He arrived in Philadelphia a day earlier than expected for last month’s Netroots Nation convention.

There were no rooms available that night at the hotel he'd booked for the next few days, so the New York-based activist searched online for vacancies in the city.

“I was thinking I was doing the smart thing, not jumping at the cheapest room, but maybe the second or third cheapest,” he explained. “It’s was a ‘one bottle of wine up from the bottom shelf’ approach.”

By not looking at the online reviews, he most certainly was not doing the smart thing. The ensuing mayhem would start with a wee-hours check-in experience.

“When I got there around 1, 1:30 in the morning, there was someone in front of me at the desk having a long drawn-out fight with the person behind the desk,” said the man who didn’t wish to be identified by name in this story. “I couldn’t totally figure out what it was, but it sounded like they wanted to get a refund and leave.”



A few minutes later, the activist was told the hotel elevator was broken, a daunting prospect in a 16-story building.

“When I asked if it was going to be fixed soon, the woman at the desk said, ‘I don’t think so. It’s been that way for about a year now. But don’t worry, we don’t put people higher than the sixth or seventh floor,’” he recalled. “They gave me something on the second floor.”

To the stairwell, he trudged with his bags. He followed spray-painted signs stenciled on the walls to help guests make their way upstairs.

When he got to what he thought was the second floor, he tried to open the door. It would only open a few inches.

“There was string or rope on the other side of the door, tied to an indeterminate location,” he said. “’I just can’t imagine that anything good is going on on that floor. It was pretty alarming.”

He went back down to the lobby to alert the staff and was given a room on a different floor.

By 2:30 a.m., he finally got to lay down in bed. Around 7 a.m., he “hightailed it out of there” and headed to Center City, where he started telling friends about “this crazy hotel I stayed at last night.”

One of them looked up the Penrose Hotel on Yelp.

Courtesy /Penrose Hotel guest The New York man who stayed at the Penrose Hotel the night before the Netroots Nation convention suffered numerous bug bites during his stay.

I couldn’t tell for sure if it was spiders, fleas or bedbugs.

“She started talking about the posts about bug bites. '' My forehead was really itchy,” he recalled. “That’s when I noticed 10 giant bites across the right side of my face and five more on my left wrist.

From that point on, everybody started noticing the bites on his forehead.

“For the next three days, I had to tell people that I had bug bites so they didn’t think I had some horrible rash or illness,” he said. “They were pretty prominent. Big and red, about three times the size of a mosquito bite. By the time I got back to work that Monday, you could still see where there had been bites."

A THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY

Yelp reviews aren’t always the most accurate assessments of a given business, as they’re subject to the whims of anonymous posters who may have a grudge.

Still, the sheer volume of negative comments about the Penrose – on Yelp, TripAdvisor and complaints lodged with the Better Business Bureau – would likely drive any potential customer to seek better places to lay their head.

As if those weren’t enough – and we’ll get to a sampling of the reviews shortly – a lawsuit was filed against the hotel in 2012 by a guest who claimed he fell through the window of his fourth-floor room.

In recent months, the hotel’s ownership group – Vraj Brig Pa LLC and Renuka P. Sheth (aka Victor Sheth) – has been called to Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas for “multiple fire code violations.”

The owners face a $125,000 fine levied on June 18, with an additional $1,000 per day the property “remains out of compliance with the Philadelphia Code.”

“The conditions … and the failure of the defendants to maintain appropriate licenses and/or permits constitutes a threat to the health, welfare, and safety of the public,” according to a court order obtained from the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections.

The court compelled the hotel to “make all repairs to the elevators, install self-closing doors with panic bars on each level of the stairwells, obtain certification for the fire alarm and suppression system (and) institute a 24-hour fire watch immediately and security checks to ensure upper floors are not occupied.”

“All other activities and uses at the Subject Property shall immediately cease, and no persons may enter onto the Subject Property except for the purpose of lawfully correcting the conditions in accordance with properly issued permits,” the order continued.

Without a "cease operations" order in place, though, the parking lots surrounding the Penrose were filled with guests’ vehicles, and it’s still possible to rent a room online or via telephone.

A spokesman for the city's Health Department said, after this story was published, that their agency has fielded no complaints about rats or mosquito infestations, or health-related problems tied to the food served there.

An attempt to get comment from the Penrose Hotel about the ongoing legal case, and the years of horrible social media reviews from customers, was unsuccessful this week.

The person who answered the phone there said the general manager, Ava, was unavailable until next Tuesday and that she’s the only person permitted to speak to the media.

An email sent to an account believed to be a hotel owner, who is due back in court on September 24, went unreturned as well.

Meanwhile, a Philadelphia hotel-industry source who requested anonymity expressed a desire to see the Penrose, which draws customers from the nearby airport and from patrons of concerts or sporting events in the stadium district, shut down.

“That hotel gives our entire industry, and city, a bad name,” he said.

'GET YOUR PENICILLIN SHOT'

For the dangerous conditions cited in court, the online avalanche of negative reviews has a bit of a dark-humorous edge to them.

The highlights – well, lowlights – include:

Though no one connected with the hotel returned multiple requests for comment, the advertorial on the hotel's online booking page paints a much different picture than the one described by guests.

"Everyone needs a place to lay their weary head. For travelers visiting Philadelphia, Penrose Hotel is an excellent choice for rest and rejuvenation," it states before touting its "budget friendly environment and proximity to great restaurants and attractions" and boasting of free WiFi, air conditioning and flat-screen TVs. "Whether you’re traveling for business, pleasure or both, Penrose Hotel is sure to make your visit to Philadelphia one worth remembering."

Most people sure do remember their time at the Penrose, just not for the reasons the hotel would hope.

“They say comedy is pain plus time," said the guest who left the Penrose with bug bites covering his forehead and has yet to remove his suitcase from inside the five trash bags he placed it upon getting home. "This was a rather unpleasant experience, but I'm trying to laugh about it now.”

Follow Brian & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @brianphickey | @thePhillyVoice



Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice



Add Brian's RSS feed to your feed reader



Have a news tip? Let us know.