As announced, I stayed recently for 2 nights in Sofitel Philadelphia, 1st time since the pandemic. This stay was…interesting. Certainly not as bad as Sofitel NY, but still several problems and I hope the entire brand in the US is not going downhill. TBH, I have the feeling the entire US hotel industry is engaged in a very negative spiral in terms of customer service. But, at least, I have to acknowledge a satisfactory recovery here.



At check-in, welcome OK. Welcome drink and letter were given. I had booked a Superior room and was upgraded to a Luxury Suite at the far end of the corridor. That corresponds to a triple upgrade, so not bad at all.

I was very familiar with the room, as I already had the same (at different floors) during several previous stays. I noticed immediately the lack of welcome amenity














Shortly after having arrived in the room, I wanted to connect my devices to the wifi, but surprisingly I could not detect any Sofitel network. I called the front desk and they said in-room wifi was out-of-order. Asked if they had an idea when it would be fixed and they replied unlikely before tomorrow morning (it was around 5 pm when I asked). I was very annoyed by this as I had some important work to do before dinner and, the next morning, I had a Teams meeting at 7 am with Europe. The agent really could not care less and said I could work in the lobby or bar because wifi was working there. I politely said that I was paying for a stay in a room and not for a stay in the lobby and that in no case I would make a Teams meeting from an hotel lobby for confidentiality reasons and to not bother other people around (+ at 7 am, I clearly expect to be in my room).

I hung up upset, then discovered some cleanliness problem on the floor between the desk and the sofa (see picture).





So I went back downstairs, spoke to another agent at front desk about the cleanliness problem and the wifi. He asked me if I wanted to change room and said no, just clean it and for the wifi, he told me that it was not their fault but the problem was entirely with the internet provider. This was certainly a lie, as it was working in the lobby/bar/restaurant. It took more than 1hr for housekeeping to come to the room to clean.

Sofitel PHL is participating to the scam fee consortium. On the room key you have what’s included in the organized robbery. The usual jokes are included (see picture). Funny to see that wifi is granted thanks to this fee, while it’s supposed to be free for ALL members. And you still have to pay this fee even if wifi is not working.




To compensate for the lack of wifi, I had no other choice to use my cell phone to share the roaming connection . As it is a non-US phone, this will represent important data roaming charges as you can imagine. The next morning it was still not working when I left for my appointments.



My blood pressure seriously went up when I came back in the evening and saw that wifi was still not working. Come-on…in 2023, seriously ? I then wrote an email to the GM and to the generic address on the website to complain about all this and also about the lack of welcome amenity in a Sofitel, while thanking them for the Suite upgrade. I also asked for a complete waiver of the scam fee and for a substantial rebate on the daily room rate. It was promptly answered by the Director of room who was apologetic and said that:

• the urban fee would be totally waived
• they will apply a 50% discount on the room rate
• they are sending a welcome amenity to my room right away (it was a bottle of sparking wine)

Very satisfactory response of course, but it would have been much better to not face all those issues.



The next morning, wifi was still not working. At checkout, the agent was not informed of the arrangements for my bill. I had to show the email and she had to call a supervisor to apply the new conditions to my bill.



I had dinner one evening and, colleagues and I had a drink at the bar another evening and the service was very good there. Drink voucher has a face value of $20 (and not 15 as shown on the welcome letter), and can be used for any drink on the menu to cancel the bill or to reduce it by 20$.



Overall, a complicated stay. Some very good aspects (like the room upgrade), but some basics are not ensured (cleanliness, wifi), although good recovery at the end but not spontaneously. Without my upset email, I wouldn’t have obtained anything.