My wife and I stayed here for a friend's wedding for one night. It was a great experience. The hotel is a little old, but has been thoroughly updated. The rooms were clean and well appointed, with things like nice furniture and a flat screen TV. Checkin/out was a breeze (member of Omni club), and the room was soundproof enough to get a good night's sleep. The location is the best asset as previously stated. You are litteraly steps from Independance Hall, and a block from the Liberty bell. This hotel is great for visitors to the historical sites in Philly.

BTW, if you want a good cheesesteak, avoid Jim's (the hotel's recommendation) and drive over to Geno's. Much better in my opinion.

I spent LOTS of time reading reviews here, and thankfully, there were good reviews about this hotel, and location was one of the top priorities for this trip.

We were happy with our room rate, although we booked rather last minute, and the only type of room available was a king bed with a sleeper sofa. This was not my 1st pref. but we just put the kids on the sleeper sofa. We were only there for one night. Yes, the valet charge was a bummer, and the only thing I noticed was that it took them a long time to move our car from the street in front of the hotel to wherever they store them.

The room was fairly clean and quiet. The lobby is very pretty and the staff was friendly and helpful. They gave the kids "goodie bags" when we first checked in. We didn't let the kids open them until we were in for the night.

The conceirge at the hotel was wonderful. I spoke with her A LOT about everything and she had answers for everything and she was very elegant and treated us with respect and she was very sweet with the children. You could tell she enjoys her job.

She recommended several places for dinner and we ended up choosing a restaurant called Jones. (Jones-restaurant) It was a very hip retro style restaurant with GREAT food. They have no kids menu specified, but they could order selections from an adult entree and they would just bring part of it. But some things on the menu were very kid friendly. My daughter had tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. My son had fried chicken and french fries - his portion was a bit large. My other daughter had grilled cheese and chips. See photos of food.

The hotel is within walking distance of many sight seeing things from a historical perspective. We happened to be in the right place at the right time and were near liberty plaza during an open house of independence hall, so we did not have to wait and get tickets etc. The tour guide was awesome. He was a great communicator and very knowlegable and easy to hear and understand. He involved the children and kept their attention.

We also splurged on a 20 min. horse and buggy ride through the historic district. This was great because they are not just letting you ride and look, they give you a running commentary on the history and they know lots of little neat tidbits of info that you may not have known or they point out things you may not have noticed. I wish we would have paid for a longer tour. We paid $30 for 20 min. There was a sign that said tips were appreciated, so I tipped $5. My kids were thrilled because this is something they would like to do in NYC, and we never have, so it was a treat.

The new visitors center is awesome and the gift shops all around are great. The one at the Betsy Ross house and the National parks building are 2 we visited. If you have lots of money to spare, there are adorable historical dolls for purchase at the National parks gift shop. Ben Franklin, and other colonial looking dolls. They start at like $90 each, though. I wish I would have splurged on one, because they were beautifully made. But, no, I did not.

However, we never made it to the Rittenhouse square area, shopping area or other areas in the city. But having never been there, I'm not sure what I was missing. Our location was close enough that we could walk down to Penn's Landing.

The Liberty Bell was great. The display for it now is beautiful. It's cool to see Independence Hall behind it through the window when you are inside looking at it.

Also, a couple of doors down on the block of the hotel entrance there is a tiny shop that sells ice cream and water ice (slushees). On the opposite corner there is a COSI. We went to both places.

If you are there with kids to see the historical things, I would highly recommend this hotel. I booked over the phone with the hotel "headquarters," and they were careful to ask about what type of view and what floor in addition to smoking or non, beds, etc. If we return we will stay there.

I booked a room for one night (Fri night in July) on the hotel's website for a "leisure night" package. This includes valet parking in the price, for $159. A tip on using the website: make sure to view all prices available instead of immediately booking the first one that pops up; they seem to push the more expensive package instead of the best deal.

