Franklin Hotel at Independence Park

This hotel has recently become part of the Marriott family, and is transitioning to a Renaissance property. As a Marriott Platinum Lifetime member (200 nights/​year) — I see them all, and this is going to be a great fit. It’s perfectly nice as is, just a bit «thread bare» on the furniture in both the common areas and rooms, but very comfortable. Bellmen are excellent, fast and friendly. Delivery of the car is quick, since they park within the building — as opposed to the Residence Inn and Courtyard in Center City, which take forever. Cozy lobby bar. Bartender a 22 year veteran. Dining room staff gracious at breakfast. Great views of the park, skyline, Delaware River. Tons of dining and drinking options steps away. Only 2 drawbacks: the WiFi does suck, and as another guest reported, there was a lot of long ladies (housekeepers) hair in my bathroom 2 days in a row. Yet, I’m going back for 2 nights next week. A great stay. No guest laundry, but I found a great wash/​fold on S. 5^th@South St. Quick walk/​Über; and cheap. Drop it off, go eat and pick it up.

Had a business meeting here. Hotel was ok, little dated. Event team and staff were great, front desk team wasn’t as friendly.
All in all, decent experience. Rooms were nice and the location is as good as it gets.

I was in Philadelphia for business and saw that a new hotel appeared on my Marriott iPhone app. The Franklin Hotel was recently purchased by Marriott from Omni hotels and is going to become a Renaissance property. During my stay it was under renovations, however, it was still fantastic. The best part is the proximity to Independence Park, downtown, and I-​95. You really can’t beat it. I stayed in a king suite with a lovely view. I enjoyed the room service menu for dinner and the steak was acceptable. I hope to back in Philadelphia again and this is where I’ll plan to stay.

A 7 star location, great staff, and a nice room outweigh any inadequacies
First and most importantly there is no better place from which to visit the sights of the old city. Museums, parks, shopping, and top tier restaurants (e.g. Buddakan, Amada) are all literally just a block or two away. And the staff were all exemplary — from the front desk to the valets to the guy who made up our sofabed to room service — everyone was gracious and helpful.
Our room was spacious and had an amazing view overlooking the park. The lobby is quite attractive and the restaurant/​bar looked beautiful though we did not eat or drink downstairs. There was a coffeemaker in the room and though we only ordered cold items — the continental and yogurt/​granola/​berry breakfasts — we were very happy with room service. And unlike other reviewers we found the Wi-​Fi to be more than sufficient and the valet parking to be prompt, convenient, and inexpensive for downtown in a major city.
All that said, there is no getting around the fact that this hotel is old. While the public spaces are charming and beautiful the rooms and hallways are in need of a refurbishment. Neither the bed nor the sofabed were up to usual Marriott standards and the toilet made weird, loud noises. That said, the next time we visit Philly we would stay here again in a heartbeat.

While this is not a five-​start hotel, we definitely had a fantastic experience and, hence the five-​start rating.
Apparently this hotel has been taken over by the Marriot and I guess they’ve done some work here because it was quite nice. We accidentally went to the big Marriott over by the convention center and I’m so glad this was the hotel we actually stayed in. It’s smaller and more quaint and, at least for us, was very quiet.
The room was clean, neat, and bigger than I expected. Though the downstairs décor is a little gaudy, I found the room tastefully decorated. View outside the window was wonderful. Staff was friendly and accommodating, especially the doormen who were delightful. The shower head was blessedly tall which is a big deal for my over 6′ husband who often has to hunch to fit. Water pressure was perfect and there was never a problem with temperature. Though neither of us liked the (very squishy) pillows, the bed was quite comfortable and didn’t have that big body dent in the middle that happens so often. There were even more pillows in the closet, which we didn’t use, though I appreciated the extra blanket in there (I’m always colder than my husband).
I had no problems with WiFi, unlike some other visitors.
The location is really great. The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall are literally just down the street and reasonably priced overnight parking (for Philly) is a short walk. There are plenty of restaurant options nearby if you don’t feel like dining in the hotel (we didn’t). The bar drinks are OMG expensive, but that’s what I’ve come to expect from any hotel.
My only complaints are that the hot tub wasn’t working and the lap pool was definitely not as «heated» as we expected. This is actually part of the spa attached to the hotel, so no points deducted from the hotel. It was disappointing to note that the hotel was unaware of the broken hot tub until we told them. Bad communication from the spa, clearly!

The Franklin Hotel was an excellent experience at a really reasonable price for Center City/​Independence Mall. The rooms were clean and nice. Basic, but no complaints. The lobby is adorable with a kitschy little bar next to it. The décor is a little over the top in a fun way with music that really sets the mood. Our room had a really nice view of the Delaware! I think the hotel was recently taken over by Marriott and they’re making nice improvements.

Up Sides:
+ The location of this hotel is fantastic for sightseeing.
+ generally quiet. (See below) street noise is minimal.
Down Sides:
— Very spotty wifi service which was almost unusable our first night here.
— fixtures in the bathroom were rusting. Rust and «other stuff» was growing along the tub edge.
— although generally quiet, the walls are quite thin. Having a good night is dependent on your neighbors. We stayed three nights and the neighbors on Saturday had a really good time, at 8, at 11, at 3 am, and again at 7 am.

An email to the fine people at The Franklin Hotel…
«We recently stayed at The Franklin Hotel at Independence Park in Philadelphia — 2 rooms, 2 nights. It was a very unpleasant experience to say the least. Upon arriving, we were given a room and then were told it was the wrong room, so we had to move. No big deal. The room we received had plumbing issues in the bathroom. Water flooding. We were moved again. Not a huge deal. We were made aware that this hotel was in transition over to a Marriott property and the staff wasn’t very happy. Not a major deal, just strange to hear. The following morning, we requested our car from valet and were told it was going to take 30 minutes to get the car. Valet at $ 38/​day and 30 minutes to obtain our car is a little absurd. I inquired why this was the case and was told „That’s just what it is.“ I inquired how it could be that we were paying so much for valet for this service and was told…“That’s the going rate in Philadelphia. Everyone charges that much and that’s just how it is.» Upon returning early evening, the room was made up sloppily and we found hair all over the bathroom tub. We had not used the shower that morning. Food was left in the hallway all day… including a dirty diaper. I took a picture to show the staff and was offered an apology but nothing more than that. This was one of the worst experiences at any hotel I’ve ever had. Sincerely. I understand that you’re in the process or pretty complete to the switch-​over. You guys have a lot of work to do with this one. I’m a positive person, but this stay really put a damper on my time in Philadelphia this time around. Thank you.”

I don’t go to many hotels, and since I am a Philly guy, I rarely spend the night somewhere besides my home. We decided to take a staycation this year and booked a hotel in Old City. The accomodations were great and the customer service leading up to our time was also excellent. A few highlights (and lowlights):
— First of all, Old City is a great place to stay. A ton to do and walking distance Rittenhouse Square (where most of our reservations were).
— The first night, our sink wouldn’t drain properly. At midnight, an engineer came to our room and fixed the problem promptly.
— The sauna, hot tub, and pool are great!
— I left a back behind and was called back in less than 24 hours about it. That’s a fast response time, but I was disappointed I couldn’t simply travel back to the hotel to get it.
— In a three night stay, housekeeping came once.
All in all, it was great and great enough for us to be back (if we ever find ourselves in this unusual situation).