My sister and I stayed at the Pod 39 for 5 nights in late August this year. We got an unbeatable price for the bunk bed room and decided to overlook the fact that the hotel would perhaps be not quite finished at the time of our stay, as well as the small rooms, for the savings we would make. We stayed at the hotel Giraffe for the later part of our 12 night trip to NYC (see separate review).
The first room we were sent to, after a quick checkin, was uninhabitable. By that I mean that it was so tight spacewise that we could not get our two suitcases in the room and hope to shut the door. We went back down to reception and asked for a room with a better layout. Although the attitude was frosty we were given another room which was adequate. There is no getting around the fact that the rooms are tiny. However, I think that the room we had was quite well designed and made good use of the space available. We pretty much had to sit on our beds when in the room, although there was a desk and chair. But the beds were very comfortable, the room was spotless and thoroughly cleaned each day.
The bathroom was spacious, relatively speaking, and the shower nice and hot although I would have liked a bit more water pressure. I liked the toiletries provided, and replenished daily. Others have commented on the privacy issues of the glass-walled bathroom, so I'll just second that there is really no place to hide!
A major negative for me was that the room faced into an internal light shaft and so the room was gloomy. However, it must be said that we had asked for a quiet room at the time of booking and so I imagine these are deemed the quiet ones. And they were; we slept well. Except for one night when maybe the lifts weren't working or there was a big queue for them coming down from the rooftop bar, and we were disturbed by the sound of high heels clattering down 7 flights of stairs!
The hotel is well located: subway/Grand Central nearby and we walked everywhere Midtown (Fifth Ave/Madison Ave shopping, Rockefeller Centre, Library, Central park etc). There is not a huge amount of options for eating at night in the vicinity, although the upscale market at Grand Central was good, as was the Oyster bar. It is a fairly quiet area at night.
We had drinks one night on the rooftop and it is a lovely spot with quite breathtaking views. However it was very crowded and on a couple of nights, upon returning to the hotel, there was a line outside the hotel for the bar.
The two main negatives for me: the staff had pretty high opinions of themselves and the WiFi was abysmal.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the rooms in terms of the design quirks, functionality and cleanliness. And while the price could not be beat, I would probably only stay here again if I was solo and I could get a room with a bit more natural light.
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