choptliva

The Renaissance is very well located and seems very nice: right in the inner harbor area. There are also recent threads on the subject:
For example, see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ight=baltimore
and
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ight=baltimore

Cheers,
choptliva

ohmark

In my opinion, the Marriott Waterfront is one of the finest Marriott properties. The views of the harbor and Baltimore are exquisite. The concierge lounge may be the finest one I've visited. The Renaissance is across a busy street from the harbor, but in the center. The Marriott Waterfront is to one side, but right on the water, with a water taxi stop. The Marriott Inner Harbor is nearer Camden Yards ballpark, but neither the location nor the views are as good, in my opinion. If you choose the Waterfront, try to get a corner room on a high floor. You will get a magnificent view in two directions. Also, there are three different banks of elevators going to different floors. If you have access to the concierge lounge, it's best to get a room serviced by the same bank of elevators as the lounge. This will avoid having to return to the main floor and changing to a different bank of elevators.

foodguy

I second all the above--there is plenty of info on the Baltimore locations available by searching this forum. C-lounge at the WF Marriott is definitely one of the best anywhere.

0524

Careful. Southfacing rooms at the Marriott Waterfront overlook a concert tent. The racket from rock concerts can last very late into the night. There's no escaping the noise in southfacing rooms.

robbr

robbr

hnechets

If you do wind up staying at the Marriott Waterfront, make sure you have concierge lounge access. Their Maryland crab cakes are to die for!

...better than I've had in a lot of restaurants elsewhere. So much crab and so little filler, they barely held their shape. Other goodies, too, it is one of the *best* concierge lounges they have.

ohmark

Stayed there May 16, on the 29th floor. Faced south. There was a rap concert going on in the tent. The room windows shook with vibration from the concert, and the boom of the bass was very loud and disturbing. On the other hand, the view of the corner room was stunning, and the concierge lounge was once again excellent.

It's a tough call because it's a great hotel on the one hand, but the concert noise is bad. There's also this: we were told that by law concerts must cease by 11:30 PM. The concert Sunday night was over about 10:45 PM. Since we were watching our stalwart Pistons come from behind to defeat the Nets in game 6, we were quite awake anyway. I had stayed at this hotel about 6-7 times before and this was the first concert taking place while I was there. What a shame that this noise is so disturbing at such a terrific property.

I wonder if Socrates might have some insight as to how long these concerts having been going on for; whether hotel management has any appreciation for how disturbing the music is, even in the top floor rooms; whether managment supported or opposed the idea of the concerts; whether there is anything management can do to end the concerts.

socrates

I'm sorry I don't know how long the concerts have been going on.....but I'm sure the management team of the hotel is unfortunately very aware of the situation but quite often there's little they can do except make their/your position known to the powers that be in the local government authority

ohmark

Socrates; do you have an e-mail address for the GM? He/she probably already knows, but I suppose more complaints would give him/her more ammunition in dealing with the powers that be. At some point,if not already, the noise will hurt business in this otherwise terrific hotel (although I know you prefer the Ren).

yycguy2

I've been in Baltimore for the past 7 weeks on business and have stayed entirely at the Waterfront (I'm sitting in my corner 30ish floor room enjoying the view as I type). All of what people have said as positives ring true (concierge lounge ^ , separate banks of elevators ^ , new and clean hotel and very friendly and accomodating staff ^ ).

There is one very noisy water pump somewhere on the 30-31-32 floors that sounds like a pile driver and jackhammer operating at the same time. It tends to kick in early in the morning when everyone is getting up and having showers. It really jolts you awake when it fires up. I heard it when I was in the higher numbered rooms down one end of the hotel closer to the rooms 3x3x (3032 as an example). I am at the other end this week and don't hear it all. If you like to sleep in avoid that end if you can

Some of my co-workers prefer the Renaissance just down the street as they like to get take-out food and bring it back to their room and they just find it more convenient to stay closer to the restaurants.

One last difference for those who require high speed internet access, not all rooms at the Renaissance have high speed access according to my co-workers. For those of us at the Waterfront, we have yet to have a room without it.

As for the concerts last week, they were all part of the Preakness Week celebrations. There were concerts just about every night somewhere in the city. This week it has quieted down.

socrates

As do I

socrates

Ohmark,

I'm coming up empty (because of the way I'm online right now I have limited access) but I can assure you if you use the links on marriott.com your message will reach the GM (you can also ask to be contacted to confirm receipt of the email if you wish)

rebadc

I just wrapped up a trip in Baltimore and stayed at the Waterfront Hotel.

Everything is top notch, This "is" a Catagorey 5 hotel in my book.

We had to leave at 6:30 am each morning so we missed the breakfest in the concierge lounge.

We were invited to a complementary full breakfest in the resturant each morning at 6:00am.

This hotel gets our business again when we are in town.

Safe Travels
Rebadc

ohmark

Waterfront Marriott is a fine hotel, with glorious views and with one of the best concierge lounges in the Marriott system. The only significant problem is the extreme noise from the rap and rock concerts in the tent next to the hotel, on the waterfront. If you are on the wrong side of the hotel, no matter how high up, the boom of the bass will keep everything in your room a rockin till about 11 p.m. . Apparently the concerts are mainly in the summer.