You Can Have Drinks With the Arresting Officers in the Watergate Scandal — and Then Sleep in the Room Where It Happened

The Watergate hotel, located in Washington, DC, is ready to embrace its scandalous history once again.

The hotel, made famous for the Watergate scandal in 1972 when five men burglarized the Democratic National Committee headquarters located inside the Watergate office complex, is re-launching its "Scandal Room,” more precisely, it’s re-opening room 214 where the break-in happened.

Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel
Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel

"When we re-opened the hotel following our extensive renovation, we didn't plan to have a scandal room and room 214 didn't exist,” Rakel Cohen, owner of The Watergate Hotel, told Travel + Leisure. “We noticed that guests started requesting to stay in what would have been that room, made infamous for the break-in. A year after we decided to renovate the rooms along that line and create room 214 in its original location. We partnered with Lyn Paolo to design it — known for her work in the show “Scandal” — and it continues to be one of our most popular rooms to date."

Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel
Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel

As part of the experience, guests staying in the scandal room will be treated to whiskey flights in the lobby with the two arresting officers the night of the scandal, John Barrett and Paul Leeper.

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Barrett and Leeper, now retired, worked in the plainclothes unit in 1972 and arrested those involved in the infamous break-in. Now, the duo is happy to share insider information with guests.

Beyond the drinks, guests staying in the room will also be delighted by its decor, which has been completely re-done by Lyn Paolo, the costume designer on “Scandal.” The room now contains items from the 1972 period including binoculars, a manual typewriter, a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and a curated book collection.

Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel
Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel

The room is priced at $2,500 a night, but maybe you can dig up some dirt and bribe the owner for a discount.