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.

The room was not clean. There were crumbs and hair under the furniture, the floor was sticky and dirty, there was hair in the bathroom sink, some food debris dried up on the bathroom floor, and the couch was stained. We also reserved the room for 3 and included all 3 guests in the reservation, but there was no bedding for a third guest, and we were told it was too late to get any delivered by staff. The furniture may have been nice at some point but was dingy and nicked. There was also a HUGE bubble (like, at least a foot wide and 4 inches tall) that bowed up out of the laminate flooring under the rug, but we did not dare lift the rug to examine further. The hallways wreaked of **** the entire weekend. On the bright side, the view of the skyline was really nice, and the text communication was prompt at all hours. On the whole though, we could not get out of there fast enough.

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.

There were domestic disputes in the street in the early morning hours.

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