Last time I stayed in Bmore, it was at the Residence Inn about a half mile up the harbor. I wanted to stay here, but was turned off by the location, as it seemed far off the inner harbor. This was well before I knew Harbor East existed. Anyway, I finally got my chance to stay, and found myself wishing I had stayed at the RI.
The location is great; right off the freeway, walking distance to Little Italy (terrible food - dont waste your $), Harbor East & the rest of the Inner Harbor. There's valet parking for $30something a night I believe & you can also brave parking on the streets behind the hotel for free.
This place passes all the surface test, nice lobby, cool brick building, etc. Unfort., when you whittle down deeper, you expose the flaws of the hotel. Not to say that theyre major flaws, just annoyances.
First- I know its a green hotel, but the lighting in the hotel is abysmal. In your room, you have to go through twenty lights to get your room to have sufficient light. You may ask, why not just open the curtains? Well in a perfect world that would be wonderful, but when you're on the first floor & you have a sidewalk right outside your window, that becomes an issue. But on the lights issue, how is it more eco friendly to have 10 dim lights on as opposed to one or two brighter ones? Seems counter productive to me.
Room placement- Being on the first floor by a sidewalk, certainly had plenty of um.... shall I call them disadvantages. First off, the nieghborhood behind the hotel looks like it should be nice. Nice colonial style townhomes... but here's the kicker. Who knows who lives in them. My first day - when I still had the blinds open- I witnessed a person finish up his hard day at "work" and come back home to his townhouse. His work was begging for money on a street corner. I watched him come walking up his stoop, take off his "homeless attire" which underneath revealed normal clothes, then go inside.... wow! Anyway, two nights later I'm trying to get in a power nap and I hear some homeless guy yelling in the street & comes violently knocking on my window. Fantastic! That just happened to be the night that I parked my car on the street by my room.
Another fun caveat of the rooms is the lack of cell coverage. Both sprint & verizon; neither could hold a call longer than 15 seconds, if I was even able to recieve a call!
This is sounding wayyyy to negative. This place really is a nice hotel, just dont stay on the first floor! Also, dont try to deal with the housekeepers.My personal favorite gem of this trip was my first day there, I'm getting ready to shower after sitting in traffic for 4 hours coming down from NJ only to find no shampoo! The housekeeper is next door, here is our exchange
me: do you have any shampoo, there is none in my room
housekeeper (hk): no!
me: what do you mean no? no you dont have any on you?
hk: no! no shampoo in hotel.
me: what, youre telling me that there is no shampoo in the hotel?
hk: no, no shampoo in the hotel.
me: donde esta el shampoo?
hk: no, no shampoo
I immediately went into my room & called the front desk, thinking that this was some bizarre "green hotel" thing. Either that or the housekeeper was on something. Yes there was shampoo in the hotel and someone immediately brought it to me. Seriously, that was the most bizarre thing that I have encountered at a hotel in quite sometime. I was waiting for the hidden cameras to come out and tell me that I'm on some game show.
Even though I've only harped on the bad, this really IS a nice hotel! Seriously, the location couldnt be beat & the staff (minus the housekeeper) were all great. Its just that when compared to the Residence on Light St, I enjoyed my time there much more for some reason.
hotel reviews