we would have left immediately. Unbelievely, this hotel was recommended by the conference we were attending (what were they thinking??). We paid $269 plus tax for one night.
Our experience started when we arrived in the lobby to find what looked like homeless people milling around. Funky it is, with a cool exterior and artwork on every possible interior wall space, but we did not give up immediately. We were booked for 5 nights, and when we checked in, they ran our credit card for the full amount and put the slip in front of us to sign. We asked to see the room first. What kind of hotel bills you the full amount up front?
We were given a key and optimistically took our bags to a room on the first floor. It was extremely small, had dirty old carpet on the floor and bare lightbulbs in the entranceway.. There was more but I think you get the idea. We went back down to the reception area and told that the room was unacceptable to us and that we would only be staying one night. They offered to upgrade us to an "apartment" on the 4th floor. It was midnight so we had no choice.
The room was bigger with two queen beds, but sill two bare light bulbs in the hallway, cracked paster everywhere and a thousand layers of paint that would not allow the doors to close properly. No tv, not a single glass and no internet access. The smoke detector was beeping because the battery was low and we waited 20 mintues for the staff to come and tell us that they did not have another battery. There were decent towels in the bathroom and lots of hot water. Our room (425) was next door to someone who seemed to be running a psychic reading business--it smelled like dope and when the occupant opened the door to let.someone it, the room was filled with red light and what looked like crushed velet and beads. We asked for a couple of glasses so that I could take an asprin for a growing headache, and were given two wine glasses that the guy at the front desk washed out for us. The "hotel" is also run as apartments (perhaps for unemployed people on income assistance?). We asked someone in the elevator what they were paying a night, and was told $109 but the room had no bathroom and was very small.
We left the next morning.The only thing decent about this place was the front desk staff--they were very nice and quite professional, particularly given that we made it clear that the accommodation was unacceptable to us. They refunded the credit card amount for the other nights, but we are expecting to have to pay for the exchange from US to CDN.
I would never recommend this "hotel" to anyone, not even my worst enemy. I am not someone who needs to stay in 5 star accommodation (usually choose 3 stars), but this place was barely a one star (is there such a thing as a half star?). They are charging exhorbitant prices based on their status as a heritage site that famous artists onced lived in. I'd recommend you walk in (and then quickly out) of the lobby if you truly want to experience the history of the place. Oddly, there were some tourists in the lobby taking about how "cool" the building was. I guess that accounts for the higher ratings on this place, and everyone is entitled to their opinion.
There were several events on in NY so we had a very hard time finding another place to stay. I stumbled across another hotel just down the block, called the Chelsea Savoy Hotel. For $200 per night, we got a nice king bed room with very nice bathroom and coffee and pastries each morning (which we did not sample as we slept in to catch up on missed sleep from our previous night's experience). The hotel staff at the Chelsea Savoy are extremely helpful and very nice, the hotel is very quiet and a much better choice than the Chelsea Hotel.
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