Ah, Philadelphia – I don’t think that any visit to the East Coast would be complete without a trip to the vibrant “City of Brotherly Love”. On my recent trip, I spent 2 days in Philly and chose this hotel mainly because of its convenient location and Sheraton’s status as a reputable chain.

With 365 rooms, the Sheraton Society Hill is a medium to large chain hotel at the edge of Philadelphia city centre. It’s located (unsurprisingly) on Society Hill, a fairly traditional part of Philadelphia near to the Delaware River docks. The actual street the hotel is situated on is cobbled and quite nice, plus it is a convenient location to get to the main city centre, which is about 5 blocks/20 minutes walk away. Philadelphia is pretty diverse and there are plenty of opportunities to get some food in the area – these range from small restaurants to your average chain sandwich shop, so there should be something for everyone.

The Sheraton isn’t really much to write home about from the outside – it’s your basic square red brick jobby with the entrance arranged around a small cobbled courtyard area. Nothing unpleasant, but then nothing very remarkable either.

The hotel in general was well-maintained and very clean and tidy, but the carpet and wallpaper on the guestroom floors did seem a bit dated – not disgustingly so, but it certainly didn’t feel as if it had been updated recently.

On entering our first room, I have to say that we weren’t impressed. It stank of smoke – even though we’d specified a non-smoking room – and looked out over a delightful building site. However, we complained and were moved to another without any fuss, so it wasn’t a real problem. The second room was clean, pleasant and definitely not as scruffy as the corridors, with a much better view than the last room! Decorated mostly in shades of blue, it also had dark wood touches such as the bed frames, TV cabinet, desk and bedside tables. I’d say it was about average sized, not acres and acres of space, but certainly enough room for 4 people to exist in there without it feeling claustrophobic. We chose 2 double beds, and they were good sized and comfortable.

The bathroom, like the bedroom, had a pleasant feel. It was on the small side, so I did have a few moments scrambling around trying to get things when I got out of the shower, but it was mostly marble, beautifully clean and had good quality toiletries such as Pantene shampoos and Vaseline body lotion. There was also a decent amount of towels (always a must; an inordinate number of towels seem to get soaked and disappear when I use them!)

We didn’t eat in the Sheraton at all during our stay, preferring instead to venture into the city. However, there are 3 cafés/restaurants, the Wooden Nickel sports bar, The Courtyard café (which serves breakfast) and Hadley’s Bistro.

The main attraction here is the indoor swimming pool and jacuzzi, complete with sun loungers on the terrace around them. I’m not really a swimmer, but it was reported to me that the pool is a good size and a nice temperature, although the jacuzzi is a bit too hot for comfort! You can use the pool for free as long as you’re staying in the hotel – you need the key card to access the pool area, so keep it handy. You’ve got the usual ice/vending machines on each floor, and on the ground floor is a small gift shop stocking a wide variety of sweets, postcards, personal items, all the Philadelphia merchandise you could possibly want, etc, etc.

We booked through Thomas Cook, and our rate worked out as £128 for 2 nights, which is pretty reasonable. If you were to book via Sheraton’s own website, currently the rate is being advertised as $209 (£111.27) per night, which I think is a little bit steep for what you’re getting.