I've hardly ever stayed at a Sleep-Inn, and I agree with several of the other reviewers on many points of other reviews. We stayed one night in early August based on recommendations from this website. Our room (I believe it was a suite) was large, clean, and comfortable. The beds were also clean and comfortable, with extra pillows. The staff was courteous and attentive, and the free breakfast was pretty good. However we also encountered several issues at the hotel that are definitely worth noting and worth being aware of:
- The hotel turned the A/C off in the hallways on our floor, which made the hallways hot and stuffy (it was about 90 degrees outside). I have never before encountered this at any hotel anywhere. Was this a cost-cutting effort?
- The hotel is several blocks from the Inner Harbor, and unfortunately, the area right at/near the hotel is inhabited by many homeless citizens of Baltimore. I went for a run and encountered one sleeping on a passenger van seat on the sidewalk just 100 yards from the hotel and on the way to the Inner Harbor area. Then, as I was paying the parking meter directly across from the hotel main entrance, I saw that another homeless person was sleeping under a large sheet of cardboard against a brick wall, directly across the street from the hotel's main entrance -about 100 feet from the hotel (if the management/ general manager walks across the street or even looks carefully from the front desk of the hotel, I'd bet they'll learn that this unfortunate person actually lives there under that large sheet of cardboard). Then finally, as we were departing the hotel upon checkout at 9:30 am, another troubled person was literally passed out while partially standing up and while leaning on the brick wall that is right at the entrance of the hotel driveway. At first we thought this might be a gardener looking over the wall at the hotel bushes, but unfortunately. this was definitely not the case - it was a passed out drunk - and again, this was at 9:30 am on a weekday. I understand that the hotel cannot necessarily control this, but there is a police facility nearby, and the hotel staff should more quickly engage them for the safety of the hotel guests. I asked to speak with Ms. Boston about this, but she was not on site at the time.
- The walls of our hotel room seemed very thin, as we could very clearly hear the full conversation on the guests in the room beside us early in the morning.
- The lone elevator in the hotel is painfully slow, and the stairs are not an alternative since if you take them down (as I tried to do to avoid another extended elevator wait), you are led outside the hotel to a small ally at the side of the hotel. You can't get to the lobby by taking the stairs.
- I do agree with a previous post that the person who runs the breakfast area in the morning, while courteous and mostly friendly, is also a bit over-zealous and controlling with how things run in the breakfast area, to the point of nearly being over the top.
- The hotel has a courtesy shuttle, but they would not transport us anywhere in it the night we arrived. We were told by the front desk staff that it was reserved for the many patients at the nearby hospital who stay at the hotel (or whose families stay at the hotel) while receiving treatment. While this is an excellent and impressive gesture by the hotel (my own mother is a two time cancer survivor), I feel that if the courtesy shuttle is not actively in use for that purpose, that it could easily be used for the courtesy of other hotel guests, especially since the hotel is a half mile or so from the Inner Harbor. Another option would be to simply get another courtesy shuttle, or to at least hide the shuttle from view so other non-hospital related guests can't see it. We were instead forced to drive to the Inner Harbor in our own vehicle and after a long day of driving to get to the hotel - too bad.
Also, if you're just staying overnight and leaving the next morning - don't pay the hotel to park. Overnight on-street parking is free, and the meters don't begin until 8 am on weekdays. Instead of paying the hotel $15, we parked on street for free, then paid for meters from 8am until we drove away at 9:30 - much less, about $2 total.
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