We've lost power and trees have come crashing down on our roof, so this time we reserved a room for three nights at the warm and charmng INN AT THE COLONNADE, a DOUBLETREE BY HILTON HOTEL.

Our suite was so sweet! Plenty of space, a fabulous bed, delicious meals at Alizee Restaurant, reasonably priced, and, best of all, they never lost power! General Manager, Steve Nyitrai, was at the reception desk to personally welcome each of the guests who were also checking in to get out of Sandy's way. Although we've eaten plenty of meals at the Inn At The Colonnade, this was the first time we actually lived there for a few nights. We enthusiatically recommend it without reservation. The "C" in Colonnade surely stands for COZY!

If you are visiting JHU, this is right on campus and you will probably want to stay here for the convenience. But if you are in Baltimore for any other reason, you have many better options. I've now stayed here 3 times (not by my choice) and every time the room has had the stale smell of old smoke. Rooms are decent size, though, and furnishings are nice enough (for a Doubletree.) Bathroom is small. Room service dinner was actually good-- crabcake w/potatoes and spinach. But they forgot to include the cheese in my omelette (breakfast room service.) And the lunch they service for our meeting was decidedly sub-par deli food both days. Here's an example of the kind of service you can expect at this hotel -- someone rang my doorbell at 7 am and handed me a newspaper i didn't want (USA Today or similar) and a couple of packets of toothpaste -- meant for someone else. If i had been sleeping, that would have been quite unfortunate. Conclusion: if you are in town to do something at JHU, you'll have to put up with this mediocrity, but if you are doing something in another part of town, try the Monaco instead.

This is our go-to hotel in Baltimore when visiting our daughter at Hopkins. The staff is very friendly and helpful, the rooms are clean, spacious and bright with both good relaxation and good work spaces, excellent breakfast and free Internet for Hilton members, and of course the easy access to Johns Hopklns University. There is low-cost and free street parking nearby.

A very nice hotel with semi-posh accommodations. You definitely pay a premium for being across the street from Johns Hopkins.

However, Double Tree clearly doesn't pay too many visits to the hardware store because the lighting in this room is awful. They definitely don't believe in having guests see what's in their rooms.

Our double queen bed room had exactly two average desk lamps and a small light in an alcove to light up this entire room. If you like doing shadow puppets on walls, this would perfect room for you. Otherwise, I recommend you bring your own floor lamps or flashlights if you hope to have your room lit up in any normal way.