Sosuite at Independence Lofts - Callowhill

This is not a conventional hotel. You do your own check in, take photos of yourself and both sides of your drivers license. They email or text you instructions on how to enter the building and your room. They sent this to me while I was on the plane, unable to receive messages. I arrived at the hotel and was unable to enter, even after ringing the bell several times. Fortunately two small children arrived and they knew the code and let me in. There is no contact with management or housekeeping other than through text messages. I was in room 402b and the thermostat is controlled from the room next door, 402a. I sent several text messages to management because I was so cold. They were not able to help me each time I asked. Only once they helped by telling me to go into the room next door, they gave me the code, and fixing the thermostat myself. The next day the room was occupied and I wasn’t able to do this again. Management promised they would help but didn’t. I had a very uncomfortable stay because of the lack of heat. The tv set does not have cable and the selection of TV is quite poor unless you have an account with Sling or other providers, I did not. The toilet did not flush until I fixed it and it rocked when sat upon due to not being fastened correctly to the floor. The shower does not have much pressure unless you like showering with lukewarm water, I do not. The neighborhood is ok but I didn’t feel too safe especially since there didn’t seem to be much control over who comes through an open door as I did when the children opened the door for me. The room was clean and neat. The furnishings resembled thrift store finds, I guess they recycle used furniture which is admirable but not at all attractive or homey. There was a stove top in the room but it was inoperable. The room has very high ceilings with exposed heating and fire prevention. It is a loft style room which is rather cold in appearance, and that might have been ok if the air temp was comfortable. I doubt that I will stay here again. If you don’t mind the cold, or in summer possibly the heat, and you like lukewarm showers, and you like sleeping in a warehouse looking room, then you’ll like it here. We all have different standards and if you don’t mind a very unconventional hotel, this is the place for you. One more thing, they did offer me a meal credit in the attached restaurant but I passed on that.

Located a few blocks north of Chinatown, with not much around the area to walk to. Pending on what you’re looking for, this place is decent and roomier than a hotel room, but misses the mark with some basic amenities. Very easy to grab an Uber to get around town, but if you’re looking to easily walk to restaurants, landmarks, etc., I would look for something closer to city center. The photos of the unit and general spaces were probably a few years old. The space was clean, but not nearly as pristine as the photos made the place appear. I would rate photos to reality a 7.8/10. Our unit had minimal supplies and dishes. When we asked for some items at the front desk, they kept saying come back later or tomorrow. And from reading previous reviews, one of the elevators is still non-functioning; however, we didn’t wait too long for the elevator and were on the 8th floor. Overall, I would give our stay a 7.5/10 and would stay again knowing what to expect.

I stayed here for almost two weeks and was tempted to give two stars because the apartment was clean when I arrived and the staff is very friendly and try to be helpful. So there's that. But I just can't give more than one star because of the laundry list of other reasons to NEVER book a stay here. First off the "24/7 on site security" advertised on the Sosuite website is an absolute joke. The back gate to the parking lot was left wide open about half the time during my stay, and the door from the parking lot into the building is often left open and even if it's closed it's NEVER locked. Literally anyone can walk in off the street and no one would stop them. The only "security" personnel is the one front desk person on duty at a time who's not always at the front desk. Second, there is NO enforcement of property rules. The people in the unit next to me had a very loud party one night that went until close to midnight, and the following night had an even louder drunken argument from 3 to 4 am. After the argument finally died down they played loud music until sunrise. Calling Sosuite resulted in ZERO action being taken. Third, the units are NOT equipped as advertised. Their website says all units feature a "fully equipped kitchen". My studio had a tiny dorm fridge, a microwave, and a hot plate. This is NOT a fully equipped kitchen, and on the Sosuite website the ads for units without actual full kitchens conveniently do not have any pictures of the kitchens. The white noise machine that the website says is in every room was nowhere to be found, not that it could have overcome the level of noise coming from the neighboring units anyway. There was a sign on the wall of my unit warning of noise monitoring equipment that will alert Sosuite of excessive noise during quiet hours which apparently doesn't do much either. While Sosuite doesn't advertise it on their own site, the Independence Lofts website and a sign right outside the door to the property promise other amenities that aren't actually available, like an on-site pet park that doesn't even exist. Finally, as other reviewers mentioned, one of the elevators was broken. Over the course of my 12-night stay I didn't see anyone even attempt to fix it, and by the dates on the other reviews it's been well over a month that it's been out of service. The building appears to be mostly if not entirely occupied by AirBNB guests and on several occasions when it was busy with check-ins and check-outs the wait for an elevator could be as long as ten minutes. This was annoying and frustrating, but compared to the other issues with this place, if you stay here it will be the least of your worries. These are just the biggest issues; there was a littany of other, more minor annoyances that further contributed to making my stay here unpleasant at best. Suffice to say I will not be back and wouldn't recommend staying here to anyone.

Loft apartment was clean, comfortable, had lots of character with high ceilings, large windows and amazing city views. Very much as described on the website :-) The Institute bar / restaurant was in the same building & great for a quick beer or food if choosing to stay in the building. I liked the location in that I could walk to Center City in c20 minutes (& other places of interest, Art Museum & Eastern State Prison were similar distances). My only issues was that the neighbourhood didn’t feel the safest so I walked during daylight (& in truth had no problems) but took Uber/Lyft when dark. The building reception was manned 24 hours although given thoughts on neighbourhood the one simple improvement I’d suggest would be bolts on the inside of doors similar to hotels. Would feel more comfortable….overall a great stay though & the views were really stunning

Since there was no hotel staff on site they could not resolve my inability to check in. I was stranded outside in the rain until some remote person could "call me back.". Then they blamed me for entering my information incorrectly. I felt mistreated and insulted

Do Not book this hotel if you like your vacations to be comfortable. When I got into the room, the window was blown wide open because it didn't fully latch. It was freezing out. Closed it and went to crank the heat only to find out the thermostat was broken. I texted (there's no human to talk to) and asked for blankets and got no response. The next day they brought a space heater which dried out the air but didn't really provide heat. But we could take a hot shower to warm up, right? Nope. Hot water ran out after about two minutes. In Addition - the Keurig didn't work, the walls and door were thin and let in All the noise (at six am!). All of this After putting down a security deposit. I contacted them with these concerns and they offered me a discount on a future trip. Which I will never be using.