(Spoiler Alert: Avoid This Hotel) Hotel Review: Home2 Suites Frederick, MD

Our first stop in Maryland was Frederick. We booked 15 nights at the Home2 Suites Frederick to maximize our points as every 5th night is free on award stays for those who have status with Hilton.

Shae and I like the Home2 Suites brand and our stay was initially good. However, it went downhill for a couple of reasons, one of which was Shae having a rifle pointed at her by someone who wasn’t even a guest of the hotel. The way that the hotel dealt with that situation and other issues at the time and since then mean we’d recommend avoiding this hotel.

Here’s a full review of our stay at the Home2 Suites Frederick, along with the issues we had.

Check-In

We’d previously been staying in Roanoke and stopped to visit Monticello along the way, so we arrived at about 7pm. I don’t think there was anyone else checking in at the time, so the check-in process was fairly quick.

I’d been hoping we might be able to get an upgrade to a 1 bedroom suite, but I checked for availability before we arrived and those were all booked up.

King Suite

When arriving at our room, there was a seal on our door assuring us off a ‘CleanStay’. Due to reasons I’ll come to later on, I’m not sure how much we should trust that at this property.

When entering the room, the bedroom/living area was straight ahead, the kitchen on the right and the bathroom on the left.

The living area had a sleeper sofa, with a couple of tables on one side and an ottoman.

Beyond that was the bedroom area. The king bed was very comfortable, while the window had a blackout blind which worked pretty well.

Between the living area and bedroom was a curtain which could be pulled across to give some separation.

Opposite the bed was an open closet, but which had a curtain that could be pulled across the front of it. The closet contained a luggage rack, iron and ironing board.

To the right of the closet was a long countertop with a shelving unit above. This gave us plenty of space to store stuff both above and beneath.

To the right of that was a dresser with a TV on top.

There was another countertop to the right of the TV which could be used as a desk, along with a desk on wheels beneath that.

Kitchen

Back by the room’s entrance was an almost-complete kitchen. It contained a full-sized fridge-freezer, dishwasher and microwave which were all nice to have.

The reason I say it was an almost-complete kitchen is because there was no stove top. Most other all-suite hotel brands like TownePlace Suites, Residence Inn, Candlewood Suites, etc. have at least a double electric stove top in every room, but Home2 Suites doesn’t include that in any suites at any of their properties to the best of my knowledge. You can borrow a portable electric burner from the front desk, but it’s a shame they don’t bother including that in each room.

I was initially surprised to see that there were no plates, dishes, glasses, etc. in the units above the counter. I soon realized though that this was because they were in the dishwasher having supposedly been washed.

I say they were supposedly washed because everything in there was caked with food. I initially attributed that to one of the plates having what seemed to be melted cheese covering it, but I think there’s another reason everything was dirty which I’ll come to later.

What was a little strange is that even though those items were in the dishwasher, there were several other items in drawers which hadn’t been run through.

There were some items in sealed bags which presumably had been cleaned/disinfected beforehand.

Bathroom

The bathroom had a walk-in shower, although the water pressure was very weak.

The Home2 Suites Frederick had shampoo and shower gel dispensers rather than small bottles of them.

Design Elements

Although I don’t like that rooms at Home2 Suites properties have no stove top, I do love them for a bunch of other design elements. None of them are huge things, but they all point to thoughtful room design.

For example, some of the power outlets have USB ports which means you can charge even more devices.

It’s not only the main power outlets that are useful for charging devices. The lamp in the living room also had a power outlet and a USB port.

That lamp was sitting on a table which had another table stored underneath it.

The toilet had a water-conserving design, with dual flush options. Pressing the green tab gave a quick flush, while pushing the entire handle gave a full flush.

Breakfast

Home2 Suites properties provide complimentary breakfast for all guests, but COVID has meant the way they provide that has changed a little compared to in the past. Rather than having it be buffet-style where you just grab what you want, the Home2 Suites Frederick had everything behind a barrier with a staff member handing over whatever you wanted.

That included breakfast sandwiches, premade omelets, breads, bagels, granola bars and more.

Breakfast was served from 6-9am midweek and 7-10am at the weekend.

Amenities

The hotel’s saline swimming pool was still open, but they were restricting the area to 10 people due to COVID.

The fitness room didn’t appear to have any restrictions on how many people could be in there though.

Next to the fitness room was the guest laundry area. There were a couple of washing machines and a couple of dryers, with both costing $1 per load which was very reasonable.

The lobby had a lot of seating, although that was rarely used by guests during our stay, again presumably due to COVID. That area is where you can find the business center which consisted of a couple of computers and a printer.

