Thanks yestravel.

Yes, thanks Yestravel! That’s such a big help. Now, my only problem is that I’ve heard that there are extensive lobby renovations going on at the Fairfax. You now have to enter through a side door and the check in is at a temporary table set up in a meeting room! I haven’t been able to find anything else with such a good price and so close to metro. So I’ll probably stick with it unless anyone has any other suggestions.

My concern would be possibility of noise in your room. What time do they start in the am? Quit in the pm?

I'm late to the conversation, but we stayed at the Lombardy in May and would stay there again. It's a former apartment building (resident mail boxes still line the main hallway), so there's no lobby, but our room had both a dressing area and small dining table which we used for a picnic one rainy night. The restaurant was very good, and the staff (esp. doormen and restaurant staff) were very friendly. In the adjacent building is Ristorante Aperto which we thought was so good we went there twice.

In looking at the photos of the Fairfax decor, I'd say the Lombardy is less "fancy" although for us it was a better location than the Fairfax. We were in town primarily for GWU graduation.

FWIW, we took public transportation to Mount Vernon. Metro plus Fairfax Connector bus.
Easy peasy. If it hadn't been raining, we would have taken the cruise ferry back to the city.