WEMBA Residency Requirement: Le Meridian Accomodations

A lot of potential students for the program ask me about the residency requirement, ie, the Le Meridian Hotel portion of our tuition. Guess I feel like doing a documentary tonight instead of studying....Here's my thoughts on the accomodations:

• You don't have an option to pay for the hotel or not. It's part of your tuition, even if you live 5 minutes away from school. So you might as well use it.
  
• The San Francisco Le Meridian is a four star hotel located in the Embarcadero Center of San Francisco, which is a pretty good area of The City. It used to be the Park Hyatt until a year ago or so. It's only a 10 minute walk to North Beach or Chinatown from the hotel, which is in the heart of the financial district.
  
• The Le Meridian is in the Starwood Resort network, which is pretty good from a hospitality points perspective (Westin, W, Sheraton, Le Meridian). Here's a link: Starwood
• The rooms themselves are pretty good. Music playing when you walk in, granite counters in the bathrooms, nice views (if you face the Bay or Bay Bridge), spa quality amenities (again, it varies), and free wireless internet. You'll find the typical USA Today newspaper on your doorstep in the am as well.

(Left) This is what the view from your room looks like if you **don't** get the Bay view....office buildings in SF view. (Right) This is a typical hotel room

• The five guys I carpool with that are on the Penninsula area (San Mateo, Belmont, Redwood Shores) all carpool up to the hotel on school weekends. We trade off driving up there and get a chance to chat during the ride up. That's a great time to talk, and I'm glad I carpool. We get there in the morning around 8:30am and more often than not (75% of the time) are able to check in and put our stuff into our rooms then, which is great.
  
• Parking fee (negotiated rate) is $25 a night. Sure beats $40 a night, which is the regular rate. $25 a night isn't bad for SF.
  
• It's about a six block walk from the hotel to school, which is located on 101 Howard Street.
  I've mapped it out here on Google maps. It's safe and those of us who walk haven't had a problem on the streets (to my knowledge) in six months.
  
• WEMBA reimburses you for taxi rides back and forth from the hotel and the campus. I actually prefer walking, since it takes about 10-15 minutes and I need the fresh air after a long day in class (or a walk before class). It's a much nicer walk when it's not winter, of course. If you take a taxi, you pay cash and Wharton reimburses you after you file the receipts at the front desk. You get the $ in an envelope from Larry, the security agent on the sixth floor at the next session. The system works out pretty good.
  
• It is nice that all of us are staying at the hotel during class weekends, usually just for a night. It would be much better if we had more time to network and get to know each other outside of class. The program is so jam packed that there just isn't that much time, unless you really make the time. Most of us spend non-exam nights having dinner with each other, playing poker, having a drink, or just chatting in the lounge.
• The frequent travelers (or expert high maintenance complainers) in the class seem to get the platinum treatment, meaning they get a suite when they check in. I haven't ever gotten one, but they really are quite nice when you do get one. I really don't care because we don't spend that much time there anyway. Besides, if you've spent enough nights away from home you deserve the extra treatment. (But it would be nice to get one at least once....)
  
• There are two suites that are reserved as Wharton "study rooms" on school evenings. If you want to do some "social studying", this is great. Or if you want to play some Texas Hold Em, it's also a great place to hang out at. I just feel sorry for the neighboring rooms.
• If you need to store stuff at the Le Meridian, then they'll let you check a bag with them on a two-week basis. This is great for keeping your personal stuff there at the hotel to minimize lugging it back and forth. It's also great for storing your poker chip set as well. :)
  

Next time: focus on the food at Wharton West...we might need a SurveyMonkey for that though. Good luck on finals and Happy Holidays, everyone!

-R