A $99 couch or $8 coffee table? It’s all for sale at this hotel liquidation in Plymouth Meeting

On Friday morning, Jennifer Porter was walking around clutching a cast iron pan at the shuttered DoubleTree Philadelphia West hotel in Plymouth Meeting.

She was among dozens of shoppers who arrived at the hotel’s liquidation sale that morning in the hopes of finding a bargain. People roamed guest rooms and communal areas where items for sale included a $25 microwave, $8 coffee table, $99 sofa bed, and much, much more. There were artificial Christmas trees for sale, mini fridges, mirrors, and dressers, too.

The DoubleTree, which closed in November, is selling its contents including the furnishings of its 250 guest rooms. The hotel is expected to be converted into apartments under a recent proposal.

The sale, which started Thursday, will be held at the hotel daily until they sell out. It’s open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Porter, who found out about the sale on Facebook, lives in Plymouth Meeting, and hoped to find a television and lamp for her daughter and a desk for her son — both of whom are moving into new apartments. When she heard about the sale, she thought, “maybe I’ll get something exciting.”

In her search, Porter came across the $15 cast iron pan for herself. “I know it doesn’t look nice, but you can really clean them up,” she said.

By 11:20 a.m. customers had filed out of the hotel with dollies carrying a dresser, silverware, glasses, and lamps. Outside, the parking lot was full. Men loaded box springs into a U-Haul near the entrance, and other customers took lamps apart to fit them into the trunk of a car.

“Bring your truck and fill it up!” was the advice to potential customers from International Content Liquidations, the company managing the sale.

Nicole Kabealo, project manager at International Content Liquidations, is the fifth generation of the Ohio-based family business. On the first day of the sale, some 150 people had filed through the building throughout the day, she said. But on Friday morning by 11 a.m., 100 shoppers had already come through. Popular items included round wrought-iron tables, assorted lamps, mirrors, and granite-top dressers for $99.

“I would bring your muscle,” Kabealo suggested. “We’ve got carts and dollies you can borrow, but we don’t help move anything or load anything.”

Sandi Mansfield, from Whitemarsh Township, was waiting in line on the first floor of the hotel to pay for a large framed artwork and two lamps. She estimated that she was going to spend roughly $50.

Another potential customer was jealous of her having nabbed the art, she said, and as she walked by with it, they exclaimed “Oh!”

“It’s mine,” asserted Mansfield.

Madison Taylor, from Harleysville, was inspecting a mini fridge for her brother-in-law and waiting for her mom to get back with a cart to haul around their finds. She was “standing guard,” she said, to ensure she got the best fridge after seeing that a few were not in as good condition.

Potential customers were free to roam some halls and guest rooms, some of which showed previous signs of life. In one room, a bed frame had no mattress. In another, the coffee machine still sat on a tray with packets of creamer and sugar, and in another, shampoo and conditioner bottles remained atop the bathroom counter. An abandoned “Do not disturb” sign lay on the carpeted floor of one room.

“You basically go to the room; you pick the exact mirror or picture you want; you take it off the wall, bring it down, pay for it,” Kabealo said.

On the hotel’s third floor, a pair of potential customers examined four lamps they had gathered in the hallway. A floor above them, near the elevators sat a single iron: a treasure astutely placed to recover later, or left behind at the last minute?

For Norma Evans, who lives in Mount Airy and loves a good bargain, the sale was sentimental. She used to come to the hotel on her day off from work and enjoy breakfast on Saturdays, she recalled.

“It was one of the few places you could go, and it was still a tablecloth on the table,” she said. “Now I have to find somewhere else.”

She and her daughter ultimately chose a mirror, two televisions, an ironing board, and silverware.

When she noticed that items were for sale at one of her favorite hotels, she thought, “let me get something to remember them by.”