Motel 6 Baltimore, MD — Hotel in Baltimore

My experience started with an ungracious welcome by an agitated man who barked at me for a suspicious cash deposit. He refused my card though it was the same I'd already paid to book the room with. Red flags were waving and I shouldn't have ignored them. However, I justified his behavior given the area is a bit rough around the edges and he may deal with difficult individuals. He was likely the owner from the other reviews I read later.

After getting past that initial hurdle it then turned into him being agitated and borderline argumentative, seemingly finding it difficult to believe I had traveled solo and was alone in the room. He then walked away mid-sentence to break long enough to answer a call from another one of the motel guests and proceed to bark at that man over speakerphone. The man on the phone seemed like he was being cordial and just asking for an extra key. Eventually their call ended and the man did let me proceed with getting a key card to my room.

That's where it became surprisingly worse. I often stay in seemingly less desirable areas as it's just a place to sleep and secure my belongings while I'm out exploring. That being said I've never had a place punch me in the face with cigarette stink the way my room did. Later I found the source of the stench to be the blanket which clearly wasn't washed though at least the sheets seemed to have been changed. Of course the bed scarf was also dirty and had some unknown white dust scattered on it. I promptly rolled that up and put it off to the corner not wanting to sleep near it. Unfortunately the towels also looked to be dirty. If I had to guess I would assume less of an issue of staining and more of an issue that someone just probably used the towels to wipe dirty hands or surfaces and housekeeping, not noticing, decided to fold them up leaving them in the room. To avoid the next guest in the room coming to the same issue, I ensured all the towels were wet and put on the floor clearly to be changed as in any other motel. After seeing the towels I decided against using that shower for fear of no sanitation and likely cross-contamination or infection.

Then there was the blood. Initially I only found blood on the back of the bathroom door, which, based on the splatter pattern and height, appeared to have come from someone's nose. Later I also saw bloody surprises in other parts of the room. There was blood on the ceiling, blood on the floor, and blood on the table, and possibly blood on the light switch though I think that could possibly have been lipstick. Unsanitary either way.

It was late and admittedly I didn't have the time or energy to search last minute for another room elsewhere. Honestly I was only there for one night so I just placed a towel on the table before putting my bag down on it. I then crashed after seeing the sheets were seemingly clean and had no issue outside of some cigarette burn holes.

The next morning I met with a woman who I'm guessing is the owner's daughter. She was a doll, completely night and day to the man from the day before, and helpful with the simple request to hold my bag for a couple of hours as I'd already checked out early.

When I returned in the afternoon to pick up my bag I really wish I would have been able to speak with her again. Instead I returned to find the same agitated man. I tried to mention the blood in the room, just to ensure they would clean it up before the next guest, but he brushed me off saying the room was already cleaned. I tried to point out the room was also supposedly cleaned before I went in and came across all the blood.

Ultimately, I'm sharing this review because I believe people should be aware of the potential exposure to bodily fluids. Especially since the owner seemed unconcerned. Fortunately that guy was the only bad experience I had while in Baltimore. I very much look forward to visiting the city again but definitely will not be staying at this Motel 6. To be clear the 2 stars is because the daughter was courteous and the location is in walking distance...

Motel 6 is my standard motel when traveling. I spent most of 2010 in (Laurel, Md) Motel-6 attending family affairs.

Visiting Johns Hopkins Hospital, I naturally chose Motel 6 in central Baltimore, Md. It's within 2 or 3-miles of anything in north-central Baltimore.

It's an older motel on old US Rt-1 (North Ave and Charles St), and convenient to Baltimore's central financial and commercial institutions between Baltimore Harbor and it's university campuses further North.

The original motel is a tight enclosed U-shaped 2-story complex, with secure off-street parking in the center. Some retail stores and restaurants are several blocks to northwest, with a few more along North Avenue.

The local neighborhood suffers from being part of Baltimore's distressed urban core, too many blocks of empty row-houses that were once a classy vibrant urban culture (and someday will recover, once Baltimore recovers its loss of industry or whatever).

Like all Motel-6's I got a clean comfortable room for a reasonable price. That's what I wanted and received. Staff were very friendly and helpful. Though the ugly night registration access and general lobby glass isolation, warns of night-time neighborhood security issues.

My ground floor (NW) room had the typical M-6 upgraded new wood-panel floor, furniture and bathroom sink/bathroom fixtures. The double bed was familiar and comfortable. (I felt like I was "home").

However, the room felt old and sparse, suffering slightly from shabby repairs, maintenance and lack of expected features.

There was no electrical outlet on the west wall where the TV, phone and work table was located. No clothes rack. Only 1 or 2? chairs. The door frame had been broken and fixed with 4 wood-screws; but was still cracked and never repainted. The toilet seat was loose. No Grab-Bar or anti-slip mat in the shower-tub bottom, or soap-dish.

I realize that the motel was possibly "historic" - along the original US Rt-1 east-coast New York - Baltimore - Washington Highway. And, it has been recently upgraded. That said, it still needs aggressive attention to maintain Motel-6's quality standards.

An older structure, perhaps this Motel-6 should be marketed as "Historic" - touting it's original historic style and urban features ?

I make these comments because Motel-6 is "my" motel, and I want Central Baltimore to succeed, meeting M-6...

This was probably the worst hotel experience I have had in a while. I now know that Motel 6's minimum standards are much lower than I had expected based on pleasant past stays at other locations. ||Let's start with parking. This is the smallest parking lot you will ever find, it is entirely too cramped for anything but the most compact cars. If you have to park here, expect to have your passenger get out as you slowly inch back and forth into a spot. ||The check-in process was in a tiny little booth through bulletproof glass, if that tells you anything about the neighborhood. There I was informed I needed to put down a $50 cash deposit. I don't carry cash but they had an ATM right there in the booth with a $4.99 fee.||We got into the room, it was small, cold and bare bones. There was one small chair, a TV remote that didn't work, and a tiny springy bed with thin, stained sheets. The window was completely covered in graffiti (this Motel 6 is part of Graffiti Alley). The bathroom had a toilet with the seat barely attached, toilet paper just sitting on the counter. The room was freezing, so we put the heater on into the 70s.... it blew cold air throughout the night and we were cold the whole time. ||Overall, this is just a bare bones, uncomfortable place to stay. ||The main benefit of this Motel 6 is that it is relatively close to downtown areas like the Inner Harbor, and the price was low. But you really get what you pay for. We decided to end our stay here early and get a comparably priced place outside of town for the remainder of our stay. The woman at the check out was nice and asked about our stay and why we were leaving early, but I think this place has too many fundamental problems for one person to really help.||This place has forever tarnished the reputation of...