The stay started off rocky - my online booking had been cancelled with no notification. I had only joined IHG Rewards club a few months before, and made two bookings online at this hotel and a second hotel in Washington DC. A few hours before arriving at this hotel I checked the IHG app and saw that this stay no longere appeared (when it had previously displayed fine and I had received confirmation emails immediately after the booking and as recent as 3 days before the stay) but the stay at the other DC hotel did appear okay. I started to worry but I thought maybe this was just a glitch in the app.

I was shocked and worried when I arrived at the hotel and was told that they couldn't find my booking and then when I produced the email printout with the confirmation number, they found it but said it had been cancelled. I asked for further information but they said they couldn’t tell me any information on why it had been cancelled. Luckily they were not super busy and so they were able to reinstate the booking. At this time and over the next few days, the stay still did not appear in my app and I had signed up to various promos and I thought I would not receive any points. I tried to contact IHG, but they make it really impossible. There was no email address that I could contact them on, in the app nor on the website. All I could do was complain to the chat bot which after some frustration and a few misunderstandings finally gave me a reference number, but then I heard nothing more about it. Some time after that, the stay did appear in my app, so it’s good it does now look like I have received the points but I don’t know if this was because of the chat (as there has been no follow on acknowledgement or apology for the complaint I lodged through the chatbot). So to be fair, everything got cleared up and sorted in the end, but it was still a very disappointing start and frustrating to not be able to contact them properly to get any explanation as to what happened. As it hasn’t been explained to me where the issue arose (whether it was something related to this hotel only or the app or the website), it makes me very hesitant to book with IHG in the future if they can cancel bookings with no notice and then don’t allow direct contact to complain about it. If this had happened at another IHG location which was much busier we would have been completely stressed out trying to find new accommodation at the very last minute, so I am wary of them from now on.

Anyway apart from that, the service on the front desk was a bit variable. To be fair, they were always able to help but it was with varying amounts of friendliness, ranging from quite little to a good amount. The room itself was clean, comfortable and fairly large but the décor is a bit outdated. The air con was a bit noisy (as it was at most hotels) but blended in to background noise, and we were able to sleep fine. The bathroom set up was a little bit unusual in that there was no sink in the same room as the toilet + shower over bath, and there was very little room (other than on top of the toilet) to put things like your clean clothes. The sink was in an area just outside the bathroom so after going to the toilet, you would be unable to wash your hands and have to open the door with your toilet hands before getting to the sink. Having said that, the unusual setup was sometimes handy - for example one of us could brush our teeth while the other one was in the shower.

There was a free breakfast buffet with a decent selection, ranging from continental, pastries and muffins, and some hot foods like pancakes, omelettes, and sausages/bacon. It is always nice to get a free breakfast included in a hotel stay because it's one thing less to think about. We could also refill our own water bottles in the lobby, which was handy.

There was a nice touch that the hotel had some free printed maps and some lists of attraction details and also some family friendly restaurants that were nearby. We didn't end up eating at any of the recommendations though we Googled some of them - they didn't necessarily have the top ratings but I could see that they might be suitable for a family. I felt that these were nice touches that seemed to be missing at other hotels we stayed at.

The location of the hotel was fairly quiet, although it was very close, within minutes to a number of good restaurants. Some of the restaurants are so good you may have to book an advance. You would also be quite lucky to find a place if you are looking for a late dinner as a lot of places were starting to close at 9pm when we were looking for a late dinner at 8:20pm but luckily we found a nice place nearby. The location is a short walk to city hall and Macy's and a 10 minute to Reading Terminal Market which we went to frequently. There were not many shops near the hotel, but I can't compare how this rates for other hotels in Philadelphia.

The Keurig coffee machine in the room worked fine, although it is a bit odd having disposable cups but I guess that makes sense considering there is no way to be able to wash them and clean them. There was fridge in the room and I did appreciate the microwave - it was a great touch as this doesn't seem to be a standard thing in USA hotels. The addition of a kettle would have been great too for non coffee drinkers, but this also doesn't seem to be standard in USA hotels.

Overall apart from the bad start and not being able to give feedback properly to IHG to find out the truth behind the cancelled booking, the stay itself was okay.

Rooms are very clean and comfortable. The continental breakfast was fantastic. The only negative is the some of the attendants in the parking garage are very rude and ignore you when trying to navigate the parking garage. They don't pay attention at all. Otherwise everything else was great