Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City-Convention Center

Very nice, with a few reservations

I'd never stayed at this particular hotel, although the chain itself has a good reputation. The good things: the staff was uniformly friendly and helpful; the room was beautifully laid out and tastefully outfitted, with a rather large bathroom; the breakfast selection (which came with the room) was excellent. My reservations were about the sorts of niggling things that might matter less for other people, so I'm citing them: --The location -- _behind_ the Convention Center -- means an extra few blocks' walk (through an area where a few homeless people sleep) to get to Market Street, the gayborhood, or other nightlife and restaurants. OTOH, it's near Chinatown. --The 24/7 coffee service in the lobby is a wonderful perk (so to speak!), and it would have been even better if they had urns that kept the coffee consistently hot. As it stood, whether the coffee was hot or not was sort-of-a-crapshoot. --The lightbulbs in the room -- lamps, no overhead -- were strong enough for general lighting, but not quite strong enough to read by, either in the bed or in the comfortable armchair-and-ottoman set (which had its own stand-up lamp). When I reported this to the desk on my first full morning, however, I got excellent service: first the woman at the desk brought up regular 75-watt bulbs from the bodega next door; then, a half-hour later, a fellow from facilities came up with the newfangled-type bulbs, which were even better. --The cable-TV system was a bit wonky, prone to "freezing" on certain stations. (For those who like PBS, it's buried way up on channel 50.) But I really enjoyed my stay, and I'm looking forward to staying again.