Hotel Service: Overall, friendly and polite. Nothing to write home about, but staff definitely put in effort to be professional. My biggest gripe was the constant error of the hotel charging me for valet parking, which was approx $30. I had to correct the front desk when I arrived and I also had to have them remove it again from the charge at the end of my stay. I would recommend reviewing your bill carefully.

Hotel Location: The best aspect of this hotel was definitely its location. In addition to being a block away from all of the touristy spots (Liberty Bell, Independence Park, Visitor's Center, etc), it was so close to the better restaurants and bars in Philly. If you walk along Chestnut or Market St down towards the river, you will encounter so many greats restaurants and bars along the way, such as Buddakan, Fork, Amada, Farmacia, Dolce, Bijou. We had a solid meal at Haru on 3rd and Chestnut (it's a Japanese restaurant chain in NYC, but it was significantly nicer and better in Philly). At night, there's tons of people spilling out on the streets from all the bars, clubs and lounges, all within walking distance from the hotel. It was a nice change to see Philly transform from a family destination during the day to the upbeat nightlife of the younger college students and professionals. In addition, a nice long walk to Jim's Steaks (walk along 4th down to South St) is a MUST! It's the only place I will go to for cheesesteaks. However, the line was over an hour long on Saturday afternoon!

Hotel Parking: Though parking is expensive, I would recommend leaving your car in a garage. I believe there are garages nearby that are cheaper than the hotel's rate of approx $30 for valet and $24 for self-parking. You do not need to use your car. We took advantage of the valet parking and constantly drove everywhere, esp since it was so hot, but it really wasn't necessary b/c many points of interest were within walking distance, there were many trolleys, shuttles, buses and public transportation nearby.

Hotel Room: We had a room on the 3rd floor facing Chestnut Street, the front of the hotel. Since it was nearly 100 degrees when we were in Philly, we did not open the windows and did not hear any noise from outside. We actually liked having the room facing the front b/c we were able to peer down and see if our car was brought out to the front. The room was bigger than the room we stayed in at an earlier trip to the Sofitel in Rittenhouse Square. Also, they must've updated their TVs b/c there was a huge plasma TV plastered to the wall. The only annoying aspect was that the TV did not swivel to face the bed, so it's off to the side of the bed and the channel offerings were very, very basic (with HBO). Otherwise, I was quite pleased with it. The bathroom was spacious and clean, despite being a bit dated. There was no sign of significant wear and tear. The free wireless internet service was fast, reliable and great.

As I mentioned previously, I had stayed at the Sofitel before, which is down on 17th St by Rittenhouse Square. The area around there is definitely quieter and more conservative. There were many cute stores and restaurants in that area as well, but as a young professional I really enjoyed being close to the hustle and bustle of Old/Center City. Plus, there was no free wireless internet in the hotel rooms in Sofitel, which was a definite negative for me.

Overall, though the hotel was not the most stellar hotel I've been to, the location of Omni is what gives this place 4 stars, despite the minor gripes I had along the way. I'd recommend staying here over Sofitel, despite the fact that the hotel room was overall nicer at the Sofitel. It's all about the location.

Had a good one night stay at the Omni 'at Independence Park' but it took me quite a while to find the hotel. I had the email reservation confirmaton in hand and kept walking around the park at 5th between Market and Chestnut looking for the hotel - since this was Independence Park. Finally, I went into the Bourse and asked at their reception desk - and they told me that lots of people had the same problem - the hotel was actually at 4th and Chestnut.
With that info, the hotel was easy to find - and the location is great.... but some genius at Omni should forget the 'prestigue positioning' of the park and give guests an address that they can find!
My room was very nice, overlooking the other park (maybe this is the Independence Park they refer to...). Staff was all very nice. Only problem was the hair in my sink and the hairball plus plastic razor cover in the shower. I'm bald so I know it wasn't mine. Not what I would expect from a 4-star hotel. I'll assume that this was an exception - since I was only there for the one night.