Hotel Buzz
Look at all the buzz my little blog post stirred up. Thanks to CitySide for stirring the pot. I like how the people running for office are some of the first to chime in. This post cracks me up:
I certainly like the potentials of getting some sort of convention center and hotel associated with downtown proximity, but I think the economics are far off and the evidence points to outlying and auto intensive marketing of rooms – does downtown have the nightlife and attrcations to support it, doubtful today – it takes a lot more than a few fredneck pickup bars to get there and a Weinberg and ballpark games – the smaller market for historical conventions, etc. are pretty well covered by a variety of group event outlets – lots of smoke signals, no fire imo -
Yeah, ’cause Frederick is known for it’s “few fredneck pickup bars” and “a Weinberg and ballpark games”.
Dude, there’s way more to Frederick than that and I think the idea of a small downtown hotel is a good one. I mentioned a few posts ago that I went to a wedding in Gainesville, Fla. and we (my daughter and I) had no car. There wasn’t much in walking distance from the hotel and we were at the mercy of other wedding guests who had cars. With all the promotion Frederick does of its Clustered Spires and the potential of wedding guests at those churches, I’d think that there could be a big demand for a hotel in walking distance of Church Street.
As CitySide pointed out, something like this would be pretty cool in downtown Frederick.
What about the great little B&B’s until such time as there might be a hotel?
All of the realists wrote off a big, flashy convention center and marquee hotel in downtown Frederick back in the late 90s, leaving the “visionaries” searching for the numbers to make it viable. That, of course, may not happen for another 15 to 20 years.
I wouldn’t be a fan of extra downtown traffic, but a hotel would pretty exciting.
An example closer to home:
http://www.tidewaterinn.com/
And:
http://www.bestwesternpa.com/hotels/best-western-gettysburg-hotel/
As a Frederick bride-to-be, I really do wish there was a hotel downtown! About 90% of our guests will not be from the DC area and the other 10% live 30 minutes to an hour away… so almost every single guest will be getting a hotel room. Our reception is in a nice small cozy place (the Thorpewood) and I wish I could extend that feeling to a small nice local hotel, but there aren’t any. We can’t wait to have our rehearsal dinner in downtown Frederick but are bummed people won’t be able to walk there and just enjoy the area.
JUST AN FYI:
Booked a room for one of my out of town employees last night at the Motel 6 on Route 40 (The old Holiday Inn) As I was booking the room, I was slightly frustrated with the reservation clerk as I had to spell the name ANDY 3 times. (THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A CLUE) Paying with the company cc, I was asked to send over a CC authorization form with a copy of the credit card AND a copy of MY drivers liscence.(Which I did reluctanly) After doing all that, I received an e mail with the confirmation number and thought all was good. Well, this morning my employee tells me that the hotel would not let him check into his room as the “credit card was bad” (They took the cc number over the phone when I placed the reservation) So, he offered to pay with his own credit card, or pay cash for the room. The desk told him that they could not rent him the room as their “printer was down” Obviously, now that it is Motel 6 the quality of service has gone down. Another employee had his parents stay there a few weeks ago and they checked out 1/2 way thru their stay as the place was full of partiers that the front desk couldn’t control. I can say that I will never again try to save the company money by booking a room at the Motel 6. Places like that which are right off the highway for travelers heading up or down Route 15 surely give out-of-towners a bad impression of Frederick.
Here is some updated info on the hotel being considered for downtown.
http://www.businessinfrederick.com/userfiles/File/Pinnacle_OPX_Downtown_Hotel_Feasibility_Study.pdf
If you scroll down to the bottom, they show a few proposed locations near and around Carroll Creek.
Thanks KP. The locations proposed are most interesting to me. I can see the merit in some of them, and can see how a couple of them just won’t work (keeping in mind their criteria for being close to downtown and the Creek). This will be an interesting topic to watch!
Yeah whats interesting is that some of the locations are already planned to have something else built there. I guess they are keeping their options open in case the planned property falls through? I think relocating the Post Office and putting a hotel there might work best.
As long as the building doesn’t block the spires! I hate how the new school board office blocks the view coming down from the East Street Extension. I think the spires are the best thing of Frederick downtown, and blocking them is just a terrible idea.