Hotel Monaco Baltimore, a Kimpton Hotel

When I was shipped off to Baltimore for a work meeting, I must admit, I wasn’t too excited. Mainly because all I know about Baltimore comes from Serial and The Wire. Then I saw there was an affordable Kimpton property close to where my meeting was, and alas the tides turned!
From the moment I got out of my Über, to the moment I got back in the Über to head to the airport, every member of the hotel staff was super friendly and helpful. The bellhop was quick to great me and direct me to the lobby area, which is on the second floor. Check in was a breeze, and the man pouring wine at the happy hour in the lobby was very welcoming.
Location was awesome! Even though it was a bit cold for this desert dweller, I walked everywhere and felt safe walking at night.
I scheduled breakfast room-​service delivery for 7 – 7:30, and it was right on time. You can also have them print your boarding pass for you with breakfast delivery.
When I checked out, I had about an hour to kill before I had to head to the airport and planned to go explore. I got to the front door before I realized I needed to stash my luggage. The bellhop said he would watch my stuff so I didn’t have to haul it up back to the front desk.
And of course the room was super comfy. Awesome bathroom and shower. If I hadn’t been so nervous for my meeting in the morning, I also would have slept amazingly well in the giant king bed.
Even though my company picked up the tab, the room rate was super reasonable.
Whether you’re in Baltimore for business or pleasure, definitely check out Hotel Monaco!

The hotel is a beautifully restored office building. The rooms are enormous and lovely. I thought the staff were also very attentive and did a great job getting me a room right away. I valeted the car and it was quick and easy. I had a meeting in town and the fast service made it a lot less stressful to get in the room and out to attend to business. The only thing I thought they could improve on were the pillows. They were a bit lumpy, other than that I would say this is a great place to stay in this town.

My wife and I stayed here a few weekend ago. The hotel is just beautiful and has so much history to learn about since it was once the B and O railroad headquarters. The staff was very friendly. You have to valet your car and I think that cost 30 plus dollars a day. We stayed in the spa suite with a soaking tub. The room was big and beautiful and we had plenty of room to relax. There was some dust on the vents that I noticed for being such a nice hotel I thought they would have catch that.
We eat breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant both mornings overall good food. The hotel has a wine hour starting at 5pm, so we grab a glass of wine before heading out for dinner. The hotel is in walking distance of the inner harbor. After we had dinner we come back and grabbed some drinks from the bar.
We were on the seventh room and overnight my wife and I were woken up several times by trucks driving by. Overall our stay was great. We would totally stay here again.

My wife and i stayed here back in September … we loved it we had the Mediterranean spa suite and it was unbelievable. … we were in Baltimore for only one night but we loved the room so much and the price that we wished we could stay for a week! … we will definitely be back as soon as we can … definitely the best hotel in B’more and a true hidden gem we love the Hotel Monaco

This hotel is by far one of my our favorite. High ceiling, room was clean. Complementary humidifier, tooth brush, etc. best of all you can request a pet goldfish for your stay. Also the wine hour with appetizer!

Really great experience here and overall with Kimpton hotels.
Staff was very friendly and answered my questions smoothly, the building itself is beautiful and great that they kept a lot of the historical parks as best they could.
Room size was what you’d expect. But bigger than most hotels I’ve been to. A really solid hotel to stay at if you’re in the Baltimore area.

As much as I wanted to like this hotel unfortunately there were too many problems for me to give them higher than two stars.
The woman who checked us in on Tuesday night was quite cordial. My friend and I requested a high floor and to my delight she put us in a room on the top floor. Unfortunately while high up, the room appeared fairly standard which translates to adequate, nothing special. The big problem that night was that the room was freezing cold. Even though we set the thermostat to 80 degrees, the room never truly warmed up. I called down and asked for slippers since the floor in the bathroom was particularly cold, the same young woman who checked us in informed me that the hotel did not provide slippers but would bring up an extra bathmat to cover the floor, which she did promptly. The temperature outside that night was particularly cold so I gave the hotel a pass for the cold room and maybe I’m old fashioned to expect slippers in a hotel room these days. I held out hope that our stay would improve.
Fortunately the weather warmed up substantially the following day so heat was no longer an issue. But that morning I observed that the bottom sheet on the bed was torn but was confident the housekeeper would notice and change the sheet. That night while turning down the bed I was quite surprised to see the same torn sheet. Once again I rationalized that maybe housekeeping assumed that since the tear was at the edge of the bottom sheet they could get away with it. So again I looked forward to our continued stay.
On the following day, Thanksgiving, we returned to the hotel around 11:30 PM. My friend and I pulled up to the valet parking area which appeared to be deserted. After lingering some time with no one in sight I finally went inside to find an attendant while my friend waited outside by the car. Ultimately I located two attendants on the second floor by the check-​in desk. It was Thanksgiving night so who could be upset with the parking attendants celebrating a bit.
Friday night we returned to the hotel around the same time, 11:30 PM and once again no parking attendants. This time I went straight to the desk to complain. Before I even finished explaining the problem the manager deducted the unreasonably high valet charge ($ 38 for overnight, clearly he acknowledged the major error in service.
The final insult came that night when we returned to our room to discover that housekeeping had never stepped foot into the room. The response when we called down to complain was an offer to send someone to do a «light refreshing in the room» which we declined as we were tired and just wanted to go to sleep.
While the exterior and lobby of the hotel are very pretty, even grand, and the restaurant quite pleasant it doesn’t come close to making up for a mediocre room and seriously sub-​standard service.

