Tag

Hotel review

Browsing

I’ve got to tell you, that although the Logan Hotel is within walking distance of Love Park where the iconic square Love sculpture lives, I didn’t love the Logan Hotel. The Logan Hotel, is a Hilton Hotel in their “Curio” line of hotels. The Logan Hotel used to be The Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, so I had high hopes for this trip. Apparently being a Hilton Curio hotel means kitschy decorating and dark hallways. (If you’d like to see some pictures of the artsy decor click HERE)

I’m going to go with the negatives first:

On Sundays and Mondays there is no food or drink available in the hotel. Nothing. The in-house restaurants and bars are closed. They don’t even have a pantry where you can grab a snack. I didn’t know this before booking the hotel and as I was coming in on Monday, I was hoping to maybe get a bite to eat and have a glass of wine after a long day of work. I had to walk down the street to have my needs met.

The hallways are so dark that if I was walking down a street and saw an alleyway this dark, I would run the other way.

A glass of house wine at the hotel bar is $18 minimum. If the basic “house” wine is $18 a glass, imagine how much the good stuff must be.

The Cafe downstairs doesn’t open until 7:00 a.m. So much for grabbing a quick bite before leaving for an early meeting.

Need or want housekeeping? They don’t automatically do it, and they don’t tell you when you check in that you need to ask for housekeeping if you want it.

There is no business center. I had to ask the front desk to make copies for me.

They don’t have their own parking. If you valet park, they’ll charge you $58 a day to drive your car around the corner to a public parking garage. If you park yourself at the same garage around the corner, it costs $18.

That paints a bleak picture initially, but there are some positives too. I’ll lay them out and you can decide if the negatives outweigh the positives.

  • I had a big beautiful room with a great view.
  • They have a rooftop bar. I’m a sucker for a rooftop bar/restaurant. 
  • It’s located in a great spot. Easy walking distance to Love Park, The Rocky Balboa Museum and other attractions.
  • Nice swimming pool and workout room.
  • For what is supposed to be a high end type hotel it had a moderate price tag of $177 (plus taxes and fees) for the nights I booked. It’s likely more expensive on the weekend.

That’s my review of The Logan Hotel Philadelphia. I give it 2.5 Philly’s out of 5. Hilton Hotels, I hope you read this and fix some of the issues because I really like the location.

Safe travel everybody! ~Phil

Philadelphia?!!? Are you really going to vacation in Philadelphia? Probably not. Although Philly does have a lot of things going for it, it’s not anyone’s big summer vacation and in the winter, the weather makes it a dicey proposition. Believe me, I’d like to constantly post reviews from gorgeous tropical locales every week, but I don’t travel to beaches every week. Sometimes in life you just have to go to Philadelphia. I was there recently for work and had a nice trip.

I chose the Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City for three reasons: 1) It was in the center of the city, close to a handful of places I needed to go to. 2) It was during the NBA playoffs and the Philadephia 76’ers were doing well and I hoped to sit at the hotel bar with a bunch of crazy Philly fans and watch that night’s game. 3) I’m a long time Hilton Honors member and I love to add to my Hilton points totals!

Unfortunately for me, the hotel bar/restaurant was closed for renovations, so I had to walk down the street to a Chinese sports bar. The Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City is in the center of the city and also in the center of Philadelphia’s Chinatown district, so yes Virginia there is a Chinese sports bar and I’ve written a review of it HERE.

The location of the hotel is convenient as it is connected to the Philadelphia Convention Center by a parking garage. The bad news is that the parking garage is kind of iffy. It’s very downtown city garagey. It didn’t look or smell great and the elevator to the hotel was out of service when I was there.

My room

The hotel, however, I can’t complain about. The staff were friendly and helpful. Everything in the hotel was clean, neat, and up to date. The room you see above was a Hilton Honors Diamond member free upgrade from the standard Queen bed room I had booked. It was impeccably clean and very spacious. Also, as you can see from the picture below, they are not stingy with the pillows!

When I wanted some effing pillows they hooked me up!

If you’re traveling for business Hilton Hotels always have a good workspace and free wi-fi.

I give the Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City 3.5 Philly’s out of 5. The hotel itself was fantastic and if you’re going to the convention center it’s perfectly located. The drawbacks are that the parking garage and area of the city are a little too rough if you’re staying there with your family. I was there alone for business, so I rather like the vibe of being in Chinatown, and I absolutely loved the Chinese sports bar, so don’t forget to read about it HERE, as well as my story about An Amish Buggy in Chinatown over at The Phil Factor.

Have a great week, and safe travels! ~Phil