Great location - and that’s where the positives end.Only one elevator operational.Hotel overall is tired at best - the rooms are in dire need of updating / furniture is worn and stained - limited furniture in rooms - no dressers - drawers - carpet worn and stained Time for the owners to dig into their checkbooks and refurnish property immediately !Advise staying anywhere else !

i’ve stayed here every couple of weesk (1 or 2 nights) for the past three months. Overall, somewhere between a 3 to 4 rating is fair. I personally haven’t had any issues, but some of my colleagues said they’ve had -ones and woild never stay there. I couldn’t confirm that. The staff is fine, not extraordinarily helpful, but not rude. The rooms are perfectly adequate. It is very dark as there is no overhead lighting, only lamps. The beds are reasonably comfortable and the room is decently spacious. There is a restaurant downstairs, but I’ve never eaten there. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it but it’s probably fine for a short stay if you’re if you need to be nearby.

am a Marriott Bonvoy member and have stayed at many Marriott properties, but I have never had an experience that made me question the security of my belongings the way this stay did.My husband and I stayed at the Renaissance Philadelphia Downtown Thursday through Monday. I had my work laptop with me and, when we arrived Thursday night, placed it in a black laptop sleeve inside the laptop pocket of my backpack. The backpack stayed on a chair in our room for the remainder of the stay.Friday afternoon, we returned to find our room door completely unresponsive. Our key cards would not even cause the lock to light up. Engineering came and repaired/reset the lock, which took about 15–20 minutes.Saturday afternoon, we returned to find our room fully cleaned. Our bed had been made despite a pile of dirty clothes being left on it, items on the bathroom counter had been moved, and towels we had left hanging were removed and replaced. I thought it was unusual, but at the time I had no reason to believe anything was wrong.Sunday afternoon, while packing, I found my empty laptop sleeve inside the open main compartment of my backpack. My laptop was gone.My husband and I searched the entire room, our luggage, backpack, and car multiple times. We immediately reported the missing laptop to the hotel.While speaking with a front desk supervisor and housekeeper, we learned something very concerning: both housekeepers assigned to our floor had called off on Saturday, meaning our room should not have been cleaned that day. Staff could not immediately explain who had entered and serviced our room.The housekeeper also told us that normal protocol was NOT to make a bed when guests had clothing on it and NOT to replace towels that had been left hanging—both of which had happened in our room.When we mentioned that our door lock had malfunctioned Friday and engineering had worked on it, the housekeeper immediately told the supervisor he needed to contact engineering. The supervisor then began trying to determine who had worked on our door and who had cleaned our room.We left for prepaid dinner reservations while they investigated. When we returned, there was still no meaningful update.We ultimately called the Philadelphia police ourselves. Officers arrived around 1–1:30 a.m., took my statement, and provided a police report.The next morning, we again asked for an update before checking out. No one could provide one. The manager on duty simply handed me the General Manager's card and told me to contact them.The only employee who showed genuine urgency was the housekeeper who had brought us towels Sunday. I appreciated her honesty and concern.I understand that a hotel cannot automatically be blamed whenever a guest reports a missing item. My concern is the combination of circumstances: our door lock malfunctioned, our room was serviced on a day when both assigned housekeepers had called off, it was cleaned in ways staff said were inconsistent with procedure, and management could not immediately tell us who had entered our room.This was my employer's laptop, making the situation especially serious.I left Philadelphia with a police report, a missing work laptop, and no meaningful explanation from the hotel.The location is excellent for the historic district, but after this experience, I cannot recommend staying here.

You can't beat the location of this hotel. It's within easy walking distance to the Old City historic district, with multiple cafes and food options. So much to see and do! We only stayed for 2 nights but I wish we would have stayed longer to explore the sights. It's truly such a special place.The hotel itself is tired. We arrived at 10:45 pm with no one to check us in, or frankly welcome us to the hotel. It felt odd, and unlike your typical renaissance. The valet was unsure of how to answer our questions, and there was no one at the bar or in the lobby. It almost didn't feel open, and was unsettling. After we finally got checked in, our family was hungry so my husband and son ventured off to find food. Having lived in larger cities with lots of late-night food options, we thought Philly would be no different, but food was scarce and the city seemed very shut down. We learned that the city shuts down early, so plan accordingly. The rooms were fine, but bathrooms unclean and black wallpapered walls were covered in stains. Didn't love that.So many historic sites were within easy walking distance. We recommend starting at the beautiful visitor's center and going from there. We did a hop-on, hop-off bus ride to get an idea of the layout of the city, and enjoyed coffee at La Columbe and lunch/drinks at Cafe Madis. We were able to easily take the subway to the Philly's game (felt very safe on the way there, but even with leaving the game early we ran into some variables on the way home that were unnerving for our kids). We decided to walk from City Hall subway station to our hotel (around 9:30 at this point) and I wouldn't recommend this walk with kids at night- there weren't enough people around to feel safe. The next day we were able to take advantage of the Philly Phlash (catch it at the visitor's center) to see the Rocky steps (this only stops at specific tourist sites). We loved this- highly recommend. Bottom-line, come for the location, but this is not your usual Renaissance quality. Loved the city, but disappointed in the hotel.

Even though this Historic District hotel is only a couple blocks away from The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall - it needs some work. I stayed here for my son’s wedding since there was a block of rooms reserved for wedding guests. The bathroom had peeling paint on the ceiling, a toilet that wouldn’t flush properly, and the tub would not drain well as you showered. The furniture in the room had marks and worn spots - seemed old and outdated. And apparently the furniture was similar in the suite that the wedding couple had. We had one family member whose toilet flooded their bathroom. There’s a textured wallpaper in the bathroom that collects hair and lint - not appealing. The service was great - especially housekeeping. We had the beds made and bathroom cleaned, as well as fresh towels each day. I requested a late checkout and they were very accommodating since we had to drive family members to the airport and had to come back for our luggage. Convenient area but needs a little sprucing up.