I recently stayed in this this hotel for two nights, it is beautiful with rich history. However the service was terrible. My boyfriend and I checked in and were given keys to our suite. Upon arriving in the room, we quickly discovered that this was not the room I paid for. He placed us in a standard room, when we booked a spa premier room, in which was significantly more.
I chose this room because of its beautiful Fuji tub, so was disappointed.
Went back to the desk, to be served by the same fellow who assisted us earlier. He was not sympathetic, did not apologize. Just took the keys from me and handed me two comp «continental breakfasts… Without saying anything. (The hotel offers $ 1 continental breakfasts)
He said «let me see if we have one available» I thought, «if you have one?» This is what I was booked for, now I assume that he placed us in the wrong room on purpose, hoping we wouldn’t notice.
A few minutes later he located one, called who I assume was house keeping, to ask if the room was ready. It was, or so we thought. Upon arriving in the new room… Which was beautiful but not clean. The tub I was so looking forward too still had water in it, the water had hair in it, as well as hair was around the tub itself.
We went back down, as we planned on attending the free wine and appetizer hour, in which there were no appetizers and no where to sit. The man serving the wine watched me walk around looking for one, and did not greet me or offer me a glass.
While doing this my boyfriend spoke to front desk, same fellow again. He said he would send someone up, again wasn’t very sympathetic.
We headed back up to the room as we missed out on the wine hour. Waited for someone to arrive to fix the tub, about 20 minutes later a young man arrived with a towel and spray bottle in hand… Mumbled something and just walked in the bathroom, fumbled around there for a bit. Walked back out and went for the door, without saying anything. My boyfriend had to ask «everything good to go»? He said «yeah» and walked out… Not exactly professional by any stretch.
To make matters worse because of this we were late for our dinner reservation at a restaurant.
A few other things that should be mentioned. The elevators were also very touchy, they wouldn’t register the floor when the button was pushed sometimes and other guests were having issues with that as well.
Some high points…
*The building itself is worth the stay! Beautiful and historic. Gorgeous original staircases, detailed ceilings, gold accents. Lobby is warm and inviting, with lovely décor and fireplace. Building is also leed certified and pet friendly :)
*Valet service was good, the attendants were friendly and accommodating. Timing wasn’t the best.
*The night/​early am shift front desk person upon our check out was pleasant and helpful.
Overall, not a great first experience at this hotel, I had high expectations due to its star rating and Kimpton’s reputation, but came up short. Not sure if I will be staying with Kimpton in the future.

This was my first time staying at a Kimpton hotel and I was not disappointed!
The hotel is beautiful. It used to be an old train station and the marble décor is absolutely stunning. The rooms themselves were spacious and clean and the bathrooms were also pretty big.
I loved that the heat was blasting as soon as you walked into the lobby (it was in the 50s when we visited Baltimore and we are from California). I also loved the fireplace on the left side of the concierge desk, and free happy hour every day at 5!
My only real complaint is that we ordered coffee and tea to the room, and it ended up being almost 30 bucks with a 5 dollar delivery charge and tip included (we didn’t see the tip was included until after and also tipped room service on top of this). That’s a little ridiculous for two beverages!
Sidenote — the restaurant attached the the hotel had the worst service ever!

I really, really wanted to like this hotel more than I did. The exterior is gorgeous as is the lobby and common areas. However my room itself was a let-​down; clean but ragged and worn, in desperate need of a makeover. The hotel staff was great, very friendly yet efficient. Service at the restaurant was slow even though it was not crowded at all but we enjoyed the food and signature cocktails we ordered. Did not bring a pet, but impressed that it is a pet-​friendly property. Enjoyed seeing other furry critters, as I always miss mine when traveling.
What was most disappointing is that I inquired ahead of time about booking a spa service, my travel indulgence to myself whenever I’m away. I was told that for the time period of my stay (mid-​week) I did not have to make a reservation ahead, I could call the morning of service to choose a time. That is not the way I normally handle these things but figured the ‘expert’ had just assured me of the process so I did as instructed. Bad move; there was nothing available for any of the days of my stay! Sorry Hotel Monaco, you lost me there.

