Residence Inn Baltimore Downtown Inner Harbor : Hotel Review

Residence Inn Baltimore Downtown Inner Harbor

Where: Downtown Baltimore, Maryland (about a 5 minute walk to the Inner Harbor)

When: March 2014

Who: 2 adults & 2 elementary school-aged kids

The Hotel:

We spent a Saturday night at the this link is what I found at the time of this writing, but when we applied it was 70,000 bonus points).  This hotel was a good value because the annual fee is $85, and this hotel was going for around $185 + tax on the night that we stayed.

We were given a 2 Queen Bed Studio (no upgrade this time…boooo).  Last time we stayed at this same hotel (about 7 years ago), we were given a huge 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite.  No luck this time (I didn’t ask though).  The room was large enough for the 4 of us to spread out.  It had a kitchen area that we did not use at all.  There was a pull-out sofabed for the American Girl dolls to sleep in too.  We barely spent any time in the hotel, but it was clean, albeit basic.

The hotel (like all Residence Inns) came with a free breakfast.  Although these types of breakfast spreads aren’t always the best, this one was decent & had a good amount of choices.  For a family, it is nice to have a hotel that comes with breakfast because it is convenient, easy, generally quick, and can save some significant money.  My kids love the kinds of things that this breakfast offered (cereal, waffles with whipped cream & chocolate chips, toast, yogurt, and juices).  They also had eggs, sausage, and biscuits.  The coffee was available in the lobby all day.

The Location:

This is where the review is going to get mixed.  The relative location of this hotel is good.  It is within walking distance to the Inner Harbor area (a pretty short walk).  However, the exact area of the hotel is a bit seedy, especially at night.  Now, you might just say that is Baltimore (and I would guess that you’ve watched The Wire – if not, go watch it right now, it’s the best).  However, there are other hotels that are in better exact locations.

The worst part of the whole review is coming now….the noise! I don’t know if it’s something about the insulation or just the noisiness of the general area, but it was LOUD at night.  Like seriously LOUD.  I remembered this from the first time we stayed here, but I thought (hoped!) it was a fluke.  Wrong.  It was a hard to sleep kind of loud.  Sirens and people screaming in the streets. Bachelorette parties and car alarms.  And I forgot the melatonin.  Good thing the kids can sleep through anything (see this if you don’t believe me).