Renaissance Philadelphia Downtown Hotel — Hotel in Philadelphia

Not one for reviews. Not one for scenes. More below, let's at least cover the positives as there was many, just one major issue at least for my girlfriend and I.||Stayed August 9th-10 for quick one night stay on a drive down from CT to Miami. Location is perfect. Right in between Old City and the City Center so plenty of attractions/food/drink around. Lobby was perfect for a Downtown location. Nothing impressive, but I don't need much. Just a smooth easy check in process, status was acknowledged, upgrade was approved, everything perfect. Room was very spacious, bathroom was perfect, everything clean. AC worked perfect for us during a hot summer day, being from Miami I can always appreciate AC after walking around for 2 minutes. Late checkout also granted.||So, everything basically perfect. Until breakfast the day of check out. Shortly after our food arrived, my girlfriend and I saw not only once, but twice, a nice little rat scurrying around the dining area. Needless to say we lost our appetite after seeing that. Previously stated that I'm not one for reviews - many people would have stood up, gasped, yelled, left, whatever after seeing Master Splinter joining us for breakfast. I quietly called the nice server over and let her know what we saw. I told her I didn't want to create a scene or anything of the sort, just simply would appreciate if we could just get up and leave quietly without having to pay for our meal. (She realized we each had one bite of each of our omelettes and nothing more). She was super nice from the beginning and asked us to hang on while she gets in contact with her manager. Manager wasn't around, she texted him and they made the logical decision to comp our meal. I'm fine with that on the restaurants end. Side note - server did not seem surprised when this happened, nor did her coworker when she told her what happened, both reacted as if it had happened before or as if it was only a matter of time before someone saw it -. ||Upon passing by the front desk area and checking out is when I felt the awkwardness of it all. It may have just been me looking into it too much. It felt as if all staff downstairs (restaurant and hotel) had found out about the situation in less than 3 minutes. Awkward eye contact, the kind in which everyone's heads are down only to look up briefly for half a second and then look away. That was leaving the restaurant. Upon leaving the hotel/checkout, some of the fastest I've ever seen 😅😅. It seemed as if it was expected or they were eagerly waiting for us to check out so they can get us out without issues. I did not feel kicked out, just felt more like a "hush hush" checkout process. As soon as we got off the elevator;|"checking out?" |- yes please|"Perfect, email fine?"|- yeah that's fine (just wanting to leave the rat behind and continue the drive down)|"All set, thank you very much"||And we were on our way. Overall, a good stay that was left with a very poor taste in our mouths. Literally and figuratively speaking. Chatted with the front desk after making it to our next stop. Was promised 10,000 Mariott Bonvoy points. Here we are more than 10 days later. Called the hotel today, was quickly transferred to the restaurant after he heard the word "rat". Manager was not there. Information was taken for a call back in 5-6 minutes. 3 hours later no call has been made and I wrote this very rare review for me.||Sorry for the 5...

We recently got married at the Downtown Club in early February, and while our wedding day was everything we hoped for, our experience with this hotel—where we hosted our afterparty and booked over 20 rooms for friends and family—was a complete disaster that left a dark cloud over our celebration.||From the moment guests started checking in, things went downhill. We had thoughtfully prepared welcome bags for everyone, which the hotel promised to distribute at check-in. Not only did they fail to do so, but when we repeatedly addressed the issue—three separate times—management assured us the bags were being handed out as we literally watched the front desk ignore them. Their “solution” was to deliver the missed bags to rooms, but that never happened either.||As guests arrived, we were mortified by a lingering sewage-like smell in the lobby and near the elevators. Not exactly the kind of welcome we wanted for our loved ones traveling from out of town.||The worst part, though, was the afterparty—which we had booked and paid nearly $1,000 for. It was supposed to be a fun, seamless continuation of our wedding celebration. Instead, it was a disaster. There was one visibly miserable bartender serving nearly 90 people, creating long lines and visibly agitated guests. The food we ordered was shoved in a dark corner, dried out beyond recognition, and completely inedible. No one ate it.||We had also been told we could plug into their speaker system to play music—something that simply didn’t exist. If one of our guests hadn’t had a portable speaker in their room, we would’ve been standing around in awkward silence. To top it off, the bartender’s attitude was so off-putting that she made multiple guests uncomfortable enough to leave the party early.||And if the afterparty wasn’t bad enough, our toilet overflowed in the middle of the night for absolutely no reason—water all over the bathroom floor. We called the front desk, and while they sent maintenance, no one ever came to clean up the mess. So there we were, on our wedding night, cleaning up toilet water with bath towels. How romantic, right? At that point, the whole experience was so surreal it felt like something out of a movie.||I spoke with the assistant manager the next morning to express our frustration. He barely acknowledged my concerns and told me to call the GM on Tuesday. I took time out of our honeymoon to do just that, only to be met with zero accountability. When I told him I’d be reaching out to Marriott Corporate, he hung up on me.||This hotel failed us at every level—from operations to basic hospitality to common decency. I cannot stress this enough: do not spend your money here. If you’re planning a wedding or any kind of important event, save yourself the stress and heartbreak. We’ll always cherish our wedding day—but we’ll never forget how this...

We recently got married at the Downtown Club in early February, and while our wedding day was everything we hoped for, our experience with this hotel—where we hosted our afterparty and booked over 20 rooms for friends and family—was a complete disaster that left a dark cloud over our celebration.

From the moment guests started checking in, things went downhill. We had thoughtfully prepared welcome bags for everyone, which the hotel promised to distribute at check-in. Not only did they fail to do so, but when we repeatedly addressed the issue—three separate times—management assured us the bags were being handed out as we literally watched the front desk ignore them. Their “solution” was to deliver the missed bags to rooms, but that never happened either.

As guests arrived, we were mortified by a lingering sewage-like smell in the lobby and near the elevators. Not exactly the kind of welcome we wanted for our loved ones traveling from out of town.

The worst part, though, was the afterparty—which we had booked and paid nearly $1,000 for. It was supposed to be a fun, seamless continuation of our wedding celebration. Instead, it was a disaster. There was one visibly miserable bartender serving nearly 90 people, creating long lines and visibly agitated guests. The food we ordered was shoved in a dark corner, dried out beyond recognition, and completely inedible. No one ate it.

We had also been told we could plug into their speaker system to play music—something that simply didn’t exist. If one of our guests hadn’t had a portable speaker in their room, we would’ve been standing around in awkward silence. To top it off, the bartender’s attitude was so off-putting that she made multiple guests uncomfortable enough to leave the party early.

And if the afterparty wasn’t bad enough, our toilet overflowed in the middle of the night for absolutely no reason—water all over the bathroom floor. We called the front desk, and while they sent maintenance, no one ever came to clean up the mess. So there we were, on our wedding night, cleaning up toilet water with bath towels. How romantic, right? At that point, the whole experience was so surreal it felt like something out of a movie.

I spoke with the assistant manager the next morning to express our frustration. He barely acknowledged my concerns and told me to call the GM on Tuesday. I took time out of our honeymoon to do just that, only to be met with zero accountability. When I told him I’d be reaching out to Marriott Corporate, he hung up on me.

This hotel failed us at every level—from operations to basic hospitality to common decency. I cannot stress this enough: do not spend your money here. If you’re planning a wedding or any kind of important event, save yourself the stress and heartbreak. We’ll always cherish our wedding day—but we’ll never forget how this...