Hotel location is a 5 min walk from World Trade Center and Oculus (a Westfield shopping mall) and also access to subway lines. So location is great.
It’s safe at night with no homeless people.
There is a lot of deli’s, grocery stores within a 5 min walk.
The room is a little sparse. No table to do any work or to eat from. But the room does have a fridge (no freezer) and iron and ironing board and safe.
The let downs are the other things expected from a 3 star, let alone this a 4 star.
No slippers provided. No cup for holding your toothbrush. No notepad, just 2 sheets of paper, no central way to turn off all the lights. No kettle, no free drinking wter
These are minor issues, but for the price paid, you shouldn’t have issues at all.
Now, the destination fee. My booking on trip.com included all fees, otherwise they will hit you with a Destination Fee, this is $40 + tax per day.
This fee includes:
A. Wifi (Why this is not free, I have no idea)
B. 2 tickets to either World Trade Center Observeration Deck, Mercer Labs or Statue of Liberty boat tour
C: A fit tour (doing yoga in the street with other people)
D: $20 off your bill from the burger restaurant next to the hotel (this is not a true $20 off, but if you spend $80 in the burger restaurant then charge it to your room, you will be charged $60 and this will be removed from the incidental amount you paid for)
The incidental fee for us was $400 credit card hold for a 7 night stay. Again, seems crazy to ask this much and not give slippers.
The gym in hotel is good. And the burger restraint is good, and the location is good. But the fees are too much.
No.kettle either, there's a coffee machine but if you want hot water for some instant noodles... you cannot.
The room is clean and comfortable and the AC is good. The bathroom is large but, again a small issue, the shower is either a waterfall head or a handheld or a bath, but to adust the temperature of the water, you need to move the temperature handle which always hits the waterfall/handheld handle
The gym has several treadmills, ellipticals, pelaton bikes, chest press, shoulder press, leg curl, squat rack, cable machine, bench and dumbells upto 45lb (22kg)
But there is no laundry room nor is there a self-service laundrette nearby. It’s only dry-cleaning or wash&fold services which are around $15 per 3lb (1.3kg) of clothes
Would I stay here again? It’s a maybe. The room is fine and a good size for NYC. But it lacks features and the hotel itself seems to want to extract all the money you have without giving much in return. Location is good though and easy to get anywhere in Manhattan while feeling safe. But it is really bad value and it really feels like a 2 or 3 star hotel rather than 4.
