Motto By Hilton Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square — Hotel in Philadelphia

The hotel is in a good location and the rooms are clean and modern. But the room was quite small. With a seating area only suitable for one person, the bed is the only other option for seating.

The staff were great in the routine interactions: check-in, check-out, requesting amenities from the front desk, housekeeping staff.

But as an international guest, I was extremely disappointed by the technological failings at the hotel. The result was me never being able to make an important call home to my country, from the hotel.

During my stay, I received email notification from my bank in my home country, about possible fraudulent debit card activity. I was required to call to verify the transactions, as email confirmation was not permitted. My debit card was also blocked, preventing me from making purchases.

Making it more problematic was the national coin shortage and many vendors requiring the exact amount for purchases. In a foreign country, I wanted this rectified as soon as possible so that I could continue to enjoy my vacation.

What followed was multiple days of frustration in communicating with the front desk staff, so that I could successfully make an overseas call to my bank. The issue was never resolved or communicated to me as resolved. And there was never an official apology for the inconvenience.

Some of the notable things that happened during a frustrating few days:

Being told the first night that I would hear back from front desk with a solution. This didn’t happen.

The suggestion on the first night that I go out and buy a phone card, since I was unable to make the overseas call from my room.

When I followed up on the second day, being told that an IT guy might have to come to the hotel and fix the issue.

Being informed that front desk staff had also tried unsuccessfully, to place overseas calls.

-A few inappropriate responses by one front desk employee, after I expressed my frustration that the unresolved issue had entered a third day.

To expand on the above, it was more appropriate for the hotel to provide me with a phone card, as the inability to call overseas was due to their technological issue. As there was also torrential rain/stormy weather in Philadelphia on this date, and I hadn’t left the hotel because of it, it was unreasonable to suggest that I go out to purchase a phone card.

On the third day, an employee suggested that I come down to the front desk to try and make the overseas call. This was a non-starter due to: a) privacy reasons (the front desk was a busy area and people would have overheard me providing my personal data to my bank); b) front desk previously advised that they tried and failed to make an overseas call.

My final disappointment with this experience is the continued lack of response from the hotel. Or even an official apology.

Having travelled extensively around the world, I have never encountered an experience like I did during my stay. Therefore, I completed an official, comprehensive hotel review that was sent to me from the hotel after check out. I submitted the official hotel review on September 19, 2022 and to date, I haven’t received a response.

I expect such a facility shortcoming and disappointing service response from other hotels - hotel names that don’t have great, long-established, reputations. Not a property with the Hilton name attached to it.

Tourists travel to the U.S. from all over the world. So for an international hotel guest to be unable to do something as basic as call their home country is baffling. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement.

Therefore, I’m inclined to choose another hotel brand for future stays in Philadelphia...

This place isn't for everyone. It's not exactly my style, but I still am going to give it 4 stars because I think it is good for what it is trying to do - but be aware of what it is trying to do before you book there.

The most positive spin on this hotel is that it is a trendy, hip spot to affordably crash while you are visiting the vibrant Center City area of Philadelphia. If you are on a quick trip, and especially if you are traveling alone on business, then it might be just the ticket. If you are traveling with someone else, well, you better really like that other person.

The rooms are very small. To be fair, the hotel was very upfront about this. They call them "microrooms" on the website. In our case, we were staying for 3 nights during a longer 2-week trip through the Northeast. My wife and I stayed in a room with a queen bed and 2 college-age children had a separate room with bunk beds. There is no closet and one small drawer (underneath a seat next to the bed). There was a very small table that I could put a computer on while I sat on the (non-movable) seat and type, until my back started to hurt from no support on the seat. In our case, because we were traveling for a long time, our luggage was strewn all over the floor. Again, if you're on a shorter trip, this will not be a problem. But for us, there was nowhere to put the luggage, dirty clothes, etc.

The bathroom is separated from the bed area by a sliding translucent door. The door is not at all soundproof, so you can hear every sound the other person makes in the bathroom. The sink area could not accommodate someone who has a large makeup kit.

There were some clever touches. There was a small nook of shelving where I could put a couple dirty clothes and 3 hangars on a hook for some shirts. The bathroom had a nightlight that had a motion sensor, so if you went in there it automatically got brighter. Which is OK if you are alone, but if you get up in the night to use the bathroom, even with the translucent door closed, it ends up putting a lot of light into the bed area (I guess I could have unplugged it.) There is a nifty reading light above the bed that can rotate and actually point upward for some indirect lighting in the room.

The staff was very pleasant in every interaction I had with them.

The hotel has a restaurant that seemed boisterous and too loud for us and a rooftop lounge that I didn't see. There's a cafe for some breakfast options which were tasty but they run out fast.

The location is fantastic. We stayed in the summer and the streets surrounding it are bustling until late in the evening. Three ice cream parlors within a block or two are open until midnight. There are lots of options for all kinds of food (a great sushi place was right around the corner, where we were the only ones eating dinner on a weeknight.)

So this place wasn't exactly my speed. But for a short visit (and you don't have as much luggage as we do) it could be just the ticket for an affordable trip to a bustling, vibrant part...

I knew when booking for my wife and I that the rooms were small, so that was fine with us. Great location close to many restaurants, bars, and a great comedy club. The staff was overall nice, though we had very little interaction with them. That’s where the positives end.

ROOM: The rooms have no iron or coffee machine/mugs. I have never had a room without these before. There is no closet, nowhere to hang any clothes. The ONLY surface to even set a laptop to work is a tiny C table and the only place to sit while using that is the bench against the window. There is not room on that table to even use a mouse with your laptop. There’s no desk, no tv stand (it’s just mounted to the wall). The rooms are small but there’s easily enough room for a small desk and chair.

But the absolute dumbest thing about these rooms is the bathrooms. The door to the bathroom is a sliding, very lightly frosted glass door. So guess what? Not only will you HEAR everything someone is doing in the bathroom, you’ll also be able to pretty much see it. Oh and that bathroom “door” is about four feet from the bed facing directly at it. We all know nobody thinks when designing bathroom doors in hotels, but this is literally the dumbest I’ve ever seen.

SERVICE: The WiFi is literally unusable. I’m not exaggerating. I couldn’t even update an app on my iphone it was so slow. On even decent WiFi it takes about 1 second to do that.

The first time housekeeping went through our room, they left DAMP towels. I’m really hoping they were just taken out of the dryer too soon and not used towels that someone folded up and put in our room. Even in the former scenario, these were not just slightly damp, they were almost wet. How does someone not notice that when folding them and putting them in a room?! We asked for new towels and they were brought up to our room three hours later.

Our Hilton Honors membership grants us each $50/day in food and beverage credits. There’s no way to actually use them. There is a restaurant/bar and a cafe in the hotel, but neither allows you to charge to the room to use the credits. There’s no other “snack corner” or similar to use the credits either.

Overall, would never stay again. It wasn’t even a great price for the compromises on the room and service. At the very least they need to be more clear on their website what...