The $50,000 Inauguration Hotel Suite

The nation spent $2 billion electing its president. But so far no one is willing to spend $50,000 to celebrate the victor.

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Daniel Swartz for W Hotel, Washington D.C.

Still looking for a place to stay for the inauguration? If you’re the type to drop $50,000 on the hotel suite where Jennifer Lopez threw Marc Anthony’s 41st birthday party, the Godfather 2 was filmed, and Marilyn Monroe slept off a long night of policy debates, then we’ve got the place for you—the “Extreme-Wow Suite” at Washington’s W Hotel.

True, the 10th floor, five room “E-Wow” suite is not exactly in tune with the austere post-recession-and-fiscal-cliff atmosphere in DC at the moment. Nor is it a particularly democratic venue in which to mark the somber pageant that memorializes Americans’ selection of one of their fellow citizens to lead them. But it does have panoramic Washington Monument, White House, Treasury Department and inauguration parade route views. And the luxury package includes a private nighttime limousine tour of the national monuments, a reserved table on the roof dining terrace, a post-inauguration en-suite brunch, and massages for two. To top it all off, the deal even comes with a $100,000 jewelry loaner from Washington’s historic Connecticut Avenue jeweler, Tiny Jewel Box, where president Matthew Rosenheim will style you in whatever manner of inaugural fare you like. That includes classy options for men, such as a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch or vintage ruby-diamond-sapphire (read: red, white, and blue) cufflinks. For all you jewelry trivia fans, the Tiny Jewel Box designed the journal and pen that Michelle Obama presented to Laura Bush at the 2009 inauguration.

The hotel’s owners are laying it on thick for a reason: a $91 million renovation shut the doors on Obama’s first inauguration, so they’re looking to make up for lost time. And the hotel does hold a trove of DC history. The building housed the DC stock exchange at the turn-of-the-century. Every Thanksgiving, the Presidentially-pardoned turkeys spend two nights in the hotel before their rendezvous at the Oval Office. Even the elevator ceiling lights are patterned after the constellations above Washington on July 4, 1776.

For now, no one’s biting. Turnout for this year’s inauguration is expected to be only 600,000 to 800,000, less than half last time’s 1.8 million. “This inauguration from the hotel industry perspective is a little slower than a normal second term inauguration,” notes W general manager Edward Baten. And if $50,000 is too much, there’s always the much more restrained and democratic $10,000 “Wow Suite” option. Of course, it’s less Extreme.