This hotel should be #1 not #2!!!!!

Stayed at the Residence Inn Marriott Inner Harbor for 2 nights in July 2006. I'm a young single traveller on a budget so I usually stay in much more budget accommodations (e.g., Days Inn, Super 8, Travelodge) but decided to splurge for this hotel for the last 2 nights of my extended vacation. Wow!!!! This was easily the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. It's super easy to find in downtown Baltimore. The staff were overly helpful and professional on every occasion. I couldn't believe how short the was was to ALL of the action in the Inner Harbor. It was only a five minutes walk to the Visitor Center, harbor cruises, Ride the Ducks, double-decker trolley, sightseeing tours, millions of restaurants and shopping, historical attractions, and on and on. It couldn't have been more convenient. I walked everywhere!!!! My suite was a corner room and HUGE!!! It wasn't a hotel room, it was a luxurious one bedroom apartment which would probably be thousand of dollars or more per month in San Francisco. I could see part of Oriole Park at Camden Yards from my room. My room had 3 large windows and was super light and airy. The fully stocked kitchen, full living area, separate bedroom, etc... all were large and impressive. I'm used to the standard continental breakfast of bagels and waffles....this hotel ofered that plus hot options such as scrambled eggs, sausage, and breakfast potatoes. Then in the evenings (Monday through Thursday) there was a manager's reception. On my Monday night there they offered 2 delicious soups, salad, yummy crackers, and all types of sodas. That served as a full dinner for me. The breakfast/reception room was beautiful, spacious, and comfortable. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I was sad to leave this hotel and would HIGHLY recommend this hotel. Plus, the BEST part was that I booked early on the Internet for a rate of $113 per night. What a steal!!!!! Well the parking was $25 per night which was ridicuous, but still made for an inexpensive stay overall. Don't miss this hotel!!! It's perfect in every way. Let's make this hotel #1 in Baltimore. Please email with questions. =)

Great Stay at The Residence Inn

Like other reviewers, we also found the Residence Inn to be clean, comfortable, and in a great location two blocks from the Inner Harbor. Everything looked new and modern, and I was able to get a goverment/military rate that was very reasonable, and was the same rete for either a studio or one bedroom.

We arrived on a busy Saturday with an Orioles game going on. Street parking was nonexistent so we opted to use the valet parking at the hotel. $25 was only slightly more than the other area garages charge for overnight parking, and our car was safe and easily retrievable.

We stayed in a one bedroom suite which was spacious and well equipped with everything you could think of in the kitchen and had a pull out couch in the living room which could have accomodated more guests. Our only minor issue was the bedroom bed, which was supposed to be a king size but was more like a queen. We called the front desk and checked and were told our room did indeed have a king. I'm not sure if there was a mistake made or that's what they think is a king. Anyway, we chose not to pursue it further as a queen bed is OK for us and the room was nice otherwise. I'm sure the courteous and professional employees at the front desk would have changed our room if we wanted. Just FYI for those who need a big bed!

Breakfast in the morning was plentiful and tasty with many hot/cold choices. When the breakfast room got crowded, the staff helpfully opened up a conference room across the hall for more seating.

We had no problem hailing a cab in the evening to get to a friend's house. Otherwise we walked wherever we needed. Restaraunts and activites in the Inner Harbor are plentiful. Phillips seafood is hightly recommended!

This will definately be our new place to stay in Baltimore.

Highly recommend

Wonderful hotel. Great staff. Beautiful, clean room.Delicious breakfasts.Only a few blocks from the inner harbor.

Highly recommend the Residence Inn!!

Could not be happier with this hotel! ALL staff were professional, friendly and accomodating. Rooms are nice, large and functional for longer stays with the stove, microwave, fridge and dishwasher. Beds are very comfortable!! Still has "new" feel. A true "home away from home" feel. Keep your car safe in valet parking - too much traffic. Close walk to inner harbor. Taxis also easily available. Great breakfast provided. CVS and Dunkin Donuts next door. Hotel also has a small "market room" off the lobby with ice cream, frozen foods and snacks for purchase. **May want to stay between the hotel and the inner harbor area when walking at night for safety reasons.**

Great Hotel! Awesome Staff!!

Our group stayed here for a convention and had a great time! The one bedroom suites have tons of room and are decorated nicely. The beds are really comfortable compared to most hotels!! The staff was so welcoming and helpful..never a problem! The breakfast was to die for..waffels, sausage, biscuits, fresh fruit, etc. Walking distance to the harbor, restaurants, convention center, shopping, etc. Would highly recommend this hotel to anyone traveling in that area.

