Really nice stay for the money. Nice staff except for the little short balding bartender. Good room and very comfortable bed. The location is convienent. Would stay there again.

I had business in the area for 3 days, and had my choice of hotels. I usually choose a hotel from the Hilton Group or the Holiday Inn group. From the websites and mapblast, it looked like the Crowne Plaza Allentown was centrally located and the rate was favorable. Knowing NOTHING about the city, I booked this hotel rather than a Holiday Inn Express just a few miles away.

If I had to do it again, I probably would have choose then Express. When I shared with my co-workers where I was staying, they rolled their eyes and said to be careful - the city was working to improve center city with sreetscaping, but hadn't relocated the residents yet.

I drove into the area and knew what they meant. I passed pawn shops, a bail bondsman, and a few homeless. Didn't know I had to park in a pay lot, but it was close so no problems.

Check in - It was fairly late when I checked in, so the lobby was empty. The clerk was very curteous, and even more so when he found out I was a platimum member. Offered me my choice of 1,000 points, breakfast or a drink. I took the points, and he gave me breakfast anyway.

The room - was on the 8th floor and was fine. Smelled a bit damp, but I didnt worry - till I took off my shoes. The carpet was still wet from shampooing. I called down and they did offer to to change me to another, but I already unpacked and was working on the computer, so I just put my shoes back on. The internet was not wireless, and the connection was a bit slower than I was used to. When I went to bed, I discovered the room was missing the clock radio and the TV control. I managed.

The next morning I told them about the missing items and asked them to dry vac the carpet. When I returned that night the items were in place and the carpet was dry.

I didn;t know they would validate parking so I paid the first day. The 2nd day I validated. When I checked out I had parking charges on both days. I didnt discover this till I got home.

Overall - I would stay for location, but if I were working a bit further south I would try the Holiday Inn Express instead.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Allentown, PA, on October 7-8, 2006. Our room was very spacious and showed signs of being recently renovated with pleasant colors. At first they gave us a room that had not yet been properly cleaned, but that was quickly rectified when the front desk gave us another room, along with an apology for the mix-up.

The room had nice little touches: two sinks (one inside the bathroom and one outside), which cut our dressing time in half; plenty of pillows; clips to fasten the curtains together to darken the room completely.

Parking was a snap. For $6 extra per night, guests can use the Allentown municpal parking garage next door, coming and going at will with no extra cost. It's a lot less than the $15-$20 many downtown hotels charge.

The only complaint we had was that we could hear the next door neighbors arguing in muffled tones. That's a problem with rooms that feature a connecting door. Once the fighting couple cooled off, we were able to sleep comfortably.

If staying here, request a room that does not have a connecting option, unless you need it.

Having stayed at a fabulous Hampton Inn in NJ, we had hoped to stay in one in Allentown as well, but we chose the Crowne Plaza because it had a room + amusement park tickets deal.

Extremely slow check-in service was not a great first impression. And the manager was not on hand to give us our tickets.

The room was clean and neat but smelled like a wet dog - we think they had recently shampooed the carpets but had not given them sufficient time to dry.

The restaurant was closed for renovation and the continental breakfast (included in the package) was meager, cold and served in a bland inside banquet room with only one server on duty.

On the plus side: the location was good, the indoor pool would be a welcome distraction in winter and Dorney Park (nearby amusement park) was fabulous - we had a lot of fun there with our kids.