Dom L.
Yelp
Firstly, we've gone to hotels at least 30 times in the past 3 years so we have a good idea what to expect and we understand there is some give and take with hotels and you can't really expect everything to be 100% in the 2-3 star range of hotels. With that said, firstly, we had a balcony room. The balcony had no view, at all. It was blocked by a big wall. All the balcony rooms seem to be on the lower floors which makes no sense. The furniture on the balcony is cheap plastic with some metal which is fine but when the rain comes that will rust, and we can tell they don't switch out the furniture as the table and chairs were rusted and dirty. The Balcony door did not lock which is a safety hazard as it directly accesses the rooms and each balcony room is right next to another one where someone can easily hop over the wooden fencing separating the balconies to get to another room by standing on any of their furniture or climbing and the balcony is very dark at night even with their blue LED light plugged in on the deck. Plus the Balcony is wooden, what happens to wood when water is absorbed from rain outside and sits there? Right, rot and green mold.
Second, the mattress itself on the bed, not the sheets, was completely filthy. This is completely unacceptable. Although the staff seem very nice, the cleaning staff have to do a better job. I have images that will be displayed in the image section on Yelp. The couch was also dirty and stained, the room door has no peephole for you to see out of it just in case someone knocks either. As far as cost goes, not only do they take a $100 deposit which we are fine with, they charge you for the "minibar" fridge in the room if you drink the items in it. You may think, ok that's kind of normal, but no, Two 16oz Poland spring bottles of water, Two 15oz Cranberry Juices, One 15oz Apple Juice and Two 8.45oz Seltzer water for $42 Bucks? Each of those drinks are $1-$3 Max. But they charged us $42 from the deposit for all normal sized drinks in a 60 degree mini fridge. None of the staff explained they would charge for the minibar and the Booking App where we booked did not explain this either. The booking App stated, "Fully stocked Mini Fridge". You have to inform guests of this and double check; very easy to do during check in and on the App.
We were traveling, so we stayed there for a week, how many towels do you think we got for a week? 4? 6? 7? No 2 towels, we had to ask for additional towels and we only got 2 more. Same with the tissue, only 2 rolls for a week. And 1 wash cloth. There is no microwave, that's always a negative and if you want Ice, their ice-bucket is extremely small and you must leave the room, go down to the first floor and access a separate elevator to then go up to the rooftop Moon bar to ask someone behind the bar for ice because they blocked off the normal elevator near the rooms from the bar floor forcing people to come down to use the separate elevator with access to 1st, 8th and 9th floors only. And you can only get ice yourself after 5pm when the rooftop bar is opens. Before 5pm front desk staff has to get it for you. Then, the Keycard to the room kept shutting off every 2 days so we had to ask them to reset it for the room and staff asked for ID as if they didn't just see us go outside every day when we would go out to the store or get ice. Fully Unpleasant experience. We are not happy and will never recommend this Hotel. This was our vacation week and we could have done much better had I known all this.
There's no way I would go back here, the staff being nice is not enough. This place is an embarrassment. I'm really pro New York Burroughs and try to give credit to Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx & Staten Island but when it comes to hotel service, treating guest and cleanliness it seems like none beat Manhattan. We've never had an issue with Manhattan hotels like this in terms of filth and customer care. It's a real shame. It's always the other boroughs. 30+ Hotels stays, I think we have enough experience to judge fairly on this.