Gellie E.
Yelp
I had a pleasant experience here but not quite five stars.
Conveniently located right across from campus, Hotel UMD stands out from the other hotel/motel options in College Park. It brands itself as a luxury hotel and lives up to the name. The design of the hotel is sleek and modern. They host a fair number of events at the hotel, and they have adequate signage to direct guests to their proper meeting locations for ease. However, they could have more direct signage to identify the check-in desk.
The +'s:
When I checked in, as noted by other Yelpers, they stepped out from behind the desk to hand me my keycard and direct me to the elevators. They seemed to do this for every guest, which gives it a more hospitable and personable touch.
Don't lose your keycard! You need it to select your elevator floor and to get into the room.
Lights and blinds are all controlled with digital controls on the wall, so you get to play around with it for the different settings. There's even a "mood lighting" setting.
I was in the "standard" room which featured a king-size bed, couch, love seat, and desk. There's a big-screen tv mounted to the wall, and it can be pulled out and angled to face the bed (which is every couch potato's dream... I was very excited about this). It's mostly standard cable channels and there are some HBO channels as well.
The bathroom is stocked with L'occitane toiletries... so fancy! They also have a hairdryer and steamer in the lower shelves.
The website advertised Turkish robes, and I had one hanging in my closest, daring me to try it on... so I gave it a whirl. I'm petite, so it looked like I was swimming in it, but it was fun to try on.
There's complimentary bottled water and Illy coffee and tea (though I don't drink either) in the room. It wasn't restocked every single day, but two out of three ain't bad.
The room also has lots of charging port outlets for your electronics, to include a Bluetooth speaker alarm clock. (Pro tip: the clock has a super bright light default which can be adjusted by hitting the "dimmer/snooze" button. You'll know what I'm talking about when it's lights out! Good thing everyone knows how to operate the snooze button!)
They have a complimentary shuttle that will take you within a certain radius of the hotel, to include campus and the metro. Rides must be scheduled with the front desk. I was able to call and be on a shuttle within 15 minutes.
They have a small indoor pool and complimentary towels available poolside. There's also a gym with state-of-the-art equipment.
I was here for a multi-day event, so I got to eat the hotel breakfast and dinner spreads. The food was delicious and plentiful. I felt like I was on a cruise because the food was elegant and I had dessert at every meal. And shoutout to the bartender, James, who made me a fun cocktail on Night 1 - I told him I liked sweet drinks, and he hooked me up with the "James Special."
The -'s (aka reasons why it's not five-stars):
The room across from me ordered room service for dinner. When I arrived to my room (around 8pm), the dirty plate (with leftovers) was placed out in the hallway. The next morning (around 6:30am), the plate and food were still there. The hotel could benefit from periodic checks so that food isn't sitting out all night.
The view. I had a decent view. I could mostly see the pool and gym, but also got a clear view of the parking garage. The parking garage had cars parked on the same level as my room, which made it awkward to have the blinds open when I wanted some natural light.
I found random hairs in my room and an unclean towel. Before I got to make myself at home, there were stray hairs found on my toilet and clamped to a hanger. The difference is in the details; their cleaning should be more thorough. The first towel that I grabbed had a noticeable, unappealing, orange clunky stain on it. No way was I going to use it on my clean self... gross. Fortunately they had a plethora of towel selections already in the room and the next one I grabbed was clean.
What I really wanted to do was check out the rooftop view, but that is limited to top-level guests in the executive suites. I wish it was open to all guests.
But all in all, this was a fun stay. The rooms are really nice; in fact, I contemplated living here instead of going back to my crummy apartment for a brief second (because who needs a kitchen anyways when you can just eat out and Yelp about it later)... but then reality hit, I did the math, and sadly, I cannot afford to live here for the rest of my life. But it crossed my mind, and it was fun while it lasted.