Homewood Suites by Hilton Philadelphia-City Avenue in Philadelphia

Wasn't able to check into our room early. This would be fine because of the check in "policy" but I know of at least 2 different rooms that were given to people AFTER I had tried to check in. Was promised that if a room was available, I would get a call. No call came. Luckily we were able to get ready for the wedding we were going to in a friend's room. I will never be back to this establishment.

I am a 20+ year Hilton Honors member and have stayed at all the various brands over the years. I currently have Diamond status and have NEVER had such a disappointing stay at a Hilton property.

Please let me count the ways:

1. We arrived after 10p on a Friday night to a lobby full of people with suitcases. Why you might ask? The computer server was down and the one front desk clerk was running guest triage along with trying to get the help desk to recognize the urgency of the situation. Thankfully, there was someone in housekeeping escorting guests to their rooms if they could confirm they had checked in on the app and could show their assigned room number.

2. We awoke to text messages in the middle of the night asking if we were still planning to arrive for our stay. We were in the hotel, asleep in our room. I don’t know how else we could have indicated our intentions. My receipt says our first night was charged as a “No Show”, but we were there.

3. Breakfast ended at 9:30 and by 9:15 when we arrived, everything was pretty bare. We had to ask for bowls for oatmeal and scrape up the last of the powdered eggs. There was only one elevator in service and by the time we got upstairs, our food was cold. Thankfully there are microwaves in the rooms.

4. We used the app to message about no heat in our room since the desk phone didn’t work (1202). We got an immediate response that the person would be right away to check on it. About an hour later we messaged again that no one had arrived asking for assistance. We ended up having to use our cell phones to call downstairs and finally the technician arrived. He told us we’d have to move to another room, but there were no comparable rooms available so we ended up moving to a smaller room for the remainder of our stay.

5. When we unpacked and went to shower for our night out, we discovered that the new room only had one bath towel in it. We tried to call down for more towels but once again the phone didn’t work (901). Thankfully, someone answered and housekeeping brought up towels right away.

6. The breakfast situation was even more scarce on Sunday morning. If you serve until 9:30, you should have food available after 9am or just close up the breakfast room at 9:00.

7. The ice machines on 12, 11 and 9 are all out of order.

8. The toilet would turn on and run at odd times in our second room so we just closed the door to the bathroom to sleep without interruption.

8. My husband spoke to the manager on Saturday evening who made assurances about providing some compensation for our stay, but we haven’t seen anything.

On a plus note, there is some free parking on the street, the staff was nice and the rooms are pretty well outfitted, though obviously in need of repair.