There was some outdoor seating at both the front of the hotel and the side. The seating at the side of the property had a grill for guests to use, while the seating out front had a firepit.

The Home2 Suites Frederick has a pantry by the front desk where you can buy snacks, frozen meals, drinks, etc.

The Rifle Incident

While I was out at the grocery store one evening, I got a text from Shae saying there was someone in the hallway with a gun. I figured she meant there was a guest checking in who happened to be openly carrying, but it was far beyond that.

While I was out, the walls of our room started shaking due to some kind of loud banging on the room next door. Unsure what was going on, Shae put our dog Truffles in the bathroom and poked her head out the door to see what was going on.

She was greeted with a rifle pointed right at her as he was outside the room next door. The guy holding it was in military uniform and told her to go back in her room, so she did. Shae called down to the front desk to ask what was happening in the room next door and was told they’d had noise complaints. She then asked the front desk agent if she’d heard her about the man with the gun, but she reacted as if she didn’t know what she was talking about. Shae said the man told her to back in her room to which the staff member said to listen to him and to stay in her room.

And that was it. Shae called me to let me know what limited amount of information she had, so when I got back from the store I stopped by the front desk to ask if it was safe to go upstairs. The front desk agent said “Oh, it’s fine – we just had someone trespassing.” Again, that was it.

I headed back upstairs and Shae shared that she had no clue that everything was resolved. The front desk agent hadn’t bothered to call to ask if she was OK after having a rifle pointed straight at her, nor to let her know that it was safe to leave the room. That’s appalling service, so Shae discussed it with the manager the next morning. The manager was apologetic, but we submitted a complaint to Hilton afterwards. It’s now been more than two weeks since we submitted that complaint and haven’t heard anything at all from Hilton beyond an automated message saying it had been forwarded to the hotel, despite following up with them several days ago. That leaves an even worse taste in our mouth as it seems like the hotel is simply ignoring us now.

That wasn’t the only complaint we had about the hotel though.

COVID-Cleaning Concerns

I mentioned earlier that everything which had supposedly been cleaned in the dishwasher before our stay was caked with food. I’d initially thought that was because a plate covered in cheese hadn’t been cleaned off first, but I think there was another reason the items weren’t cleaned.

A day or two into our stay I stopped by the front desk to ask for more dishwasher tablets. Several hours later, a staff member brought one up. The next day we asked housekeeping for one. We still didn’t have one several hours later, so we asked again and eventually got one.

A day or two later I asked for another dishwasher tablet at the front desk. They didn’t have any out back, in storage elsewhere or on the housekeeping carts. That happened the next day, the next day & the next day. Eventually the front desk agent said they were “backtracked” (I’m assuming she meant back-ordered”), so she told us we’d have to wash dishes by hand if we wanted clean dishes.

It wasn’t until 10 days into our stay that the hotel finally had dishwasher tablets. That leads me to believe housekeeping ran dishwashers without tablets as there were none in the hotel, yet there was a sticker over our dishwasher when we arrived claiming the items inside were ‘sanitized’. Early on we were given solitary tablets despite staff not having access to any, which makes me think they went into unoccupied rooms to get one. That means the ‘CleanStay’ seals on doors would’ve been broken & replaced which presumably isn’t what’s supposed to happen.

It also showed complete laziness by all hotel staff members that no one bothered to go to a store to buy dishwasher tablets while they waited for more to come in. There were at least 10 days where the hotel had no spare dishwasher tablets which is ridiculous and means the hotel was lying to guests about them having clean dishes upon arrival. It therefore makes me question what other ways the Home2 Suites Frederick skips cleaning protocols which is of particular concern given the COVID-situation.

Service

As you might’ve gathered from the last couple of sections, service was poor at the hotel. It wasn’t just those two incidents which indicated poor service and lack of attention though.

For example, the hotel has a screened-off office area behind the front desk. After spending 15 days at the hotel, I think I could count on one hand the number of times we saw someone actually at the front desk. All other times they were hiding in the office area behind. That gives a poor impression of the hotel as there was never anyone at the front desk, but it was worse than that.

None of the staff members ever paid attention to whether there was anyone at the front desk, so guests would have to call out to get any kind of service. One evening I had to call loudly three times before anyone came out. There were two staff members behind who I could hear chatting, but weren’t paying any attention to anything else. I noticed several other guests having a hard time attracting attention of staff during our stay too. I know there are times when staff have to run off to help a guest and so have to leave the front desk unmanned which is fair enough, but it was simply laziness preventing staff at this hotel from standing at the front desk.

