FOUR
POINTS HOTEL
(1) Reviewed for epinons.com 06/29/2011BY SHERATON HAGERSTOWN Hagerstown, Maryland Reviewed by Patrick Killough Review Title: Hotel is no longer Sheraton. Name in 2011: HAGERSTOWN HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER Written: Jun 29 '11 Product Rating: * * * AVERAGE Pros: Easy access from two major US highways. Well managed since October 2010. Affordable. Good food. Cons: Just emerged from bankruptcy. Digging self out of a public relations hole. Aging. Recuperating. The Bottom Line: No longer FOUR POINTS BY SHERATON HAGERSTOWN. In 2011 it is HAGERSTOWN HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER. Historically, a major player in Hagerstown. When something doesn't work, it is quickly fixed. aohcapablanca's Full Review: Four Points by Sheraton Hagerstown As I write, I have submitted two requests to epinions.com to empower me to review under its new name this hotel/convention center at 1910 Dual Highway, Hagerstown, Maryland, southeast of downtown. In effect, I hope to write two reviews! This facility was ably reviewed on March 01, 2006 for epinions by petrescu with confirming same day comment by mrkstvns (Mark). It was in 2006 FOUR POINTS BY SHERATON HAGERSTOWN. No longer. I can confirm that in June 2011, the location is the same and the building and layout are identical to those accurately (but not exhaustively) described in petrescu's review. I urge you to read what she wrote in considerable, accurate detail. I will use petrescu's review as the jumping off point for my own descriptions based on a Wednesday - Sunday June 22- 26 stay that my wife and I made at the same place now called HAGERSTOWN HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER. Architecturally, the building is a mishmash. My impression is that four different designers had created four different buildings and a mad developer had stuck them together. Petrescu in her review very well caught a couple of the contrasting features that endure in 2011: -- (1) a striking lobby and
reception area, flowing naturally into a
large, attractive dining room with an attached but largely masked bar.
This "first impression" space is the hotel at its best, architecturally
and visually, I think.
-- (2) an initial labyrinthine journey, left turn, right turn, left turn, right turn, etc., etc. walk (it felt like a quarter of a mile in some cases) from the reception desk to your room. Ours was Room 149 which was not essentially different in layout and furnishings from the one that petrescu and her husband stayed in five years earlier: king size bed, gargantuan easy chair and matching ottoman, etc. There are, however, at least three other basic features which petrescu did not notice adequately: -- (3) Yes, indeed, there
is, as petrescu guessed, a long corridor at
right angles to the reception desk leading down a row of
interconnecting meeting rooms. That whole section is detached from the
main fortress-like rectangle of lobby, dining room, 106 guest rooms
that make up the structure's core.
My wife and I used those meeting rooms every day as representatives of the Asheville, NC Torch Club to the annual IATC (International Association of Torch Clubs) convention attended by somewhat under 200 persons. We held business meetings up and down that corridor, enjoyed delicious meals, and heard, in those well-lighted rooms with good acoustics, first class prize winning oral educational presentations by torch club members from the USA and Canada. (For IATC see http://www.torch.org). -- (4) Petrescu described
the facility as having only one storey. In
fact it has two storeys. And it has no repeat NO elevators. Why that is
so was explained to me by the current general manager, whose firm, on
behalf of banks repossessing properties, specializes in returning
failed facilities to profitability. But that is a tale for my second,
coming review under the hotel's name as of 2011.
-- (5) Petrescu, who was nursing bronchitis, and her husband apparently stayed in an outside-facing room on the first floor. That means that her view was of one of the parking lots on all four sides of the hotel. Beyond at least one parking lot in 2011 there is a cornfield, visible through a glass corridor door leading out. But, by and large, outside rooms lack memorable views. By contrast, our first floor room in June 2011 faced inward at the reason behind the endless labyrinthine corridors: an enclosed space open to the sky, perhaps 100 yards by 75 yards, whose centerpiece is a medium size curved swimming pool (up to 20 kids can splash merrily in it) flanked by a patio, deck chairs and the like, with grass and landscaped shrubs running right up to the living quarters of hotel guests. From any inward-facing room on the first floor you can also look up one storey to see the wrap-around glass windows of the dining room. As a view that inner courtyard/swimming area composes well. As architecture, it creates the "mother of all labyrinths of corridors." At the moment, the current HAGERSTOWN HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER seems to be pulling itself out of a pit that opened up some time after petrescu was there in 2006. I was told by several sources, including hotel staff and management and members of our convention hosts, the Torch Club of Hagerstown, that an Iranian family bought it as an investment from the SHERATON chain. Under the new owners, it did not prosper, went bankrupt and was acquired by a bank who then turned management over to an American firm specializing in such situations. Currently, that firm runs 14 distressed hotels, I was told. Today's general manager of HAGERSTOWN HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER took charge as recently as October 2010 (coming directly running from a similar but smaller facility in northern Virginia not very far away). The bank has recently sold the hotel to new investors and they, I was told, are very likely to sell it yet again to other investors. Stable? Not in the last couple of years. I am surprised how well HAGERSTOWN HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER is doing under the circumstances. Some signs of confusion: -- The password for the
excellent free WI-FI is still "sheraton."
-- There is no booklet in the bedroom describing hotel services. "We are working on it," a friendly woman told me at the reception desk. -- "And where is the exercise room?" I asked. "Closed for repairs." Still the room where my wife and I lodged was comfortable and clean. I had lots of questions for the front desk people, who were quick to respond to all pleas for help. A bathroom basin stopper was quickly made to plunge as it should to hold water. When petrescu stayed at the then SHERATON in 2006, every room had a small refrigerator. Our room 149 did not. But one was quickly supplied and it worked. Through thick and thin, most of the staff apparently is still in place from SHERATON days. And they are extraordinarily pleasant and helpful. They play a weak hand very well and with dignity and good cheer. More to the point, the Hagerstown Torch Club has been meeting in that hotel very contentedly through one management change after another every month since 1982. The club made arrangements in 2010 with one owner for our complex 2011 convention and feared that all was lost because of the bankruptcy. But the new outside management honored all agreements. I will say more on the history and future of this unusual facility in my planned follow-on review. I am rooting my review of a new organization in one done of THE FOUR POINTS BY SHERATON HAGERSTOWN. The building is the same. The guest rooms appear identically furnished as described by petrescu in 2006. Surprisingly, the old furniture is of good quality and is holding up well. The food was uniformly good in June 2011, though there was not much variety in vegetables. All conference participants had vouchers for breakfast. We could order anything we wanted for breakfast from a menu or go through a lavish buffet (mouth-water link pork sausages stay in my memory). SUGGESTION: Try NOT to book a room on the second floor if you don't want to lug lots of baggage up stairs. Remember: NO ELEVATOR! The pool is open from 0900 to 2100 daily. Kids love it! And I saw a lone adult doing laps one evening. All in all, today's HAGERSTOWN HOTEL & CONVENTION CENTER is emerging as a solidly average, albeit a bit architecturally weird, "machine for living in." The hotel must be doing something right to have retained so many competent, loyal staff. I would stay there again -- but not on the second floor, no sir! Recommended: Yes http://www.epinions.com/review/Four_Points_Sheraton_Hagerstown_MD_21740 _United_States/content_555601858180 |