts, a company that manages certain Marriott properties, said she hopes the hotel will become a staple in the neighborhood.
“Our catchphrase is ‘the light neighborhood.’ So we want to be a fresh voice and a historic neighborhood,” Suess told The Hoya. “Our demographic is very broad — from business travelers to families to students. A tribute collection is a unique boutique lifestyle brand that kind of welcomes everybody.”
Every room in the hotel features pictures of the canal sourced from the Library of Congress archive, a historic map of Georgetown and a drawing of the “American Beauty” rose, the official flower and oldest state symbol of Washington, D.C.
Suess said incorporating these symbols throughout the hotel serves as a tribute to the region’s design heritage.
“The rose is actually D.C.’s flower, so you’ll see roses throughout the hotel.” Suess said. “So definitely a lot of tie-in to local design as a tribute hotel.”
Mark Namdar, Canal House’s general manager and dining curator, said the bar menu of the C+O Lounge, the hotel’s restaurant, will feature craft cocktails like a Potomac Mule and Virginia whiskey made with locally sourced alcohol and oysters from the Potomac.
“Initially, I was going to do a menu that is very D.C., but then I started looking at the history of the Canal,” Namdar told The Hoya. “There was this tree called pawpaw that used to grow wild in the canal. I said, ‘How can I integrate it in the menu?’ So I am adding it in the form of a sauce.”
Historically, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was a vital transportation route for coal and food, and vendors lined its banks to provide supplies for travelers. Among the most common local foods available were rockfish, oysters and pawpaw fruit sourced from the surrounding area.
Namdar said that although Douglas Development, a Washington-based commercial real estate firm, has owned the building since the 1980s, construction on Canal House only began a year and a half ago.
“Our ownership group, Douglas Development, has owned this office building since the 1980s actually, and then during COVID-19 they had the idea of converting it into a hotel. But they officially broke ground on construction a year and a half ago,” Namdar said.
According to Canal House’s website, room reservation prices range between $300-$400 per night beginning in March. However, prices in May — graduation season for college students in D.C. — currently reach over $1,000.
Suess said the hotel, in partnership with Marriott, is looking forward to booking with the first customers in the upcoming months.
“You can book a room at our hotel with Bonvoy points,” Suess said. “We already got our first reservations for graduation weekend, which is really exciting.”
Lola Mourot (CAS ’25), who visited the hotel, said she felt the King Terrace room set the hotel apart from other hotels in Washington because of its airy atmosphere.
“I have personally never seen a room like that in any hotel in D.C.,” Mourot told The Hoya. “It’s really unique because of how much light it gets, and the view over the canal is really amazing too.”
Suess said Marriott guidelines require the Canal House design to follow certain regulations given its placement within the larger Marriott brand.
“We do have more freedom than an AC Marriott hotel would, but the corporate design team does make sure we’re still staying within brand guidelines,” Suess said. “It’s a collaborative project, and they help us tie in local designs.”
