My boyfriend and I just returned from a brief weekend getaway for the New Year's holiday. We live in Harford County, MD, so we're only about 20-30 min from Baltimore's Inner Harbor - we've taken many day trips there and have always enjoyed all the Harbor has to offer. This was one of the only overnighters we've had there recently, and we specfically booked a room at the Hyatt because of its reputation - I have to say, I was somewhat disappointed with certain aspects of the hotel.
Check-in was quick and simple - we provided the front desk with our confirmation number, I.D. and a credit card and were assigned a room on the spot. (We checked-in on 12/30 for two nights, as we had dinner reservations at Flemings the first evening - which we HIGHLY recommend! Awesome service, food, etc etc!)
The room was described to us as a "Queen room with a Harbor view". We were in #702 - a small, triangular, oddly laid out space. The amenities in the room itself were fabulous - a huge, beautifully tiled showed (big enough for two) and a modern looking vanity unit in the bathroom; marble-topped furniture and the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in (although my boyfriend and I both agreed - it was NOT a full queen size, as we have a queen sized bed in our own home) with down pillows and a down comforter. But the room itself was a weird shape, and the furniture felt packed-in - straight ahead after walking in was a large desk, to the right was the mini-bar (which you couldn't open all the way, as the door would hit the desk leg), to the left was the bed, set an an angle with about two feet of room from the foot of the bed to the dresser (the TV was on top of the dresser).
The flat screen TV was grainy (lacking HD) and automatically reset itself to an "OnCommand" menu every time it was shut off - after attempting to use a "Free 5 minute preview" of the TV's music service, without pushing anything we ended up ordering it for $9.99 for only two hours! (Note: When we called the front desk to ask about the music service, the girl replied "Um I think it's for 24 hours but I really don't know" - way to educate the staff...)(Somehow our bill was charged 4 times for the music service...refer to my check-out comments). Movies were grossly overpriced at at least $10.99 a piece, although if you were looking to see something that wasn't available on DVD yet, you could most likely find it here. Basically, if you're electronically inept (which the hotel is obviously hoping for), you'll end up spending a whole heap of money just off the TV. Oh yes, and the lovely little remote stopped working halfway through our stay.
We had an entire wall of large windows that more or less looked out over the hotel itself and at the windows on the other side (if you look at how the hotel is "V"-shaped, you'll see what I mean), but we did have an angular view of the harbor and the adjoining mall.
The room had its own digital thermostat, which was great but set up a bit oddly - if you turned the temp up, the heat triggered on, but if you tried to just turn the head down, the A/C clicked on.
We did sleep in a bit on New Year's Eve, and did not leave the room until around 2:00PM. The maids were servicing other rooms on our floor, so we removed our "Privacy Please" sign and left the hotel. We arrived later that evening only to find our room as we had left it - disheveled bed, dirty towels and all. I called the front desk to request new towels - when the maid came to the door, she only handed me two large towels, though I had asked for a full set. When I asked if she had any small towels, she said "I doubt it" and brought me back one of each smaller size. How does a hotel that large not have an abundance of clean towels on hand?? I also ended up with a monster of a blister from some heels that had not been broken in yet - when I called the front desk to ask for a band-aid, I was a bit surprised to find that you had to purchase them from the Gift Shop, which was already closed. (The next day I bought an 8-pack of crappy travel band-aids for $1.99.)
On New Year's Eve, my boyfriend and I attempted to get into Bistro 300, the smaller of the two restaurants at the hotel (Picsces, the large bar at the top of the hotel, had a special New Year's celebration and only a limited number of guests who paid in advance were allowed in). The host told us they were full for approximately another hour (at 10:30PM) but that he would call our room as soon as there was an opening. By 11:45PM there was no phone call, so we went back downstairs only to find that they had closed for the evening. For lack of better words, we were pissed.
We spent midnight out on one of the bridges that connects the hotel to the adjoining mall so we could watch the fireworks - it was nice, although we were bombarded with an entire wedding party (but hey, it was a wedding and a holiday, we weren't mad).
Check-out was hectic, since it was New Year's Day. They have self check-in/out kiosks, which we used for check-out, but upon seeing extra charges on our bill we had to stand in line to speak to the front desk. Additional charges to the bill totaled over $100.00, to include parking, which was overpriced at $27.00/day, but we knew about that ahead of time; four TV music orders which we did not place; a 12 oz can of cranapple we took from the mini-bar which was $3.50 (an employee of the hotel told us all soda vending machines were removed after the mini-bars were put in each room)....needless to say, my boyfriend disputed the TV music charges. The woman at the front desk just clicked away on her computer without saying a word, handed us a new receipt minus the charges and yelled "Next!"
Overall, our experience here was not the top-notch one we had expected. The staff was not very friendly or experienced, or even knowledgable at that. The room was nice, but for what we paid we expected something much larger. The location was great - we spent most of the day Sunday at Hooters watching the Ravens game (tip: if you're a woman and have never been to Hooters, give it a try - the food is awesome and the waitresses are absolutely adorable!) and were able to grab a cab for $5 to Flemings. Next time, we'll probably stay at the Waterfront Marriott.
hotel reviews