Priceline Hotel: 3* Philadelphia (Downtown) Crowne Plaza City Cntr

[trvl3]

Beware of bidding three-star for Downtown on Priceline--you may get this. I got it at $84 (on a night on which Hotwire was offering no two-star in Center City below $130) and so it was not bad for the money if I had wanted a two star. But this night, I really wanted a genuine three star and I would rather my bid had been rejected and I had been given the opportunity of choice between lowering my sights to two-star or realizing I would have to pay more for a three star. This hotel is OK if you get it at a low enough price and you must be downtown, but it's definitely not the three-star Priceline has rated it as. And in evaluating price, if you will have a car consider that parking is $28.

Like many reviewers on Tripadvisor (and you'll recognize that one of the recent reviews is mine), I found the room too small and cramped to ever be considered up to three-star standard. Granted, downtown in a major city you expect rooms to be smaller than elsewhere, and so I would consider this an acceptable two star given the above-average quality of furnishings and decor. Just a block from the Liberty Place towers, it is probably a quite satisfactory choice for single business travelers whose first priority is to be in the very center of the office building district.

But for a couple or family on a pleasure visit, this room would have been much too small to be comfortable, and when I asked the front desk for a larger one, they said "This was a Priceline reservation, and all the Priceline rooms are like that." I have been in Manhattan one stars with more usable space. Basically, the room was a long narrow hallway which consumed much of its square footage, slightly widened at the end to be able to put a bed and TV stand/dresser with just enough space for one person to slip between them (sideways.)

This is, in fact, a converted Holiday Inn, and more pillows and toiletries than you would get in a Holiday Inn don't do enough to conceal that fact. Except I've never been in a Holiday Inn with rooms this tiny. Housekeeping seemed fine, and the bedspread, dresser, wallpaper and the picture on the wall were all quite attractive. Just one cheap chair, though (no room for more), a tired looking rug, and a nondescript bathroom which along with the extremely cramped space gave it an overall cheap feel despite the attempts to make it seem upscale.

[thereuare]

Welcome to BetterBidding!

Sorry to hear about your disappointing stay.

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