Inhospitality and Inattention to detail

I had the misfortune of having stayed at the Loews in September of this year. My trip, a business trip, had been planned for two months in advance, including reservations. Upon arrival, the rooms were not ready. What was supposed to have been King non smoker ended up being double non smoking- with ashtrays. The comforter was thread-bare and stained, the mattress' were from a Scottish Inn liquidation sale, there was a half of a coke left for us in the fridge, and our room was never made up on the second day. People from our group that arrived at the same time we did, which was our appointed check-in time, got to their rooms very late that evening- 10pm. The staff was ill prepared and un-apologetic. On our last night there was a 1oz bottle of scotch on the night stand and a letter of apology from the management staff. All of the drink machines on the floors were out of service, room service prices were atrocious, and I had to finally drag a parking attendant away from the lobby to get my car because the garage attendant sat talking on the phone behind the glass window looking straight at me-- ignoring me-- for over 8 minutes. After having stayed at a Comfort Inn in Vineland, NJ the nite before, I can truely say that it was the best $79 I ever spent. Maybe Loews should look into training their new hires in South Jersey

Slow room service

Just came back from a 4 night stay at the Lowes. It was only average and I expected much more. I'm a Loews First member and therefore stayed on the Club level. I had a view looking at a brick wall. THe bedding was less than average (not dirty, but you didn't feel comfortable pulling the covers up to your face either). Room service was VERY slow. It took ~1.5 hours every time I ordered dinner, which was 3 times. Breakfast took about 50 minutes. Food was good, but I was starving by the time it arrived. Also, very limited room service menu after 10pm.Note: this is a "pet friendly" hotel. There was a dog on the club level barking frantically at midnight for about 1 and a half.

Great Breakfast!

Loews was in a great location, a brisk but reasonable walk to historical sites. Having a room on the top floor enabled us gorgeous views. We were very disappointed that the pool was closed the day we arrived as we had paid extra to use fitness. Our extra payment included breakfast on our floor and that was fabulous. The staff was very helpful and the room was slightly better than nice. The overall apperance of the hotel was mixed, a little tattered, but the marble and stone walls added elegance.

An All Around Awful

I should have really considered all the other terrible reviews on this hotel. It looks great in the brochure, but the modern elligance is trashed by the ignorance of the staff and management. The hotel was and poorly taken care of - just as you will be. On arrival, I was greeted by "I am sorry, but we don't have any parking, unless you purchased the Valentine's Package". I was forced to park 3 blocks away in a public ramp with high rates, no security and minimal hours available to get the car out. The room I reserved (2 mo. in advance) was supposed to have a great view - away from the elevators. Instead, I got a view of people working an office building and sleepless nights. They gave me a room right next to the noisey elevators, with hair in the tub and an unstocked bar. I had dinner reservations at thier restaurant, the PSFS. As it approached 7:30pm, we went down to the restaurant and were turned away, "I am sorry mam, we are only serving a Valentine's Package Dinner." The reservations I made weeks ago went unacknowledged. If you don't want to be totally disappointed - stay somewhere else. These reviews are of the real thing!!

New Year's Eve

I must start by stating our new name for this hotel

"THE BLOWES". Our new years eve would have been better if we took $400.00 and threw it out the window. We had heard so many wonderful things about the hotel and we were completely disappointed. We checked in to a filthy dirty room, we were moved to a room 11 floors from where our friends were staying, and our night was a total disaster. After playing musical chairs with our room, we picked up our tickets for the ballroom package. This package promised "hot and cold hors 'doeuvres" and "open bar". When we opened the ticket envelope it included five drink tickets per person. Immediately I called and questioned this, and was told the hotel was required to provide those tickets but the bar would be open for as many drinks as we wanted. We saw no food this evening, after waiting in line for a half hour for our first drink I tasted the cheapest wine ever created, and after our tickets were running low, I waited another half hour in line for tickets for more drinks and was told they were out of tickets. I spent the whole night going up and down in the elevator to my room so I could pour a glass of wine from the bottle we brought with us. I also had to listen to a number of people brag about how they had never paid for the event, all they had to do was get dressed up and come down and no one asked them for tickets. We were completely robbed ringing in our new year and the thief was the Loews Hotel.

Great place to hang your hat

LOVED the whole experience - from arrival to the fitness center to the constant greetings of the staff throughout my stay. Would definitely recommend to anyone traveling to Philly on business or pleasure. And be sure to try the homemade cookies!

