The Westin Philadelphia — Hotel in Philadelphia

My husband reserved a room for the weekend at the Westin to celebrate my birthday yesterday, 07/15. Our Philadelphia visit was a surprise so originally he did not share our SPG Gold status upon arrival. We checked into the hotel at 3:00 pm and was greeted by friendly, attentive valet attendants upon arrival. At the front desk, the fellow with dark colored hair at the SPG counter appeared too busy to direct us to where we needed to check in however, we were further received for check in by a very friendly fellow by the name of Anthony. Our room was located on the 8th floor. Upon first walkthrough the room was not as clean as it should have been and the refrigerator and courtesy water was not stocked. We let it go. We dropped off bags and ran for errands and returned to the hotel around 530. This is when the experience deteriorated from here.

Bathroom toilet was flushed once and the toilet ran and ran and kept filling up; and the water from the toilet overflowed onto the bathroom floor. We threw down all of the towels in the bathroom and immediately called the front desk around 6. We told them we needed the room cleaned immediately and needed new towels and washclothes. We were told by a woman that they would send someone up immediately to take care of the issue. They sent an engineer who came within 15 -20 minutes and took a machine into the bathroom. He told us that we would be good to go and that someone from housekeeping would be on their way upon his exit. As 7:00 pm, approached, no one came. We called the front desk again to request a status. The female promised us that she would send someone up immediately and would also send the towels up asap. We informed her that this was hindering our ability to shower before dinner. She took note and restated that she was sending someone immediately. We had reservations at 7:45 and was unable to wait for the arrival of housekeeping. We assumed they they would have this taken care of when we returned. We returned to our room after 1:00 in the morning. Before going to the room, we check at the front desk to confirm that the room was taken care of and explained what occurred. The front desk attendant Leonard was not aware since we came on shift at 11 and had no notes on whether or not the issue was resolved; and told us to call him if it was not. We went to the room and the same towels were on the floor used to catch the yucky toilet water. We were appalled! I called back to the front desk and the attendant informed us that he would change our room to the 15th floor. We were moved to the SPG floor at 1:24 am - where we should have been in the first place. We noticed the cleanliness of the room immediately.

That left a very bad taste in our mouths. Upon checkout, we asked that my name be included on the reservation and asked that my SPG member be associated with the ID. We are waiting for that to happen. They asked before we left how our stay was. You can imagine the response. We also noticed a bit of change in attentiveness after they realized we were members. There were some positives at the hotel but the experience was ruined and overshadowed by our experience with the toilet and the lack of commitment and follow through that we should have received as a paying customers and as...

Our family of 4 from San Francisco used this Westin as our base for exploring southeastern Pennsylvania during spring break (historical Philly, Valley Forge, Lancaster area, and day trip to Princeton). We had 2 rooms for 5 nights, which we had reserved 10 months in advance and requested them to be connecting so we could check on our kids without having to walk down the hall in our pj's. We took time to call a week prior to our arrival to confirm our request for connecting rooms and were reassured that would happen. Much to our surprise when we arrived, our rooms were NOT connecting and it was only after a bit of protest and having to remind the front desk staff that we had reserved many months in advance that they somehow "found" 2 connecting rooms. That problem was solved.

We were frustratingly awakened at approximately 6am on 3 out of 5 mornings of our stay -- twice by our phone mysteriously ringing and once by a false fire alarm. We immediately called the front desk after our phone rang, and were told that no wakeup call had been mistakenly placed and there was no explanation for the phone ringing. After it happened the second morning, we unplugged all the phones every night. Ridiculous to have to do that. The fire alarm was very scary for our children, with booming voices over a speaker in the ceiling telling us the fire department had arrived and confirmed all was clear, only to have it all start up again with blaring sirens 5 minutes later.

On a positive note, the concierges were fantastic. We interacted mainly with Gerri Diggins, who is a gem! She is an incredibly warm, wonderful woman who truly did her best to find restaurants that were perfect matches for us. When she learned that our daughter had been feeling ill, she had tea sent up to our room (for all of us). We travel to Starwood hotels and resort villas (where we own time) multiple times every year, around the U.S. and a bit internationally, and of all the staff that we've ever interacted with -- we'd put Gerri up at the top!

The hotel is conveniently located. We walked to some great restaurants, and it was very easy to get a taxi to take us to the historical part of Philadelphia. We used our Platinum award for breakfast each morning and had consistently very good quality food. It's a rather plain Westin, with a small lobby one floor up from the street entrance so don't go expecting opulence. However, it's clean and appears to have been recently decorated. The bar always looked lively at night, but we were coming in from a full day of sightseeing so didn't partake in that. Overall, we'd...

I booked the Pamper and Prosecco package as a valentine's day surprise for my wife and I. Upon arrival our room was freezing, and the heating system wasn't working at all. I went to the front desk and they sent someone up to check it repair it. Little weird to start our stay with a stranger in our room doing repairs on the HVAC but at least it was getting fixed. I called the front desk after the HVAC was fixed to ask about when we would be enjoying our massage and prosecco, and I was told they would call me back shortly. An hour passes and no call. So I went down to the desk to ask again, and they had no new information and I had to wait to speak with a manager.

The manager I spoke with was very apologetic and after looking into the issue more told me there was a failure in communication from the spa. The spa was supposed to contact me to schedule my massage. They did not and were now all booked up and I could not enjoy the entire reason for leaving home. Again the manager was very understanding and did his best to make it right by changing my room rate and providing my wife and I a free breakfast the next day.

Trying to salvage the night, my wife and I decided to check out the bar and grab a take-away cocktail. We then proceeded to pay almost 30 dollars for about a shot of alcohol and a splash of ginger ale.

We grabbed dinner from a local restaurant, then retired to our room which was now thankfully nice and toasty. I decided to grab a quick shower. Somehow the bathroom was freezing, and the water could only get lukewarm. We decided to try and get some sleep, the room was very warm so we tried to turn on the AC. The engineer that was there earlier seems to have fixed the heat a little too well because now the cooling didn't work.

The next morning we went to order our breakfast around 10am. I make the call and I'm told 20 minutes or more. After 90 minutes goes by I call the front desk again to ask for an update. My order was taken again, and I was told he'd follow up. Another 45 minutes went by. My wife and I had packed, jackets on, ready to leave and then the food finally came. What we got was haphazardly thrown into the container and looked less than appetizing. We picked at the food and then just went home.

What was supposed to be a treat since we've been safe and staying home for almost a year turned into what felt like an unnecessary, expensive risk. I appreciate that the manager I spoke with tried to make it right, but this...