We booked this hotel for a family wedding in Baltimore, we knew that this was a new hotel when we booked, but the phenomenal deals that Hilton was offering its Honors members to stay were too good to pass up. I can't speak to the value of the hotel because we got such a great deal using points. We booked our room, and then subsequent family members booked an additional block of rooms, I think it was 9 all told, this review will cover both our experience, and a bit of information from the others staying in our group.
The hotel has been open about six weeks, and we were visiting at the height of tourist season, on an Orioles two game weekend, so we were expecting crowds, but we were also expecting a hotel that was a bit more equipped to deal with them. The hotel is tucked on a small one way side street, with only an awning to distinguish it from other buildings, the only parking options currently are valet or self-park (ie find a garage yourself and risk it), and there is no dedicated valet, it is apparently a corollary duty of the desk staff, there is no place to pull up and unload baggage except for the one parking space in front of the hotel, so if someone is there before you, you get to block traffic or try to find an on-street spot from which to unload your bags, the staff was not particularly well trained to deal with this, as we were told that we couldn't park in a "pay spot" despite a valet vehicle sitting in the only spot the entire 20 minutes we were checking in. Due to the size of the elevators and the aesthetics of the hotel the only baggage carts available are the SmartCart style that you see for rent at airports, they are good for loading about one large piece of luggage and a carry-on. This seemed highly impractical for what is described as an extended stay hotel, we were finishing out a 10 day trip, with several formal events and even as light packers it took us 2 trips to bring our things up to the room (all the while blocking the 1 parking spot), there are no offers of bell service either. We just beat the rush of people checking in, so while we didn't have much of a wait, others behind us did, it took the desk agent about 5 minutes of logging in to finally get to the screen where she could process our information.
We requested a high floor King bed room, away from the elevators. We got room 1101 out of I think 14 floors, and all of the rooms are near the elevators as it is a narrow site and each floor only has 4-5 rooms. The door was heavy enough to block out all but the loudest hallway and elevator noise. Our room had lots of counter space, with a desk/dresser area and a sizable kitchen area running the length of the room, the work space would be ample to put in a full day's work from the room, and the clothing storage space was generous. The dresser/work area did lack a mirror, which would have allowed it to double as a vanity area for those who don't like to do their hair or makeup in a steamy bathroom, instead I ended up perched on an ottoman in front of a poorly lit full length mirror in the living area of the room. The room had a queen sized pull out sofa and a movable ottoman. The ottoman was tucked under the TV when we entered the room, it was the perfect spot for a luggage rack, which was also apparently eliminated from the room for not matching the aesthetics (none were available at the front desk either). The room was very soothing with grays and greens, it was nicely decorated, but not wholly practical for anyone but a single traveler. The biggest issue we had with the layout was the impracticality of the "barn door" type bathroom door, it seems to be a bit of a trend in boutique hotels of late, to mount a pocket door outside of the wall to function as a bathroom door, some places do this well and the room benefits from the space saving design elements, but this was not one of those places. It seems that there was a design/installation mis-calculation, and the depth of the wall tile was not calculated into the clearance for the "barn door" to close flush with the wall, as a result, the door was off of it's bottom track, leaving about a two inch gap between the wall and the door, and allowing the door to glide open far too easily. This meant no privacy for the person using the bathroom, this flaw was universally commented on by our group (granted, they are a home building sort of group). The bathroom was a decent size, with a stall shower, and wall mounted Neutrogena Rainbath and Shampoo dispensers (one of ours was empty the entire stay). 3 towel hooks were provided and the sink top space was not extravagant but was ample for two of us. The toilet is a water saving dual flush model, unfortunately ours was not very water saving as it ran for about an hour after every fourth flush or so, seems like something that shouldn't happen in a brand new hotel. The bathroom is very white tile, so any housekeeping oversights are quite obvious. Otherwise, we found the roller sheers and roller blackout shade in the room to work nicely as a window covering, it didn't leave the typical hotel room curtain gap, and provided enough room darkening to sleep in on the bright morning after the wedding (we had to provide 2 wake-up calls to my hung-over parents). The other compliment for the room is that it had some of the softest sheets we have yet encountered in a Hilton hotel.
Other hiccups encountered: One of the main reasons the rest of our family elected to stay at this hotel over others was because they told us that their shuttle service would be up and running by the time our group was staying (this was about 6 weeks earlier) and that they could make a shuttle available to take us to the wedding at the Inner Harbor. Upon check-in I was informed that their shuttle van was still broken, and would not be available at all for the weekend. There was quite a bit of confusion about the availability of other shuttles, and one staff person began looking for other options, which was a laudable effort, but which instead of being free, would end up being far more costly than even taking cabs. While she was doing this another staff person was calling different rooms in our group trying to figure out when we needed cars (despite me calling her directly with my room number, and introducing myself and requesting that cabs be called half an hour before our departure) for Friday evening, the end result of the many calls was that when everyone gathered in the lobby the cabs that I had requested she call had not been called at all, so a mad scramble for cabs ensued. Car confusion continued throughout the weekend, despite the best efforts of the staff to provide cab access as readily as possible (including running uphill to a main street in 100 degree weather to hail a cab for my sister and I who were running late for the wedding and in formal wear). The efforts of the staff were very much appreciated, although they were far more effort than just having the functioning shuttle service that was originally offered as a service. Breakfast also ended quite early relative to most Hiltons, it was over at 9 am on the weekend, and the coffee carafes in the lobby were empty as often as not, the breakfast was a fancied up low end hotel breakfast, not as many options as the Hampton, but some fresh options that pleased our light eaters.
The last thing, and I am not sure that there was anything that the staff could have done about it, other than deal with it cheerfully, but upon returning from the wedding around 1 am we stepped into an elevator and found that someone had urinated all over the floor. Charming. We called the front desk when we got to our room and the desk staff actually responded with "Fabulous, we will take care of that right away" without an ounce of sarcasm, which I give them great credit for!
Other observations from family members:
Those on the lower floors found their rooms to be quite loud, and a number of them up to the 4th floor had trouble sleeping due to urban noise. I believe they were in even numbered rooms, we were in an odd numbered room on the back side of the hotel and had no noise issues. My parents also mentioned that they found the noise between rooms to be troublesome with rude neighbors next door, they had a toddler throwing a tantrum and screaming at the top of her lungs for about an hour on Saturday morning, and they could quite clearly hear her and her mother yelling at her. Another relative was pleased with the proximity to the new free Charm City Circulator bus. Others said it took them quite some time to check out around 10 am, I can't vouch for what it looked like at check out time on Sunday. All in all, it was a decent hotel for the space, it was an ok location, their staff seems to be earnest, but it does seem that perhaps they are not getting all of the tools and training they need to make this hotel a success. As a traveler who has lived in hotels for 4 months out of the last 2 years, I would say that the amenities offered outside of this hotel room would make an extended stay a challenge, if you were planning to stay for a long time you would want to prepare most of your meals in your room yourself, which would mean microwavable food for the duration. It is a stylish looking hotel, and hopefully they will iron out the wrinkles, and price the hotel at a price point where people aren't using the elevators as a bathroom, but perhaps not at the same expensive price point of other chain hotels in Baltimore.
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