Holiday Inn Express Philadelphia - Penns Landing, an IHG Hotel

The hotel is located in a fantastic location, a short walk to so many must see sights and restaurants. The river walk in the evening was beautiful. Staff were very accommodating and attentive. Wonderful breakfast in the morning with lots of options. We will definitely be recommending this property and recommend to our family and friends.

This hotel feels dated. If I hadn’t paid so much for the room, I may not have taken the time to say so. But I expected more — even from Holiday Inn Express. I’ve recently stayed in hotels in the hearts of Chicago and D.C. significantly less expensive and infinitely better. Maybe Philadelphia is more costly? Eh. I’d put the quality at a third of the spend. The management can’t control the noise, but some readers may want to know this isn’t a quiet property. My room looked over a highway where vehicles whizzed by late into the night. The other side of the hotel is directly on a road that is “cruised” in the evening by groups of wheelie-popping, engine-revving motorcycles, the noise of which echos off of the boundary wall between the hotel property and the highway. The guests are noisy too. A number of people — children and adults — spent the afternoons running and yelling in the hall. During the middle of the night (2:30 a.m.), other guests stood in the hall talking in normal voices. I heard every syllable as though my door were open. I realize there will be noise at hotels. This was more than normal. The parking attendants seemed perpetually stressed. On the other hand, on the final day, one attendant was perhaps too relaxed, as he dangled a cigarette between his fingers and took a drag while getting the keys to my car. (The night before, I had to double-park my car and hand over the keys because the lot was full.) All that said, it seemed safe and clean.

I stayed here with my family. Had an excellent experience. Starting from the staff to the cleanliness, we have no complaints. Because we stayed for 5 days, i found breakfast spread to be a bit boring. They can keep changing like one day scrambled eggs one day omelettes.

Fire alarm went off close to midnight. It was a false alarm, but no attempt was made by the staff to notify guests of that fact until we climbed down 8 flights of stairs and got to the lobby. Luckily all the guests kept their cool but if there had been a stampede to the exit, someone could have gotten hurt. Nobody from the staff attempted to enter the stairwell and tell any guests that it was safe to return to their rooms. Apparently the fire alarm was pulled by a couple of kids who were not staying at the hotel, which made me quite unnerved about security -- how were they even able to enter the building that late at night without a keycard? The whole thing seemed fishy. Many guests were really upset by the situation. I like this hotel's location near Penn's Landing and if you get the River View it's a great scene from the window, but I must say that this time my experience was not great. I was able to get a partial refund (less than 20% of my total cost) but I had to spend almost a half an hour jumping through bureaucratic hoops to do so.