The staff at Homewood Suites by Hilton is busy putting the finishing touches on the new hotel set to open in Harbor East in the coming weeks.
The 165-room upscale hotel on South President Street sits next to the 183-room Hilton Garden Inn and will welcome its first guests Sept. 5. Hilton Garden Inn is scheduled to open three to four weeks after Homewood Suites.
“As a company, we?re really excited to be here,” General Manager Michael A. West said during a tour of Homewood Suites on Thursday. “We?re a piece of the puzzle as far as revitalizing the area ? the location is super.”
Homewood Suites targets extended-stay visitors in town for lengthy business projects. Guests stay in Homewood Suites? one- and two-bedroom suites and studios for an average of 14 days.
“For a business person, this is their home away from home,” West said as he walked though a suite with views overlooking Inner Harbor and Little Italy.
Homewood Suites? rooms come equipped with full kitchens complete with utensils to make guests feel at home, Hilton spokeswoman Janella Loaiza said. “In the end, we want our rooms to be comfortable for our guests.”
The hotel provides several free services for guests, including online check-in and Web-based room selection, in-room high-speed Internet access and a grocery shopping service.
Guests also have access to a business center with computers and a copy machine, a library, a meeting room, a game room and the soon-to-open Maryland Athletic Center that?s connected to the hotel.
The 54,000-square-foot health and wellness center is scheduled to open Sept. 21, said John Terpak, the center?s general manager. Hilton and the MAC have established a partnership in which Hilton provides towel service for the center, while the center allows free access to hotel guests.
“Harbor East is growing, and we all feel like we?re partners in this business community,” Terpak said.
Representatives from the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Associationtoured the hotel, checking out the place so they could recommend the location to future visiting conventions.
The Baltimore/Washington region was the fifth most popular destination for travelers worldwide in the first quarter of 2007, with more than 890,000 hotel room nights occupied, according to TravelCLICK, an online marketer for hotels. The region?s average daily hotel room rate increased 5 percent from 2006 to $180.
Homewood Suites honored
Homewood Suites by Hilton, with more than 200 hotels across the county, was recently recognized as “Highest in Guest Satisfaction Among Extended Stay Hotel Chains” in J.D. Power and Associates? 2007 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study. The hotel received top ratings from guests in the areas of check-in/check-out, guest room, hotel services, hotel facilities, and costs and fees.
