What I find most surprising about this property is that there are only two reviews before mine. There is a visitors' book filled with very positive comments from the many guests who have stayed there previously . This is really gratifying for the owner but doesn't help people when trying to decide whether or not to book this property and have only the information on the web to help them.

We stayed in October 2015 and were extremely fortunate with the weather; in fact it was really hot with beautiful blue skies. Colin our host had thoughtfully left a whole stack of bottled water for us; very welcome indeed.

We had spent several days in NY prior to arriving in Washington and arrived into the main railway station. The house is a fairly short cab ride away and is situated on a pleasant tree-lined avenue. Inside there is absolutely everything you need; a well-equipped kitchen to enable you to stay in and make meals should you so wish (augmented by a BBQ outside on the porch), washing/drying facilities and fast free wifi.

The house was scrupulously clean, the beds very comfortable and there was a plentiful supply of high quality towels in a cupboard on the landing upstairs. Bathrooms were very well appointed with good flow rate to the showers. (We have stayed in some hotels where you are lucky if you get a trickle of water from the showers!).

On our first day we walked into Washington and along the monuments walk. It is walkable - depending on your level of mobility. After that we used the metro as it saved time. The nearest metro is at Shaw-Howard U on the green or yellow lines and NOT Rhode Island Avenue on the red line. The system is very easy to use. You buy an initial card/ticket which comes loaded with around $8 of travel. When you exit the system take a note from the readout how much is left on the card as you may need to top up via the machines for that purpose (like the Oyster card in London).

If you turn left when leaving the house there are loads of restaurants to choose from on U Street a short walk away; a real multi-cultural, multi-ethnic eating experience is available. You can have a taste of virtually any type of cuisine from anywhere on the planet. For those coming next year or later there will be even more to choose from as this area is very much "up and coming" and more chefs and restaurants are choosing to site themselves here. One of the venues - Ben's Chili Bowl - is famous not only because it has been there since 1958 but has hosted t