Ethan W.
Yelp
I've capitalised the main topics so you can quickly see the positives and negatives of Selina Chelsea (Formerly Hotel Americano).
PROS:
THE ROOM was very nice and modern, cost about $185 for the night which I felt wasn't an incredible deal but wasn't ridiculously overpriced either. We stayed in the Superior Downtown King. Really nice floor-to-ceiling windows + blinds, stylish but kinda tacky feeling lights and a TV straight outta 2012.
THE LOBBY is well-furnished and there's a bar. We didn't check the menu so can't comment on the price or quality, but there were a fair few people there during the day so it can't be awful. Friendly check-in service.
Decent SHOWER water pressure and a funny semi-transparent glass divider between the shower and the bedroom which I enjoyed watching my girlfriend through. No bath unfortunately.
CONS:
They really DIDN'T SEEM PREPARED at all. Upon arrival, we received our room key, and upon opening the room we found it still completely full of clothes, shoes, and an unmade bed, like guests were still there! Luckily we didn't walk in on anybody, but come on, it's 3pm, you'd expect them to at least check the rooms between the 11am checkout time and then.
As a continuation from my prior point: the second room we received was empty of guests, but the minibar and fridge was also completely empty, and as far as we could tell, the only available water were these $10 artisan bottles. I'm not sure if they expect guests to go down to the lobby bar and ask for a glass at 12am or what...
On a side note, I reserved this room for my girlfriend and I, whom don't see each other for most of the year, and I made a note of that whilst booking the reservation. They actually emailed me saying they'd marked the reservation and would try to leave something nice in the room for us, which I thought was very kind of them, but we actually ended up getting even less of a proper service than most guests probably receive, which I thought was pretty funny.
Their POOL is still under renovation, and anything you might've heard about hot tubs on the roof is pure hearsay. Thankfully, most of the hotel seems complete now so it's not a big deal.
The 'Superior' part of the SUPERIOR ROOMS is hilarious; for a good $20+ extra you get a room that's a few floors higher than the regular rooms, but the view (at least from our room) was directly into an office block! We had to keep the blinds down low to stop random white collar workers from being able to peer into our bedroom, lmao
The HALLWAYS are really creepy. Not like a cool creepy either, like a "why do i feel like i'm in an old mental hospital" creepy. It's like stone painted dark blue, they're really claustrophobic with very dim lighting and a weird carpet. You feel like it's somewhere you are at risk of getting stabbed. Maybe that's just me.
The CLEANERS are very very loud and start pretty early (around 7/8). I know they've got to clean, but because the corridors are so tiny the reverberations of them shouting, their phone alarms going off, clattering the cleaning equipment around so early in the morning really interrupted our sleep after the late night out we'd had.
CONCLUSION:
Beyond the stylish looking rooms, lobby and interesting area, this hotel still feels like they're getting themselves together. It's just a lot of little things they need to be doing better that would really elevate this place a lot! If you're looking for style, go for the Studio room instead (It was sold out when we booked), skip breakfast and, if you can bear the 15 minute stroll around the comfy local area, go to Johnny's Luncheonette instead.