Arrogance in Philly

The staff at Loews Philadelphia Hotel were terrific - but the policies of the hotel were arrogant in the extreme. I have stayed at premiere hotels in cities across the U.S. and never before encountered such high-handedness.

1) The long-distance telephone charges are billed at the operator-assisted rate PLUS a 50% surcharge. The hotel suggested that anyone having a problem with these rates should contact the Federal Communications Commission - as if the FCC had anything to do with Loews' corporate greed.

2) Room Service bills automatically included an 18% gratuity and a $2.50 "delivery fee." And the wait staff still was looking for an additional tip.

3) I asked about late check-out (one the day before I had planned to leave) and was told that check-out could be extended for one hour only because the hotel was full. However, our convention was closing that night, and I had been told that there were plenty of rooms available if I wanted to stay beyond the reserved time. (Fat chance!)

4) I asked about leaving a day early and learned that there was a $50 surcharge per day to leave before your planned departure date.

5) The day I left, the temperature was 95 degrees farenheit with high humidity. A heat advisory had been in effect for 2 days. I noticed that the staff in the (uncooled) garage were wearing wool trousers and vests -- a different uniform from when I arrived. When I asked why they were wearing wool, I learned that these were the winter uniforms. The management had not liked how the summer uniforms looked and required the staff to change to the winter ones. The summer uniforms had looked fine to me: they were neat, professional, and cool. Way to treat your staff!

Now I believe the comments from Internet

Before my stay in Loews in Philly. I happened to see the previous 2 reviews about it. Be really honest, I didn't believe it before there are so many blah on Internet. But now I am telling you, you really have to respect what people say on the Internet. Here is what happened: when I checked in, the frond desk gave me a wrong room which only has a sofa. So I went back to them asking for a change. The staff there didn't even bother to say a single sorry. Actually he didn't say anything but give me a key to another room. It made me think that's my fault. And this is not the worst. About 12am in the midnight, I was awaken by some sound from a nearby room. I think it's some kind of alarm. Then I called the front desk to send someone to take a look what happened because I can't sleep with that noise. I waited for about 15 minutes and the noise was still there. Then I called again and insisted I need to talk with some manager. A manager talked with me, instead of saying a single sorry, she asked me to lower my voice. Finally someone went into that room and turned off the alarm. But it took me a long time getting into sleep again.

My conclusion is: people there don't know how to say sorry when they make mistake. You will feel sorry if you decide to stay there.

Poor Management

Reasons not to stay here: 1) They promise you a king bed over the phone but try to push double beds on you when you get to the front desk. 2) Check-in is at 3 pm, but they didn't have rooms available until 4:30. (We were told it takes a long time to clean the hundreds of rooms they have. Gimme a break.) I'm glad I didn't have an important dinner or business meeting to attend! They were telling people to change in the gym's dressing room!! 3) They put charges on my bill that didn't belong there. Although the front desk assured me these charges were taken off my card before I left, they showed up on my next statement.

Most expensive Motel 6 in Philadelphia!

Save your money and head across the street to the Marriott. For all the greeters dressed up in tuxes in the lobby, the Loews offers service of a quality synonymous with its name, Low. At ~200 dollars/night, there are some things that you expect from a hotel: bathrobes, more than one trashcan, pads of paper to write on when checking voicemail, etc. Aside from the minor annoyances, we found the staff at the Loews to be atrocious. The maid service was inconsistent and inadequate. Our coffee cups in the morning were not replaced, but rinsed badly in the sink. When we called for replacement cups so we could drink coffee with breakfast, they arrived at our door 45 minutes later (beware, room service has a 40% surcharge). We walked in on one of the maids rummaging through our drawers. One of my colleagues found something green and growing on the inside of her shower curtain, and another found hair on her pillow upon checking into her room. Another colleague had a manager to agree that the $10 a day gym, $24 a day parking and overwhelming phone fees were an unprofessional way of nickel and diming the customers. The staff was patronizing and unresponsive. We registered a complaint with one of the managers that never was recorded. They promised to take off the gym fees to appease us, yet the 10$ a day to use the gym was still on the bill upon check out (the person attending the desk in the gym, spent his time working out and watching television). When we asked how much 76er's tickets were, the concierge told us to call Ticketmaster. When we asked them to reserve us a rental car for a day, they told us to walk to 20th and Market on our lunch break from the conference and find the rental car companies ourselves. There are no rental car companies on 20th and Market.

I work for a company with more than 7,000 North American employees who will never stay at a Loews hotel ever again.