Graduate Annapolis

I am a Hilton Honors member (Gold) and my husband is a Diamond member, with hundreds of stays for work. I have never left a negative review for a Hilton property until now. I reserved 2 connecting rooms to be close to the venues for my son’s wedding. The king suite was extremely musty smelling. Smelled like the basement of an old house. No other options for our 5 night stay (was shown another room on different floor - same corner and it too was musty and didn’t have the connecting room). Previous reviews show same complaint. They sent up a technician after check-in who sprayed a bunch of foam into the vent and added some tablets to the water at the bottom of the unit. Result was musty smelling lemon air. We dreaded going back into the room each day. When we got home, all of our clothes and belongings smelled like the room. I had to wash stuff twice to get the smell out. Dresses and suits are still hanging in my garage to air out enough to take to the dry cleaners. I immediately contacted Hilton and filed a complaint. This is unacceptable. They knew they had a problem (pretended they didn’t know - second technician told me they absolutely know and actually have some rooms offline for this very issue). They definitely should not have had this room in service. I left several messages for the manager, who didn’t call me back. I finally got a hold of him when he was there. Their decision was to give me 100K points. I spent $1300 plus over 500K points for this reservation. I can’t imagine breathing that air was healthy. I will say that the rooms are well appointed and clean. But the smell absolutely ruined it for us.

The hotel is better than it appears on the website photos. It is an old building that has been well renovated by Hilton. Positives Room is very clean. Mattress is very firm - comfortable - and sheets are fine. Lots of storage space and an empty mini frig so you can put your own things in there. Good counter space. Bathroom lighting is good. The room decor is not as hideous in color cacophony as it looks to be on the website. Location is excellent -- on West. St, about a 6 minute walk to the main drag and about a 15 min walk to the marina dock and restaurants. The gym is excellently equipped and very large; contrary to a review which said that you could not fit 4 people in there. It is a great hotel gym. Negatives Parking is expensive. Shower is a tub, not a walk in, and the tub is incredibly slippery. There is no catch on the drain and I lost an inexpensive ring that slid off my finger right down the drain. "Breakfast included" means that you have a $12.50 credit at a little shop in the lobby that sells breakfast sandwiches and beverages, not a full breakfast. Most rooms overlook the inner courtyard which is a large meeting / party room. The hotel hosts a lot of weddings so there is a lot of loud noise on every weekend night. The rooms around the inner courtyard have their window on the courtyard and the drapes are not very thick so at night your room interior is open viewing to anyone walking along the inner courtyard corridors on every floor.

To sum up the Graduate Annapolis by Hilton my Uber driver as we pulled in said “wow this place is so beautiful”. I was greeted at check in by Ebony (who was wonderful, kind, friendly and professional. She even ran across the lobby to help me at the elevator. Along with Ebony was John, Austin and Stevie at the front desk who were so helpful. All these folks will help point you in the direction of the many great Annapolis food choices as well as the dozens of great places Annapolis has to offer including the US Naval Academy. Walking into my room the ambiance and vibe of this hotel is nothing short of awesome especially for a “Naval History” enthusiast. All the rooms at The Graduate have been refurbished so there is no wear and tear, it’s all new and beautiful. I stayed in a room with a balcony and this room was creatively decorated with a “Naval Academy” theme. Beside the paintings of cutters and original wallpapering was a portrait of Roger Stabauch. My balcony was huge with comfortable outdoor furniture and a gorgeous view of indigenous Maryland greenery. I had plenty of storage space with a nice set up for morning coffee or tea. The bathroom had a nice clean shower and tub. It had plenty of outlets and counter space. Downstairs I could get my choice of coffee, danish or breakfast at Poindexter’s starting at 6am. After 1600 (4pm) The Graduate has a great bar where you can find appetizers or dinner until midnight. If you need valet or parking The Graduate provides both. This is a great place to stay for business or pleasure. I’m glad I chose The Graduate Annapolis by Hilton.

Just spent the weekend in Annapolis at the Graduate Hotel. Overall, it was a good stay. Room was clean and a good size. We had a king room with the balcony. The balcony was private and it was nice to sit out there for our morning coffee and at night after sightseeing. The rooms are a little dated structurally. Low bathroom ceiling. But quiet and bed was comfortable. It's walking distance to the Dock but you can take the free Annapolis shuttle which comes every 10-15 minutes right outside the hotel. Valet service was outstanding. Nice little coffee stand for morning coffee purchase. For some reason the bar and restaurant closed on Friday at 9pm for floor waxing. Odd time for that. But plenty of other options elsewhere. We'd stay here again.

The hotel itself was a wonderful surprise with amazing comfortable and clean rooms. The majority of the staff, however was extremely unfriendly and made us feel like it was a burden to ask questions. This was especially true for the lady working at the Poindexter to go Cafe.