We stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Center City Philadelphia and I would never recommend this hotel to anyone. The rooms were decent (not 3 star quality though), except for the mold in the bathroom and the poor ventilation (the a/c didn't work) in the room. The service at the hotel is horrendous!! Neither me nor my boyfriend smoke but the front desk informed us that we were being charged $250 for smoking. The woman at the front desk was extremely rude!!!! She refused to send anyone to the room to check again while we were there and did not allow us to speak with the supervisor that accused us of smoking in the non-smoking room. After much discussion, management called back to say the charge would be removed. That was a lie! I checked out, and was told my room had no charges. Three days later, the hotel charged my account the $250 and I have been trying for days now to get someone to call me back and no one, not in accounting, not in the front desk and not anyone in management will call me back! I filed a formal complaint with their corporate office. I truly believe the mold in the bathroom made us sick. If you can help it, do not stay at this hotel, save yourself the aggravation. Their management does not know how to treat their guests.

This review is written from the perspective of a business traveler.

This Crowne Plaza is a high-traffic hotel that delivers what's required to support business travelers with minimal fuss and a friendly Philly spirit. While the lobby and other public areas are full of bustle and short on fancy amenities, everything you need is there - and the friendly staff and no-cost business support is more helpful to a successful trip than a chic hipster bar scene.

Pro's:

-Central location one block from the subway
-FREE internet (hooray!)
-Large comfortable work space
-FREE business center where you can print and surf the web without being nickle-and-dimed to death
-In-room amenities like mattress, linens, work space is competitive with higher end brands
-Front desk and support (AV, food and beverage) staff were friendly and enthusiastic across the board

I was in a position where I needed to speak on a webinar at 2 pm, and the hotel sales director was kind enough to extend my checkout to 4 pm so that I could have the privacy I needed to speak on the webinar - that was above and beyond service.

One other pro that I wasn't expecting: the housekeeping staff all spoke English as a first language. This made getting your needs met easier than expected.

Cons:

-It was a very busy hotel, which meant that room service didn't pick up sometimes (although the front desk walked the order down and called me to confirm, so it worked out well).
-It's a multi-use hotel - meetings and other group events mixed with transient travelers, so one day that I was there a large group of middle school children were in the building with all of the chaos, noise and lolling about in hallways that accompanies their ilk. Common areas are fairly narrow and condensed so their presence meant that I had to step over a few sweat-pants clad, floppy creatures to move through the lobby. But overall no big deal.
-Most of my reviews look at the environmental practices of a hotel, and this hotel unfortunately is not in a leadership position here - incandescent lighting blazing away, no recycling. At the time of this review, alas, bad habits are still the norm in most places. Hopefully this will change rapidly as environmental concerns begin to drive market decisions.

I would definitely stay here again.

This was the second time I have stayed at the Crown Plaza with my family. We are a family of 5 so we actually got two connecting rooms. The staff was very friendly, although the parking attendants aren't the sharpest tools in the shed!! The rooms were very clean, although the bathrooms are rather small. The beds are very comfortable!! They are going through renovations, so there was only one elevator. I will stay again!

Pros:We went to Philadelphia (first time) for a quick weekend trip and got this hotel for $65 a night on Priceline. That was a great price for this hotel. The rooms were recently renovated with free internet, a comfy bed with lots of pillows. There was plenty of space though if you want a large or luxurious bathroom you won't find it here. I can't imagine a much more centrally located hotel. We easily walked to the old town area (liberty bell, etc) and also the Phil. Museum of Art.

Cons: We checked into an episode of Cops. At about three in the morning all hell broke loose on our floor. It was mainly rowdy partying and shouting and security tried to calm it down. Eventually the cops were called and people were kicked out of the hotel. It was easy to follow the play by play because the walls are very thin. You'd have to find some pretty soundproofed rooms to keep out sound from people arguing and yelling in halls and rooms but I would say the hotel probably lets a little too much sound through.

Conclusion: I would stay at this hotel at the price I paid and maybe a little more without hesitation. I doubt I'd get a repeat performance of what happened with the party brigade but if I did, at least I'm confident the staff would take care of it. Everything else about the stay was nice.