My wife and went back 1 year after our wedding here. The staff was very friendly and went the extra mile to take care of us. Thanks to the staff, and especially Vernon, the front office manager, for making the visit special.

My husband and I stayed at the Hotel Monaco, along with several of our friends, for a wedding weekend in Baltimore. We got a decent room block rate on a lovely room, and had a very pleasant stay.
I made our reservation over the phone and found the Kimpton crew friendly and easy to talk to throughout the process. We missed the room block rate for our first night before the couple opened up more rooms, and were able to get the cheaper rate applied without any problem when we called again. I also mentioned that we were celebrating our anniversary that weekend (mostly true – it was the Monday), and the hotel sent us a bottle of champagne and a full-​on dessert of rich, tasty chocolate peanut butter cakes.
The hotel was attractive, definitely renovated but done up in a classically opulent style. I guess the hotel is in the old B & O Railroad building – I must not be the only person who thinks of Monopoly when I hear this, because there were at least a couple Monopoly-​related flourishes in the hotel («Monopolizing My Doom – Do Not Disturb»). It had a historically salient feel that I enjoyed.
Our room was comfortable, pretty, and clean, with a nice bed and a decent view – not that we got much use out of that, as we were in for a dim, rainy weekend. The Hotel Monaco was a great place to be stuck, though, when there weren’t wedding events going on. We made two visits to the B & O restaurant, and I liked that place a lot, both for food and drink. There was wine in the lobby at happy hour, which we took advantage of at check-​in. If the weather were better, the location would’ve been convenient, but that didn’t end up mattering, unfortunately.
Staff was pleasant and everything went smoothly overall. I guess cheaper parking would’ve been nice (something like $ 37 for overnight), but no real complaints. I’d recommend Hotel Monaco if you’re looking for a place to stay in Baltimore. I’ll keep it in mind next time we make this trip.

One of the most beautiful hotels I have ever visited.
Beautiful lobby, great history, friendly staff, comfortable and luxurious rooms.
Where else can you grab a handful of Goetze’s Caramel Cream upon check-​in?
Great downtown location. Walking distance to the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards.
I am a Hotel Monaco and Kimpton fan for sure!
Can I move in?!

The Hotel Monaco team was so helpful throughout our entire visit over Labor Day weekend. We brought our English Bulldog along with us (yay pet-​friendly hotels!) and they allowed an early check in to make sure we could get him situated and comfortable. We were easily walking distance to the inner harbor (half a mile?) — it was pretty warm out, so make sure you walk on the shady side of the streets if you venture out in summer!
The immediate blocks around the hotel werent the best — lots of homeless people and a few cops on corners at night time… but my guy and I stuck together whenever we went out in the evenings and we were fine.
We also are at the restaurant in the hotel — my guy had a burger and I had the brussel sprouts with some cocktails — if you’ve OD’ed on local crab… definitely eating at the downstairs restaurant will be a delicious detour.
Hotel Monaco offers a wine hour from 5−6pm… we indulged one night and made new friends in the lobby over a glass of sangria — it was lovely!
Staff was incredibly friendly (as was everyone in Baltimore!) and the hotel was immaculately clean, even with all the furry friends running around!
We are staying in Hotel Monaco for our wedding in Portland, Oregon next year — and after this visit to the Baltimore location, we’re thrilled with our choice in supporting such a fantastic place!

I can’t believe for all the times I have stayed at this gorgeous hotel I’ve yet to do a review. This one is long overdue and since I stayed here again last week I figured now is the time.
This hotel is stunning and at one time was the headquarters for B&O Railroad. I have stayed at quite a few Kimpton properties (to include numerous Monaco’s) and the entrance to the Baltimore Monaco may be the most beautiful.
The staff… everything you would expect from a Kimpton Property… Valet, Check-​In, Housekeeping, etc… all go above and beyond to ensure that you are satisfied and enjoy the Kimpton experience. This is what truly sets Kimpton’s apart from all others. Caitlin was awesome and it was so nice of her to send along my welcoming gift too.
The rooms are beautiful and very spacious too… the beds are extremely comfortable… the bathrooms huge and very modern. They also have a decent exercise room that does the trick…

The Hotel Monaco is a beautiful historic place with all the grandeur of it’s 4 – 5 star neighbors. The staff are super friendly and get an A+ for customer service. The BEST part is that they are 100 percent DOG FRIENDLY! It was so nice to see so many dogs coming and going during our stay. If your a dog owner, I highly recommend. Fyi, the check in desk is on second floor, one elevator floor up.