Outstanding Stay

We thoroughly enjoyed our three-night stay here. We found the staff uniformly to be friendly and helpful. Being quite a new hotel, everything is new, but it was obvious to us that it is also being well maintained.

Our two-room corner suite on the seventh floor was large and well equipped, and includes a small kitchen area which we did not use. Such small touches as a jar of wrapped candies and a bag of microwavable popcorn made us feel welcome. We hooked up our laptop to the ethernet cable for free high-speed without a hitch. There's a tv set in the bedroom as well as in the large living room-kitchen room.

The full buffet breakfast is very good with quite a variety of food. We were impressed by the fact that there were three employees on duty there, all dressed in white aprons, who moved about constantly to replenish the food, plates and silverware, and to clear the tables. They were very friendly as was our room housekeeper.

There are evening snacks and light meals (e.g. soup and cornbread) available with a schedule posted in each suite. This was our first stay at a Residence Inn, even though we are Marriott "Silvers" and stayed here on points, and we are quite impressed with the amenities offered.

A manager on duty "lurked" and wandered about quite regularly and approached guests, including us, to ask if we were enjoying our stay. We stayed overnight recently in a Marriott property near BWI airport that we concluded had lax or non-existent management. The Residence Inn is positive contrast indeed.

And now a word about "location." While I can understand the concerns expressed by others, all I can say is that the two of us near-senior citizens found the location excellent for several reasons. There is a Dunkin' Donuts next door and a Mickey D's up the street, although with the food offerings in the hotel I don't know that anyone would need them. A few steps further down the block is a drug store with a wide variety of foods, wine, etc.

It's about a two-block walk to the actual Inner Harbor area, and we had no hesitation walking up the fairly major street on which the hotel is located as late as 10:30 p.m.

As far as nearby restaurants, there is a Legal Seafoods within three blocks or so that has a good reputation. There are many restaurants in the touristy Inner Harbor area, including a Ruth's Chris. We wandered over to the McCormick & Schmicks (very mixed reviews on that one) and took advantage of their $1.95 appetizers Happy Hour (3:30 to 6:30 which we had previously enjoyed in Seattle).

There are also multi-storied shopping malls in the vicinity that look like smaller versions of similar malls in Shanghai and Singapore.

As retired leisure travelers we spent a couple of hours in the National Aquarium after walking around the Inner Harbor extensively. It's probably best to visit later in the day as we did when there aren't so many school classes. The second day we hopped a bus within a block of the hotel, bought day passes for about $3.50 each, and spent several hours in the Walters Art Museum, a terrific collection from many eras funded by a philanthropist, then hopped a bus to see Fort McHenry before returning to the hotel.

We used Shuttle Express to get to and from the airport for $20 return trip each. I don't know exactly how much a cab would cost - the hotel and I think a previous poster estimated $25 - and wonder if it was a significant enough saving for two of us to make up for waiting time as they filled the van.

In summary, this hotel met our needs perfectly and it would be our first choice if we return to Baltimore.

Let's spend the night together!

Just a short note to say that this was a wonderful place to stay the night the Rolling Stones came to town. A quick check-in, then off to The Charleston for a fabulous "tasting" style of menu. Wonderful! A quick cab ride back to change into concert gear and then a short walk to Mariner Arena. What a memorable show!

The next morning included a very short walk to the Inner Harbor, then a quick drive to the Walters Art Gallery, lunch at Sasha's and then back to the real world!

The hotel room and staff were wonderful!

My only advice: Baltiimore seems short on taxis. Plan on 20 minutes to get one. Our valet offered and dropped up off for dinner when a taxi never appeared. Thanks again!

OK, but would look elsewhere next time

This hotel wasn't quite what I expected in terms of location, parking, and the usual quality I expect with Marriott. The hotel is located in the inner harbor "area", but the reality is that it's two blocks up, and one block over from the area. While that's not a substantial distance for walking (about 10 mins), there is a noticeable difference in terms of the surrounding environment. This Residence Inn feels more like it's in the city, rather than near the harbor (and no, you cannot see the harbor from this hotel). In fact, when I asked the employee at the front desk if it was safe to walk home at night from the Inner Harbor, she replied "well there's an Orioles game tonight so there will be plenty of people around and you shouldn't have a problem". She was right. On both nights (both game nights) there were plenty of people and we were fine, but I still had an uneasy feeling about the location (which I did not have in the harbor area).

