(Metacomment 1:
all of the pictures shown in the review and a few others were/are located
here - if this doesn't work, please send me a PM)
(Metacomment 2: While this stay was several months ago, I’m just getting back to the photos that I took and wanted to provide some context for those who decide to stay there.)
Why Here? In working the planning for a family trip on the East Coast, I had us routed through Baltimore, expecting that I’d pick off a property near to BWI for the lower weekend rates and lower cost of parking. However, I stumbled on this property in one of my searches on hilton.com. At that time, it was still being finished and was listed as a Category 1, so the price was right and I wanted to try out this new Hilton brand.
The Reservation: As noted in a
previous post, as a Category 1 at that time, I was able to book 2 rooms for 7500 points each. Instead of the 60,000 points necessary for what is now a Category 4 property, I only used 15,000 points total.
Location: This property is basically a little over half a mile north of the Inner Harbor on a side street between Charles and St. Paul. If you continue north on Charles, you quickly enter the Mount Vernon neighborhood. So given the renewal that’s been going on in the downtown Baltimore area, it’s a decent location.
The Property/Lobby/Check-In: I got to the property via a rather circuitous route so my arrival time of approximately 9:30 PM didn’t let me get a terribly good look at the building. However, here were two views – one is an evening/night shot and the other is before Irene got to Baltimore (more on that later) (evening was: h2s-16.jpg) (daytime - see below: h2s-48.jpg)
Didn’t have any issues with the check in – but at this point it was only myself instead of the whole family. Because Hurricane Irene was headed up the Atlantic coast, a decision was made in transit from western Pennsylvania to Baltimore to get the family out of harm’s way – so I made the award reservations (and paid the close-in award booking fees) and sent them off earlier that evening out of IAD before I drove up to Baltimore.
I don’t have any shots of the lobby but the hotel sits in a building that’s been renovated and repurposed for a hotel. There are “14” stories that show up on the twin elevators plus a lower level.
Layout: Since this building is repurposed as a hotel and its footprint occupies less than a full city block, there are rooms right adjacent to the elevators and then others that you have to go down the hallways and pick off one corner or side (was: h2s-11.jpg, h2s-12.jpg).
Since I had reserved two rooms, I received the room keys for two rooms – each a little different as shown below – and not adjoining nor directly across the hallway from the other. Also, at that point in time, both rooms smelled fairly new.
Room 802: Having seen the generic Home2 rooms online, they are pretty much as shown on the website: 1 bedroom studio suites. Note that the element used to separate the bed from the sitting/working area is an
orange curtain that only goes the length of the bed (was: h2s-1.jpg; see below: h2s-5.jpg):
In the case of room 802, the bathroom is up next to the room door. The bathroom has a sliding door, a shower-only stall and sits opposite the kitchen area of the room (was: h2s-8.jpg, h2s-10.jpg; see below: h2s-3.jpg):
Room 803: Across the hall was my other room. Here you pass by the 3/4-sized refrigerator and kitchen area in a narrow passageway before you get to the primary part of the studio (was: h2s-17.jpg, h2s-19.jpg; see below: h2s-23.jpg):
After you pass by the sleeping area, you hang a right to go down another passageway to both the closet (enclosed by a curtain) (h2s-30.jpg):
and the bathroom (a little bigger than the one in 802 but not much) (was: h2s-32.jpg):
FWIW, I ended up sleeping in 802.
Breakfast: Around the corner from the Lobby is the breakfast dining area (see below: h2s-47.jpg):
There are places to sit on high stool chairs immediately opposite the food service area as well as some seating at tables that overlook Pleasant Street and you could also eat in the Lounge Area (was: h2s-46.jpg):
My only comment about their breakfast selection is that they had Nutella packages available.
Pool & Fitness & Laundry & Game Room: No pool. This property has, on the lower level, a combined workout/laundry/game room referred to as “Spin 2 Cycle”. The game room area had a large screen and, if I recall correctly, a Wii unit (see below: h2s-40.jpg; was: h2s-41.jpg):
There are some machines and free weights to work out on (h2s-42.jpg):
As well as 3 pairs of washers and dryers to do laundry. I took advantage of them to run some loads – there was no need to have quarters since the machines didn’t require them (h2s-44.jpg):
Other Comments: I had intended to park in their parking. However, probably because of the impending arrival of Irene, I was able to find ample street parking on Pleasant itself immediately in front of the hotel. I don’t recall exactly what time you have to pay for parking again in the morning (8 AM? 9 AM?) but I was on my way before the time came – I wanted to get to DC before Irene let go (and I almost made it! I’ll post a link to the hotel review that follows this one when I get through it to finish at least this part of the story…).
Summary: Since it has been a few months since my stay, I realize that the immediacy of my impressions and memories have faded a little. However, I do recall that I was wondering if this hotel and/or the next would be my home for a while if the incoming storm ended up hitting either Baltimore or DC squarely – and if I might have been extremely foolhardy for not flying out with my family irrespective of my responsibilities at my destination in DC.
However, for this property, I would stay again given its location and the uniqueness of the property within the Hilton family of hotels. At this point, it probably is as close as Hilton will get to a Starwood aloft-type line ‘tho it is an extended stay chain primarily focused on business travelers and not quite as bright and garish. Likely, more business travelers would liken Home2’s to the Four Points but obviously those are not suites – and I’ve not been terribly impressed with those as a business traveler. It directly compares and competes with Marriott’s SpringHill Suites – but, at least from my perspective, doesn’t quite have the same number of properties – currently MR shows over 280 SHS vs. just over 60 Home2’s – nor the same level of exposure.
I would have liked to have gotten my family’s feedback as to how they thought of the property since we’d stayed previously in midtown Manhattan and other places in Pennsylvania. However, that will have to wait for another trip and another time.
David
p.s. See this link to the
following review that describes getting out of this hotel and into my next hotel in DC - where Hurricane Irene finally decided to intervene.