The Notary Hotel, Philadelphia, Autograph Collection by Marriott

My family and I were in town for marathon weekend. This hotel was one of the hotels recommended and affiliated with the marathon. I was extremely happy with the service- kind, prompt, and attentive, and the location is hard to beat. We arrived about 2 hours early for check in, and we were able to access our room. For checkout, marathon runners get an extended checkout time at 1pm. Unfortunately, I hurt my knee and it took my family and I awhile before we could find each other after the race. They were kind enough to extend checkout to 2pm. Our train ride to NYC wasn't until 7pm, and the hotel held our bags while we continued to explore the city after checkout. I would 100% stay here again.

Aside from small issues that I decided not to bring up with the staff, I had a good stay. I booked a 'Studio Suite, 1 King, Sofa bed, Corner room' which unfortunately didn't have the courthouse view that the site has. Instead I got a rather depressing view of the Marriot, a court? building taking up almost the whole view on the left/north side, and Reading Market Terminal. The view did grow on me, because the sunrise over the bridge was pretty nice. The main issue for me was the cleanliness...the room LOOKED clean and if you don't look hard it WAS clean. But the headboard, right where you lay your head, had a lot of dust in the little crevices. There was also visible stains on the wall from who knows what being spilled. But, given it was a tiny amount of dust, I decided not to complain. Moving on, the room was huge. The only thing I didn't like was the empty foyer when you walk in. It's just a big empty space with tile floor doing nothing. When you walk in all the way, you get a huge studio that is big and spacey. The couch was great for relaxing on. The bed was just right for me, I always like their firm beds. For sleep, it WAS quiet, but I could hear some things from Reading Market. Nothing the hotel has control over but I will mention it. One was a guy screaming during the day at the Market (each day I was there) and another was a guy playing his drums. The hotel also had complimentary bottled water in the rooms. No upcharge! The coffee brand for their coffee makers was actually good (Green Mountain?). I had daily housekeeping, so they replaced the water daily. I am usually very tidy, so all housekeeping really had to do for me was make my bed, clean the sink, and replace towels. They did a good job at that. I did try the cafe, wasn't thrilled with the latte, but the drip coffee was decent. For food, I only had the fruit cup which was tasty and ripe, not soggy or old. The restaurant I didn't try, but I did order a drink to my room. It took about half an hour to receive it. I don't drink often so I can't compare the drink to anything. I didn't drive so I can't comment on valet or parking. I did find the guy at check in to be friendly and informative, especially when informing me of the layout of the room - like the dresser drawers were fake and actually hiding the minifridge. So I did enjoy my stay, the dust at first really put me off but I liked this hotel. In the future I will make sure to specify the view I'd like to have!