There may be nothing worse than finding a hotel that looks amazing online, but when you go to vet that amazingness through past guest reviews, you find zilch. We don't mean you find zero people who have nothing nice to say; instead, you find no one has said anything at all. Which is the case with Philadelphia's Lippincott House.
The bed and breakfast is one block from Rittenhouse Square, which--as anyone who's been to Philadelphia knows--is the place to bunk in Philly, either for the night or permanently, thanks to the area's many Victorian mansions.
The Lippincott House was constructed in 1897 and only has four rooms, some with fireplaces and all with individual bathrooms and WiFi, starting at $175 per night. The property also has a banquet room, games room and theater-style media room. Each afternoon between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., the place serves up complimentary soft drinks and cheese.
Sounds great, right? Expect that the absence of reviews on this place have us wondering if it's some sort of metropolitan mirage.
Surely someone who has stayed there has something to say. If that's you, please tell us!
The History Channel recently rolled out a contest offering the grand prize of a two-night stay at The Rittenhouse Hotel, one of Philadelphia's schwankiest hotels.
The contest ends on July 11, with the winner notified around July 14.
This is a good deal since the hotel has garnered all kinds of awards, including kudos from travel mags Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler.
And the location is right in the heart of the city center. Rittenhouse Square is in a sense its own destination, with shopping, galleries, music, and serious restaurants. It also has history -- it's one of the five original squares designed by William Penn, the state's founding father.
Plus it's a five-minute walk from Amtrak's 30th Street Station, and just under a half hour from Philly International Airport.
Not to mention the room rates start at $260 a night for a standard room, so you definitely can't beat the price -- FREE! Try your hand at winning here. Add it to your favorites, since you can enter once a day between now and 7-11.
Just in time for the Fourth of July, Philly's Independent Hotel opened its doors on Thursday -- which has nothing to do with Independence Day, really, but the timing is good.
The 24-room boutique property -- which used to be the Inn at Locust -- is located in Midtown Village and features a three-story mural of Independence Hall done by a local artist.
Guest rooms feature hardwood floors with New Zealand Wool area rugs, custom window treatments, Robert Allen custom bedding and Serta Presidential mattresses. Each room include=s a variety of unique features such as fireplaces, exposed brick walls, cathedral ceilings, French windows or loft bedrooms.
The hotel is also serving free breakfasts every morning and hosting a free wine and cheese happy hour once a week (how Kimpton-like!)
We found out via the Independent's very own blog that they're really getting into the Independence Day spirit: for July 4th weekend, the hotel is offering a special rate of $139 per night (!); reservations can be made here.
While we wait patiently for Stephen Starr's new project, the Philly hotel restaurant scene is offering up something to tide us over. The Westin Philadelphia recently opened City Grange, with its locally sourced menu and New American cuisine. (How many times will we hear "local-and-organic" this year?)
But when it comes to hotel restaurants, says a reviewer at Philadelphia's City Paper, it's a trend worth following:
Hotel dining can get pretty generic, so it's good to give visitors a taste of aged Pennsylvania cheddar and chickens from Lancaster. I brought along a California martini fiend who was happy to discover Philly's own Bluecoat gin.
We love sampling the local specialties wherever we wake up. But the cooking's got to be up to snuff, and the early reviews of City Grange are mixed. Sounds like a tune-up is in order before the Westin's restaurant becomes Pennsylvania's locally sourced standard bearer.
According to the city's tourism bureau, "Philly is more fun when you sleep there". We know this, of course, from the dozens of billboard advertisements around New York and other east coast cities. Luckily, we can vouch for the legitimacy of this statement having spent many nights enjoying good ole fun in the City of Brotherly Love. And Oscar De La Hoya totally knows what we are talking about.
So, if you're going to take the plunge and spend the night, and are not lucky enough to have friends that owe you one, than you will need a place to stay that is convenient, reasonably priced and can provide a little luxury.
The number one hotel choice for Philadelphia on Trip Advisor is the Sofitel Intrigued by this pick we decided to investigate since we all know how off the mark TA rankings can be.
While the Sofitel's location, just two blocks from Rittenhouse Square, is definitely a pretty part of town, those looking for rocking nightlife might be slightly disappointed by it's proximity to the clubs, which tend to be a bit further south. But, since not everyone is a night owl we won't discriminate.
Next, what's the damage? TripAdvisor lists the rack rate as $262, but we are pretty sure you can do better than that looking on Hotwire. Judging from reviews and experience an off-season price of around $150 is a reality.
Lastly, the hotel's American contemporary décor is likely to cater to most peoples' tastes. It's classy, but not overstated and it really feels like a touch of the luxe life. So, unlike Westchester, Philly is more fun when you sleep there, and even more fun at the Sofitel.
The Westin Philadelphia underwent a major room renovation using close to 30 Philadelphia artists, designers, savoniers, sculptors, furniture designers, and photographers. But it was only for one room--Room 414.
The hotel asked local artists to come in and redesign a room that was all about Philadelphia. The effort is part of uwishunu, the Philly insider's blog which sort of doubles as a hip interactive tourism campaign for the city. And indeed, it's run by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation.
They had already created a "Live like a Local" hotel package but decided to go one step further and create a uwishunu hotel room. Luckily, the Westin Philly was happy to participate. Anyone can book the room but there's no option on the hotel website for this room so it's probably best to call in person: (215) 563-1600.
Perhaps bored with the usual hotel green policies like the note cards to remind you to keep your electricity and water use down and those that encourage you not to ask for new towels or linens, a hotel in Philadelphia is taking a different route in being green--composting.
In a waste audit of the Four Seasons last year, [a consultant] found that the hotel was doing a good job of recycling paper, cardboard, bottles and cans. But that amounted to only 3 percent to 5 percent of its waste by weight, because so much of what was going into the trash bin was heavy food.
The Four Seasons started working with Foley in February and diverted 10,000 pounds of kitchen waste from the landfill for the month. Based on that, [it's] estimated that the hotel's recycling rate for the year would be in the 30 percent to 35 percent range, and would save $15,000 to $20,000 in dumping fees.
Even better the Four Seasons agreed to take some of Foley's compost and use it in their flower beds and herb gardens. Not that we like to get all soft about the Four Seasons (their Hotel WiFi policy is horrible) but being green is just one way into our hearts.
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Hotels in Philadelphia seem to do very little to make us want to visit there. Yes, we know its the birthplace of our country, and there's all sorts of history there like Ben Franklin, Liberty Bell, Rocky, blah, blah, blah. But there isn't one hotel in the city that we are dying to check-into. And Club Quarters is one of these offending hotels.
We know the hotel is small and that not every room can have a window but must they really throw it in your face with curtains and a chair next to the wall?
What's worse is this is sort of a club members only kind of hotel for business travelers and their family and friends. So you or your company have to belong to the group to get this hotel "view."
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by jennm