Housekeeping didn’t seem to be too much better. We didn’t ask for housekeeping during our stay, but would leave our trash cans outside when necessary to be emptied. They rarely bothered to provide trash can liners after emptying it, so we had to use our own shopping bags. This is only a small thing, but it was just one more thing which indicated laziness by staff there.

I know it sounds like I’m whining a lot, but I was really disappointed by pretty much all the staff at the hotel. I give people the benefit of the doubt and I think I’ve only written one or two bad reviews in more than 100 hotel reviews over the last few years of our road trip, so I don’t think I have particularly high standards. I think only the Fairfield Inn Charlottesville North, VA rivals the Home2 Suites Frederick for actively crappy service.

There were other disappointing aspects about the hotel in general. One of the elevators was broken until the last day of our stay, but they didn’t have any kind of sign up indicating that. Both of their luggage carts had broken wheels which meant trying to push our stuff along was much harder.

Pet Policy

The Home2 Suites Frederick is a pet-friendly hotel and charges a $125 pet fee per stay. That’s a very steep fee as it’s a flat fee that gets charged even if you’re only staying one night. It was less of an issue for our stay though seeing as we were staying 15 nights.

At the back of the hotel there’s an uphill pet-walking area when you head down some steps.

What’s nice about the hotel’s location is that it backs on to the end of the Ballenger Creek Trail. This is a 4.2 mile trail which is a great place to walk your dog during daylight hours, but it’s pitch black at night.

At nighttime I therefore walked Truffes around the Homewood Suites property next door as that was more conducive to walking around the hotel than the Home2 Suites was.

Wi-Fi

The hotel’s Wi-Fi was pretty good. It’s free for all guests and seemed speedy enough which we appreciated after having awful internet at the Residence Inn Roanoke Airport before that.

Check-In & Check-Out Times

You can check-in at 3pm and check-out is at 11am.

Location

The Home2 Suites Frederick is located off Buckeystown Pike which has a lot of restaurants and stores along it. Within walking distance there’s a Domino’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and Chaps Pit Beef, the latter of which we’d definitely recommend trying. It’s a local chain which a friend of ours had recommended to us, so we were glad there was one of their restaurants right there.

The hotel is about 10 minutes from downtown Frederick where you’ll find the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. It’s about 20 minutes from Sugarloaf Mountain, 30 minutes from Cunningham Falls State Park and 40 minutes from Antietam National Battlefield. It’s also just off I-270 and I-70, so it’s conveniently located to those.

Parking

Parking is free at the hotel and there was always plenty of spaces.

Cost

The reason we booked the Home2 Suites Frederick was because it was good value for our dates when redeeming points. Home2 Suites is one of Hilton’s brands and they were charging 16,000 Hilton Honors points per night which is low compared to what Hilton often charges.

We did even better than that though. Hilton gives every 5th night free on award stays, so the fact that we booked 15 nights meant we got our 5th, 10th and 15th night free. That reduced our cost to an average of 12,800 points per night which was great.

If we’d paid cash for the stay it would’ve cost $95.30 per night. That’s not a terrible price, but using points was the best option as it meant we got 0.74cpp (cents per point) of value by using our points which is close to double the value you’ll often expect to get from Hilton points.

Final Thoughts

I can’t in any way recommend staying at the Home2 Suites Frederick. While it wasn’t their fault that Shae had a rifle pointed at her during our stay, the fact that they were clueless about someone roaming the hallways with a rifle was their fault seeing as they never bothered to man the front desk – otherwise they’d have seen him come in carrying it.

Their reaction to the situation was also their fault. To not let Shae know once the incident was over was poor, as was the fact that they didn’t bother checking if she was OK.

The situation with the dishwasher tablets was also very concerning. Not only did it display complete laziness by all staff members and management to not bother going out to get dishwasher tablets for guests, but they were having housekeeping run dishwashers with no detergent in them and claiming they were sanitized. With deception like that and laziness in other matters, I’m not convinced the hotel places a priority on cleanliness which is of particular concern due to COVID.

I still like the Home2 Suites brand, but staff at this particular property are a very poor reflection of the brand.

Truffles Approval Rating

Truffles gives the Home2 Suites Frederick three paws out of four – pawsome. The hotel itself wasn’t great for walking around, but it was nice having the Ballenger Creek Trail out back to walk on during the day. The $125 pet fee was more expensive than most other hotels which is another reason they didn’t get four paws from Truffles.

Our Rating

Room = 4.4 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.3 / 5
Food = 4 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 0.5 / 5
Dealing With COVID-19 (A new (hopefully temporary) category for our hotel reviews) = 1 / 5
Overall Value = 4.6 / 5

Total = 3.29/5

Address

Home2 Suites, 4850 Buckeystown Pike, Frederick, MD 21704