Homewood Suites by Hilton Philadelphia-City Avenue — Hotel in Philadelphia

We were booked at the Homewood Suite by Hilton, Philadelphia-City Avenue from 10/25-10/30 for a birthday vacation in Philadelphia. Check-in was successful and we unpacked our belongings to head out to enjoy the city. When we returned to the hotel that evening (at 12:30AM ET) to have a very late meal and wind down for the following day's activities, we were unable to open the room door. We stopped back at the front desk to have the keys re-coded. When we returned to the room door, it still didn’t open. So, we returned to the front desk, where the front desk clerk said it may be the door’s battery pack and sent security up to investigate.

Back at the room door, the security guard stated that it was the battery pack, and he would return as soon as possible. My partner waited about 15 minutes before heading back to the front desk to find him and obtain an update. My partner was provided with the following information, which is why he became upset: the door lock battery had to be fixed by an engineer, there were no engineers on shift in the evening, and no engineers were on call. So, we would have to wait until 7am the next morning to get into our room. My partner explained that he not only had medication that had to be taken on time, but that I also had maintenance medication and we both had CPAP machines for severe sleep apnea in the room that we needed to be able to sleep. At that point, the security guard rudely dismissed my partner's concerns and they got into a heated discussion.

Kayla came up to the floor to explain to me what was happening downstairs and I returned to the lobby with her to de-escalate my partner. I informed her that we have medications, my partner is disabled and that we couldn’t just go to another room without our medical needs being met. So, Kayla tried to text hotel management and find contact info for one of the engineers. Management did not reply right away, and the engineer (the only one listed) was on vacation. Security reported that the engineer’s office was closed and locked, so they couldn’t grab the tool to fix the problem. Kayla also tried phoning a locksmith, which, unfortunately, needed management clearance and could not arrive until 6am.

At 7am, the front desk called the engineer, and along with security, escorted us to the room. The engineer took exactly 2 minutes to open our door with the tool and then replaced the battery. A two minute process—which would have saved us from missing medications and sleep—was delayed for 7 hours because of poor management oversight, poor maintenance scheduling (for lock battery checks), and poor business continuity SOPs.

Other than Kayla—who is the most empathetic, customer-focused employee at that Homewood property—the staff at the Homewood Suite were terrible. From the poor management decisions on staffing and SOP’s to the security personnel. My partner, who could have suffered major health issues from being kept from his medication, never recovered from the sleep deprivation caused by the night in the lobby. Nor the stress from the manager’s mishandling of the situation--from beginning to end. The...

We didn't stay

Upon entry desk staff was dismissive.

It was found there pool had been closed for rennovations. This was not communicated to us through the third party hotel room vendor. This is not Homewoods fault but is part of the reason we left.

Upon inspection of the room, room was subpar from smell to cleanliness to quality for price (it maintained issues that do not coincide with the Hilton name and or Homewood suites) and did not meet our needs.

Upon complaint the desk staff was again dismissive. At this point I may have used an expletive because of this. Situation being, the pad on the pullout had urine stains... I kind of lost it when he asked me what he wanted him to do about it. He offered to have someone clean it... then I told him I wanted to sleep in a bed without f'n Urine. He chastised me for cursing. I later apologized and he chastized me for the expletive again. We were given, options all legitimate but indicative of lack of empathy or pride in the establishment or it may have been he was limited in his ability to deal with the situation. I believe it was the latter. I shook his hand I noted he must have a difficult time with this. He seemed appeased that the situation was over. We chose the option he seemed most eager about. A full refund.

Why I gave it 2 stars without staying is, Hilton maintains an excellent steakhouse, Delmonicos, in the attached facility. Also the star was indicative of, whom I can only assume was the head of maintenance, George. George, was amazing. He explained the situation level headedly and diffused everything. He noted that the cleaning staff sometimes has a hard time getting everything as it is an extended stay facility and their time is often limited between guests and rounds, regardless a conversation would be had tegarding the deep cleaning. He even went so far as to give me a good place to pick up a cheese steak. Sadly he wasn't the desk staff.

I wish the story ended there. Upon exiting we became stuck in the parking lot. There was a paystation that I think broke while running my CC at the gatearm. We called back to Homewood. We spoke with the same desk staff. He was dismissive.. he noted we didn't know how to exit a parking lot, if we had stayed they would have stamped our ticket and to take care of it ourselves, we should use the assistance button (summarized... this is what I heard at this point but its not far off the mark). The assistance button was broken for the lane that had my ticket. Desk staff just wouldn't listen. My wife exited the car. She went to the next lane spoke with assistance there, assistance remotely lifted the gate arm for the lane we weren't in, we backed out entered the new one and exited accordingly. I am unsure if the machine is still processing my CC.

In all the facility is run down, less then cleanly, Desk staff needs training, maintenance was awesome, cleaning...

We like the location being near shopping, restaurants and the highway (this is why 2 stars)

But and while we understand renovations just started, this process should have started much, much sooner. To say things are "tired" in the room is kind in certain cases. Plus it looks like they stopped maintenance some time back knowing renovations would be starting some day.

Since we are in covid times, I've had to bandaid a few things since we dont want anyone in the room. Some staff dont feel facemasks or distancing necessary. And some with masks weren't exactly well covered. Back to some issues at hand....

The ac ductwork was rattling like mad as we walked in (Cleaning didnt report?). I had to adjust (just sheetmetal) so we could sleep and hear each other talk. The electric stove top burners didnt work. It looks like the socket came out of the holder so had to fix/reconnect the socket into the holder and then the burner into the socket. (Sorry if you have no idea what I am talking about and unless you've seen it before, this may not make sense). My description may suck too. Sorry.

What else, the curve shower curtain rod is hanging down so the curtain likes to open while taking a shower. (Water all over). One of the toilet paper arms is barely hanging in the wall and waiting for that to go. Bottom of tub is very well used (worn). There are other things for repair but those are the highlights....

For cleanliness, it is generally ok. But the details so have to wonder....so we had to use the pullout sofa. Yeah I know a mixed bag sometimes. Oh man the mattress pad was gross, freshly in parts. We had to take it off sleeping on a sheet. Let's not talk about the mattress that looks like it was pick up off the street.

Dishes and pans shoved in dishwasher and run. Normally that's ok but one pan is (was) non stick. The nonstick is beyond gone and falling off (health hazard injesting?) Add to that some excessively burnt, very well baked on, thick substance. Ewwwww.

The experience was certainly a huge disappointment for all of us, even trying to give benefit to the doubt they started renovations recently. Again things should have been let go for this long and no excuse for some of the cleanliness items. And please remind your staff to follow the guidelines to help keep the guests healthy.

Wifi slow when it works and would hate to see the performance when there are actually a number of people here at the hotel. There are also periods of repeated disconnects having to accept the captive portal multiple times in less than an hour creating for a frustrating experience. Sorry kids.

Sorry (sorta) for all the rant but pushed all the buttons.

And as for the property, please don't bother posting the canned acknowledgement or apology. You know what you are doing, or not, already. Or what...