Parking is valet parking only ($25/night). We were unable to retrieve items from the car ourselves, and needed the valet staff to get our car out of parking in order to pull something out of the car. Kind of an inconvenience as it took 30 mins and the staff wasn't too happy about the hassle.

The hotel had only been open for 3 weeks and was definitely very "fresh" looking; however the quality just wasn't there. For instance, the sheets & pillowcases on the beds are rough (and I don't just mean a little). My 7 yr daughter actually asked me why the pillows felt so scratchy. It was seriously noticeable. Housekeeping also seemed somewhat non-existent. We came back from a day out and had some new towels sitting on the couch, but the beds weren't made, trash not taken out, room not vacuumed, etc.

So overall, while we able to stay at the hotel for a decent price ($179/night for 2 Queen Bed Studio), I wouldn't stay here again. Nothing about this hotel spelled "disaster", but the lack of quality, hassle with parking, and semi-questionable location was enough to have me look elsewhere next time.

Great weekend

A group (6) of friends of mine stayed here at the Residence Inn Inner Harbor Sept 2-5. We had a great time. The hotel was excellent. We stayed in a 2 bed, 2 bath suite with a full kitchen and living area. We traveled by taxi (van for 6) from BWI to hotel, costs $25. But when leaving to return to BWI, no vans were able to pick us up. Vans are aloud from BWI to city but not from city to BWI. CAUTION!!!! So we had to use light rail (which wasn't so bad, and cheaper $1.60 person) versus limo $70, or two cabs $50. But to use the light rail we had to carry our luggage about 5 blocks. Average cab ride around city was $10. The hotel's full breakfast was great. We also went to a ballgame during our last day and the hotel gave us a late checkout. The front desk was very accomodating as for calling around for cabs, or offering suggestions of where to eat. The location of the hotel is 2-5 blocks from everything (inner harbor, power plant, visitors center, camden yard, light rail), we even walked to Little Italy. We had the best dinner of the trip at Ceasar's Den. Most of the Italian places have their menus posted outside so you can see what they offer and the cost. Some provide shuttles. Some are very expensive while others very reasonable. We had crabs one day but they put an extra $5 surcharge on the menu because of the hurricane, it has depleted the quanity of crabs, I also heard some of the places have been selling out quick their dinner supply of crabs. So if eating crabs, go early. The water taxi ($8 day) is fun and they give coupons for over thirty places. Lots of 2 for 1 dinner and free drinks. Also look in magazines available for coupons. So don't drink and drive. Not really much parking anywhere. Alot of the bars and restaurants offer happy hour from 4-7 with free buffets, wings, etc. Take advantage of these for late lunch or snack before dinner. One last word, wear good walking shoes because you'll be doing alot of walking. HAVE FUN!!! We did.

Visit if you can! Just came back.

Just came back from the Residence Inn/Inner Harbor. We stayed in a studio suite. The room had normal Residence Inn amenities. The rooms are not luxurious but nice, clean and practical. Great for singles, couples or families. The only two reasons why I gave the hotel an above average instead of excellent were: 1) The view (pretty non-existent from our room) and 2) The bedspreads (or lack of). I can appreciate the fact that the hotel wants to use a no bedspread/comforter policy due to the fact that the bedspreads in hotel rooms are truly unsanitary BUT there were no extra blankets in lieu of the bedspreads. We had to turn off the airconditioner to make up for the fact that we would freeze without proper covering. If I had to chose dirty covering over NO covering....NO covering would win. I can appreciate why they don't have covers...I just wish extra clean blankets were provided. The breakfast was great. Eggs, grits, waffles, cereal, juice, sausage, coffee, danish, yogurt, etc. were all provided for FREE which is a nice perk! The hotel itself is two blocks away from the inner harbor. Loved the location. If you are flying in....don't waste your money on a car. Many things in walking distance or reachable by taxi or water taxi. The hotel staff were very friendly. There is a small sitting area with a television in the lobby which comes in handy when you want to take a break. I would caution readers to be aware of the fact that they are many homeless people in the area of the inner harbor which can be very disheartening to those of you who have a caring heart. Just wanted to prepare you. There is a shopping mall (Harborplace Shopping) two blocks down as well as other retail establishments. For extras there is a CVS next door AND a Dunkin Donuts for all coffee lovers. If you want to make reservations, do it as soon as possible. I think the word is spreading. This hotel is brand new, has kitchen amenities, free breakfast and studio - 2 bedrooms SO it is a hot commodity! Have fun!