ohsostrange's Reviews

Great staff but terrible building

My own review system is 1 star means I'm sure you won't like it, 2 stars means I don't think you'll like it, 3 means you might like it, 4 means I think you'll like it and 5 means I'm sure you'll like it.

This hotel, I don't think you'll like. I feel horrible giving them a bad review, because the people who work there bend over backwards to be nice to you and work like dogs to keep the place scrubbed free of any and all dust particles and smudges. But the rooms!! OMG. They're so tiny that it's like being in a sleeper car on a train. The rooms have no toilet, but do have a tiny sink and an even tinier shower stall. I found out the hard way that it's impossible to shave your legs in them. Also, every time I rose my arms to rub shampoo into my hair, I couldn't help but hit the faucet and inadvertently alter the temperature of the water. It's not as if I'm an exceptionally tall person--I'm only five foot four, and still couldn't manage to get a decent shower. They do have an air conditioner in the window of the room which was adequate to the task of keeping the heat at bay, but it was so loud and turned itself on and off so often that it was like sleeping with my head a few inches away from a working washing machine.

The two worst things about the room--despite its cleanliness, one day I had to kill a bug. It was one of those hairy, undulent, disgusting centipedes we call "water bugs" in the midwest. I hate those things. The other worst thing was when I dried off after the shower and the texture of the towel actually broke the skin on my face! I bled a little bit--just from using their towel! Not that it felt exceptionally rough--perhaps there was some little sharp shred of something embedded in the fabric of that particular towel. But still...

Then there's the toilet. One toilet for two to three rooms per floor--and there's nothing in that room but a toilet. No sink to wash your hands with, just a little container of hand sanitizer attached to the wall. It was exactly like using a port-a-pot, but SMALLER. Oh, how I hated that bathroom. When I was waiting for the car to take me to the airport I remember hoping I could hold it so that I wouldn't have to use their toilet again before I got to the airport, because even the bathroom on the airplane looked spacious and convenient by comparison. I'm not kidding. It was that tiny. A tall person might have trouble closing the door while sitting on the toilet, it's so tiny.

I chose this hotel because it was the best reviewed place in NYC in its price range on trip-advisor. I think the reviews were skewed because of the way trip advisor does stars. If I were rating this there (and I will, later) I would be forced to give them five stars for cleanliness, and five for the helpfulness of the staff, etc, and all of this would be amortized into its final star rating. It is spotless, the people who work there are wonderful, plus it's in a decent neighborhood and the building is cute--there are many good things to be said about the place. But I still wouldn't stay there again unless for some reason I absolutely had to, a scenario which could only involve more than one gun pressed against my back. Because one bullet by itself might pass through a person without hitting any vital organs. Two, and odds are you'll wind up being made more uncomfortable than you will be by spending a week in the Chelsea Lodge.

Reviewed on: August 07, 2007