06/06/09

WORST HOTEL WE'VE EVER BEEN TO

by ybaneh

I don't give one star to anything very often. Heck, this is the only review that I'm going to spend my valuable time writing about anything in Baltimore. But I want to be clear: NEVER GIVE THIS HORRIBLE BUSINESS YOUR MONEY. ESPECIALLY NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT WITH THEM.

My partner and I wanted to throw a swanky surprise party in the Inner Harbor, for my partner's mother's 60th birthday. We had excellent experiences meeting with staff and signing contracts (the terms of which they changed and we didn't catch it upon signing!). Then everything went downhill.

When we showed up, the event room wasn't ready at the time we'd asked for it to be ready. Further, we couldn't discuss the catering, nor find any of the higher-ups with whom we'd struck agreements. Thus we had to try to coerce the work-a-day members of the staff to help us. We barely were able to start the surprise party successfully.

The food was okay, if wildly overpriced. Ditto the bar. Then, the Intercontinental charged us over a $1000 more than we'd agreed upon for the bar!! Talking with them about this was completely insane. We never, in fact, were able to speak to the event coordinator or other people we'd spoken to prior to the event, and instead had to subject an unrelated day manager to our grievances. He dealt with us in a thoroughly bureaucratic manner--pleasant up front, but then dishonest. After telling us he would not charge us until we'd seen a bill (they had a problem furnishing an itemized bill right away, although they could tell us the lump total, surprisingly), and meeting with us so that we could review it together, he charged our accounts anyway, further to our surprise/dismay.

The hotel also attempted to charge us for rooms our party didn't rent, and the staff was mostly exceptionally rude and not fit to operate an elite hotel. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY HERE, and certainly DON'T EVER TRY TO PLAN AN EVENT HERE.

Intercontinental Harbor Court Hotel will forever, in our minds, be synonymous with near-disaster and rip-off. To be frank, we've had better service at the Motel 6.

• Pros: location
• Cons: abysmal service, exorbitant prices, rampant dishonesty

10/16/06

Not Worth It

by jonjohn21

Paying $200-250/ night at this hotel does not get you a morning newspaper, continental breakfast, ready made coffee, or parking. 2 people checked in to ta room = 1 bath robe and 1 set of towels. The premise was clean, well decorated, and staff were friendly. Rate charged and service provided is not a good value.

Reservation was lost and my bill had someone else's name and address listed. The error was not corrected when the desk was notified upon check in.

Do not tell the hotel, upon check-in, that you are parking a car in the garage associated with the facility. The hotel charges guests $21 a day to park. The garage will charge you $17 a day to park.

I am not likely to return to the InterContinental Harbor Court Baltimore.

I would not recommend it to friends.

• Pros: Location
• Cons: Service to value is poor