TransCon1

I had asked a qustion about Springhill back in November, but failed to update with a report back. I am supplying that here.

The first visit in November to the SpringHill Inner Harbor Baltimore was my first experience with a Springhill Suites. Although I am a Marriott Rewards Gold, I am mostly a Hilton guy (Hilton Honors VIP Diamond for the past three years), I was on a job interview with a major Baltimore company, and they selected the hotel. It really was a pleasant surprise. The room was spacious and clean. I liked having (sort of) two rooms. The furnishings and finish is more like a Courtyard or a Hampton Inn than an Embassy Suites or a Homewood Suite, with which I am more familiar.

Service was very friendly and efficient. No recognition of my Marriott Rewards status, but my profile preference for a room on a high floor away from the elevator seems to have been noted on the first and third visits -- on the second stay I was smack in front of the elevators. Breakfast was the usual deal with oatmeal, eggs (small cheese omlets), ham, and usual breads, waffles, coffee, juice, etc. No problems there, but nothing exciting. The business center was nice, free and everything worked (computer and printer is what I used). It was only "occupied" and unavailable once in three trips.

There are lots of restaurants/drug store / Dunkin Doughnuts, etc. around the hotel. The front desk gave me a stack of menus for delivery places and used them on the last visit. Decent Chinese right around the corner, but it was snowing with an inch or two on the ground already at dinner time. So nice to have a delivery.

The last visit, I asked for and received an upgrade to a corner suite. I was not prepared for how large it was -- it was huge. It also made a lot more sense to have two TVs in a room this large. The regular rooms practically have the two TVs next to each other. This upgrade followed a positive review on TripAdvisor and the prospect that I was going to be spending a lot of time at the hotel is I got the job I was interviewing for. I am also Marriott Gold.

Despite nearly 40 individual interviews (I am not kidding . . . this after being unemployed for nearly two years) and three trips to Baltimore (last visit was two days), I didn't get the job. I found out the the manager mentioned my TripAdvisor review to the company and the hiring manager commented on it in our talks. It was a positive review and not the end of the world to have it disclosed, but not really the level privacy and discretion that I would have expected from the manager.

Anyway, I probably will not be back to this property, but I have formed a positive view of the brand and will look out for it when i travel.