JohnnyP

Stayed a few weeks ago at the Element in Philadelphia (which is attached to the W and the Ritz Carlton).

• Lobby is on 2nd floor with lots of seating and nooks as well as business center and dining area.
• As Platinum, upgraded to a corner rooms (junior suite?) at check-in. Very welcoming team overall. They invited me to a happy hour but I was busy and not able to attend.
• Room was really well sized with couch, desk, kitchen and bathroom. Overall felt like they could have laid it out better and put in some couches. View was fantastic over Philly and town hall.
• Modern furnishings and clean. Amenities were from Pharmacopia. Desk and chair were really comfortable (rare in a hotel room!) and Wi-Fi was fast.
• Breakfast was free and ample in the morning. Lots of carb choices (bread, bagels that were actually decent, donuts and danishes) as well as good hot options (scrambled eggs with spinach, sausage, oatmeal) as well as overnight oats, chopped pears and apples, strawberries and a Greek yogurt station. Coffee was meh.
• Front desk had no problem accommodating a 4pm late check out

Overall, great property in a good location. Also really enjoyed restaurants that were in a ~10 min walking radius: Love Restaurant and A.Kitchen+Bar.

JohnnyP

Some photos of the Element Philadelphia rooms.


Hallways, rooms were decently insulated from sound.

Large foyer of unused space in the corner room, high floor (junior suite?)

Really comfortable desk chair for working!

Kitchen area. Stocked with the basics for 2 people, but probably not realistically more. Trader Joe’s was 4 blocks away.

Kitchen area.

Closet held iron and ironing board

Good size bathroom with walk in shower.

Pharmacopia amenities were nice and felt like a little step up from a lot of the crap in entry level hotels these days.

Shower amenities in dispensers

Happy

Anybody recently stayed at either Element or The Notary?

I am trying to decide which one to stay in mid April. A week ago we decided to change Philly from a layover to a stopover for a few days. When I checked the hotel scene, I discovered unfortunately the weekend of our week in Philly has a Bad Bunny Concert (what is that?), hotel rates go thru the roof. We barely caught the nearby Resident Inn with a large top up on 35K cert for Sat and Sun before it too, ran up a lot. For Thur and Fri, I don’t want to stay at RI, am looking at either Element or The Notary, The Notary is in very old setting but is literally next door to RI, easier to move then Element though only a few min walk away.

Would appreciate any updates on both Element and The Notary.

phltraveler

Haven't been to the notary, but the Element is a very nice hotel. Valet parking is pricy at $60/day, but there is a garage not too far that's closer to $40/day (also valet). Mondays through Thursdays they have free beer, wine, local cheese, and bread in the lobby from 530pm-7pm. The building and rooms are new, shower water is hot, wifi is fast, elevators fast, staff very courteous and attentive. Shades are motorized, kitchenette (stovetop, fridge, dishwasher), there's a full size fridge with freezer and a filtered water tap at the kitchen sink (nice for us "fill a huge water bottle types" when paired with the ice cube tray in the freezer).

The only con I would say for the Element is the breakfast is not great... being in the heart of the city, there's a bunch of great places you could go to that aren't far. It's serviceable if you're not picky on breakfast or want to save money by using breakfast included in the rate.

I generally prefer it to the Aloft as the rooms are larger, there's a full size fridge w/ the filtered water. The Aloft is a very nice property too, but I end up there when I'm traveling solo for work, so I don't have to worry about room size or feeding a family.

The other issue is that they'll provide two towels and washcloths for a two day stay... I just end up calling the front desk asking for more towels. I've offered to go down to get them but they've always insisted on bringing them up to my room instead.