Oh so fancy…
Nice big room.
It’s clean.
High ceilings.
A bathroom big enough where you can break dance.
Ric Flair robes in the closet. (And a subsequent Instagram video).
Comfortable beds.
Valet parking.
Close to many shops being in the Downtown area of Baltimore.
Did I mention the Ric Flair robes in the closet.
BTW, Baltimore is much prettier than Hampton Roads. They win.
Me likes Monaco. Me wants to go back.

We visited recently with high hopes and expectations. Our room was very nice. Huge and well kept.
In the middle of the night our AC went out. It was a sweltering 79 to 80 degrees from about 2 am on. We could have called maintenance or asked for a new room but for our daughter who was managing to sleep through it and had two interviews the next morning.
We reported the issue first thing in the morning and suggested they address it before reletting the room. When we checked out the desk clerk was most apologetic and offered up that the manager would be calling us about our experience. Never ever got a call. What horrific customer service from a chain with such a good reputation.
We’ll not visit this property again.

The building is gorgeous. Really it is.
The majority of the staff we encountered were friendly and accommodating.
Room was clean and updated.
One gripe– I was told they swipe your card for $ 75/​night for incidentals (which is reversed) and is the norm at may hotels I visit. We stayed 3 nights– and it was swiped for $ 765. A slip of the finger maybe? When I brought it to the desk’s attention, she told me not to worry as it is reversed if nothing was damaged… which I understood but I didn’t get an explanation or reversal for the original swipe (which should have been more like $ 225) at that moment.
The location was ok, it required a car at night as it wasn’t right in the heart of the action.

I really like how all hotel monacos are in historical buildings. This one is so beautiful. The hotel overall was ok. I asked for a room with a roll in shower for my husband and ended up with an accessible room with a normal bathroom that was really no different from a regular bathroom outside of grab bars. Oh well. The room also offered a doorbell and some lower items for someone who would need that feature. Overall a clean room and mid day they surprised us with some fresh fruit that was ok. I forgot my flatiron and they lent me one from housekeeping. Worked out well! All employees were kind except for one valet guy that couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t want to walk a few blocks to the ballgame. (Duh-​its called handicap$. Kind of thought that was ignorant. Do your job-​get us a taxi.

Kimpton hotels are the best hotels! I’ve been to a few and I’ve never been disappointed. Definitely sign up for karma rewards! You’ll get free breakfast and wifi.
As a side note, it’s very vibrant and hip.

Stunning.
I have no idea how the Kimpton chain has the ability to take historical buildings and turn them into Hotel Monacos, but they done did it again.
I believe this was the National Rail HQ from the mid 1880s, and the Monaco has preserved all of the gilded glory of its former digs.
The rooms are appointed in rich tones and leather, with subtle modern flair –the art is all post modern surrealism or bright abstracts juxtaposed against leather quilted bedframes, antique chairs and trunk end tables.
Huge marble showers, chevron print carpet and as with all Kimpton’s– impeccable service.
The only place I’m likely to stay in B’more.

What is up with the no locks on the bathroom door? Although I was only with my wife and son, I felt like I had no privacy. My son would constantly come over and slide the door wide open. He had a blast with it, but I sure didn’t. Sitting on the toilet while he runs over and slides it open and runs away laughing was not a hit in my books. But, I have to say, it was rather cute seeing him do it, but it was also very embarassing and got annoying after awhile. Wife also had a really good laugh too, but I still would like locks on my bathroom door.
What I did like was the fact that they have a wine hour at this hotel. I believe it was at 5? It’s in the main lobby of the hotel. You come down, get a glass of wine or cocktail, grab some snacks (flatbreads, goldfish, fruit, etc), and just chill on the sofas. The guy serving the wine was very nice. He even went and got my son a popsicle from the hotel freezer. Also, another plus was the décor. It was a very clean and upkept hotel. The valet guys were also great! They were very nice and fast at getting the vehicle when needed.
I did have one little misshap that got me pretty upset for a good portion of the night. Wife and I wanted oysters and asked the guy up front if he could make us reservations at a specific restaurant. The person said that Sunday nights aren’t busy and we wouldn’t need it. We got to the restaurant and there was an hour wait before we could even be sat. UGH. I wish he would have just made the reservations for us. We would have avoiding the whole fiasco of trying to find other restaurants that would seat us right away.
Oh, and wife booked the aquarium package which included a fish in the room. It was cool at first, but not even a full night past and the fish died! It just sat there on the counter and when we got back to our hotel for the night, we just saw it floating on its back. It’s not like my son played with the water or anything. He didn’t even get a chance to play with the fish. It’s a good thing he’s very young because that could be pretty dramatic for a child that was old enough to remember and comprehend their surroundings.
I know Kimpton hotels are supposed to be Amazing. I’ve heard and read great reviews, but this one just didn’t cut it for me. Maybe another kimpton elsewhere would?
Overall: I would probably be back if they put locks on the bathroom door, but until then, I will have to check out other Baltimore Hotels.