Things didn't start off well at Hotel Verite. I made my reservation through Booking.com. When I arrived at the hotel, the woman at the front desk reported that they'd 'just received the fax' from the booking site. The fax? What is this, 1993? Shouldn't this be done by, you know, computer?
Apparently, the room that I'd booked for two nights was only available for one night. The front desk lady tried to convince me to take the room for one night, then switch to another room the next night. I allowed as how I'd prefer one room for two nights, as that's what I'd booked. After several minutes she simply offered me the second night's room for both nights. "Why didn't you just give me that in the first place?" I inquired. "That room is larger - the room you reserved is smaller." This was at 6:30 in the evening. Perhaps they were waiting for someone to make a last minute, one-night reservation for the larger room...but it struck me as just poor customer service.
So, 'upgraded' to the larger room, I settled in. I went to the bathroom, and noticed some sort of fly on the mirror. Oh, and there's another by the sink. And another on the shower curtain. I'm not one to make a fuss, so I killed four of the insects and went on about my business. However, the flies (or whatever they were) seemed to return in groups of three or four throughout my stay.
It wasn't until I was in bed that night that I noticed the dripping noise from the floor above...and the water damage to a corner of the ceiling...and the black mold growing there. Of course I reported all this to the front desk, and they were very polite and apologetic, and even sent someone up to look, but apparently there was nothing to be done.
All of which would have been more or less harmless, had it not been in the low teens in NYC last night. The room had no heat. I got back to the hotel around 9pm and reported the heat problem. Then again around 11pm when it wasn't any better. Then around 5am when the cold woke me up, despite assurances that they'd fixed the problem. I finally decided to get out, shower somewhere warmer (the gym) and take my leave of the Hotel Verite. They were kind enough to credit me for the heat-less night...but I cannot recommend this hotel to others.
Two stars because the staff was always polite and generally seemed to be trying to help - just with very little success.
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