Lonely Planet Review

This hotel's central location, pleasing City Hall views and gilded lobby compensate for sterile rooms lacking in character. Bland as they are, the beds are new and comfortable, and the TV is big.

Many of this hotel's rooms enjoy privileged views over Philadelphia's sculptural City Hall and the nearby Masonic Temple, another impressive building. Because the hotel occupies the architecturally protected City Hall Annex, the Marriott's narrow lobby looks much like it did back in 1926 - a beautiful combination of tall ceilings with gilded coffers, chandeliers, and scads of marble and brass. In typical fashion, the rooms upstairs have been stripped of any early-20th-century character, and are an amalgam of the usual: drab forest-green carpet, comfortable, boring beds with too-big televisions at their feet, coffee makers, ironing boards, and clean forgettable bathrooms. Since the hotel is positioned only a few feet from the centre of Center City, most attractions are within a 15-minute walk of your bed.