A comfortable stay
When we go to Philly, we normally stay in the downtown financial core. This time we decided to give the Hyatt a chance, and see what's it like to stay in the Old Town area. In terms of location, this is actually very nice. Quiet, away from all the noise and crowds. And it's not too far from all the touristy stuff or the downtown core. A 20 minute-ish walk takes you to Board and Chestnut streets area. So it's not too bad at all. I like it that after a full day of city stuff, you can go back to the relative quiet of the waterfront.
The physical plant is quite well-maintained. Drive-up entrance is spacious, leading to a large lobby (but a smallish front desk area). Doormen and valets are wonderful and very helpful. In fact I think they are the best of the lot at this hotel. Certainly gives a great first and last impression.
We have a room with 2 doubles. The room was not really that big, and I'd be surprised if it's anywhere near the 390 sq ft that's being brandied about. But it's not small either. Bathroom is quite spacious, though there was a half-inch gap between the two sides of the door closing off the bathroom. If you want privacy...
Air con was okay. Not the quietest (we could not turn it on high due to loud noise coming from it at high), but it did its job. Beds were not too bad. Pillows were lame. TV had very few channels. Internet, the freebie for Plts and Diamonds, was super slow. Clocking at around 0.7 Mbs download. Seriously? Maybe the "premium" version would be faster, I don't know.
Desk lamp had two sockets for power plugs, but neither one seemed to work. So I had to crawl and find an outlet under the desk. The wired internet plug didn't seem to have signals, but I didn't really check too carefully. On this trip, WiFi was good enough.
There was a fridge in the room, so that was good. Coffeemaker had single serve (not Keurig) coffee, one cup each of caffeinated and decaf. Tea was not replenished the second day.
Two glasses in the room, plus the two coffee paper cups. If you have more than 2 people... max occupancy in the room was four, btw.
Towels were HORRIBLE. They took me back in time to Holiday Inns in the 70s. That's how paper thin they were. Absolutely unacceptable for a Hyatt Regency. Come on!
Noise insulation was very good. Could not hear any noise from neighbours, other than the occasion (thoughtless)banging of doors.
Not a bad stay by any means, but nothing great to write home about either (except for the doormen and the valet).