Hudson Hotel - Horrible!
We had to go to New York City on business last summer. Being from Manhattan and having stayed in many hotels there as well, I decided to stay at the Hudson because it attracted my attention in a brochure I received from the Ian Schrager hotel group a couple of years ago. I live 5 minutes from the Mondrian hotel in Los Angeles and find that sort of ultramodern design very refreshing.
Their restaurant, Cafeteria, is really good, especially at breakfast. (Try the delicious waffles!!!) Also we had a little safe in our room, which is nice.
Now for the other news.
1) Thank goodness that we did not rent a car this time as usual, because this hotel does not have a parking garage. Ok, so most of you will not be driving in NYC, so disregard this and read on.
2) HEAR THIS ------ This is the smallest hotel room we have EVER stayed in! I am serious as a heart attack, the queen size bed in our room had only bout 1 1/2 feet on its 3 sides. I had to squeeze by my suitcase every time I got up to go to the bathroom. Though others may seem to think it is ok to stay in a small room like this, we found it so small as to actually be uncomfortable, and definitely not relaxing at the end of a long hot and muggy summer day.
3) The bathroom was also VERY small (think hard to turn around in) and had a BAD sour moldy smell from an obviously moldy shower curtain.
4) High speed internet access. One of the reasons I decided to stay at the Hudson was because they offer high speed internet access in all of the rooms. BUT - the access in our room was behind the bed, 8 feet from the desk!!! The phone had a dataport, but that too was next to the bed on the bedtable, 7 feet from the desk. I need to type a lot an need to do so on a desk (also VERY small, think 1 foot deep by 2 foot long decorative table) and was unable to answer email or do any real business because of this, as the room is so small that we sat on the bed when in the room and I was only able to do work when my companion was in the shower or bathroom. Please note that high speed internet access is $10/day.
4) A nice stereo / cd player is in the room, but the tv is one of those hard to see small kitchen counter size tv's (hard to see, but remember, you are staying in a very small room so you may get used to this).
5) The air conditioner / heater unit is right above and behind the headboard in the window, and we had to run the air conditioner because of the heat outside but it was blowing directly on our heads the whole night - again, uncomfortable.
6) This is perhaps not a beef with the hotel, but we booked our rooms on ... and requested an early check in and 2 beds in our room. Well, when we got there, the hotel did their best and checked us in at 11:30 am (we had gotten into the city at 8:00 am) and we were informed that the class of room we had does not have double beds. VERY BAD!!! I was on a business trip with a relative (not romantically involved) and so 2 grown adults had to sleep IN THE SAME BED for 4 DAYS! If you want 2 beds in your room, you had better get it in writing and do not book this hotel through .... I would have gladly paid more had the choice been offered to me.
7) Do not stay here with anyone (parents, children) who would be embarrased by the 24 hour a day public displays of affection by other guests in the lobby, halls, restaurant (especially disgusting scene with greasy 60+ year old man with 20 year old girlfriend in lap open mouth kissing and feeding her breakfast - ewww!), and especially the elevators. This place has to have had the touchy feeliest guests of any place I have ever stayed, even in South Beach. (Maybe the guest rooms are so small that guests are driven to the public areas to do what they wish they had room for in their guest room?) These things never seem to happen at the Hilton or the Plaza.
So:
A vacation in New York City IS a vacation spent outside of the room, but at the end of a long day it is important to return to something nice AND comfortable. Although the room was clean and the bed itself was very comfortable, with a duvet and the kind of linens I use at home, the rooms are so uncomfortable as to be horrible, being SO TINY!!!!
The joke is really on any of us who have stayed there - the place used to be a sort of residence hall and I swear it used to be a youth hostel (I lived one block away from this building for 3 years 10 years ago and have been trying to remember this). So we basically went on vacation and stayed at a glorified dormitory!
I found something on the web to back up my memory at:
...
I am in my early 30's and am very small, and like nightlife, but with all of the great choices in New York, I can not see a good reason for anyone to stay here. The rooms are just too tiny and cramped. The rooms are also too dark and the halls and hotel are too dark. The decor features dark wood on the floors and walls of the guest rooms and common areas and dark gray paint and carpet in the halls, which are purposely not lit, like a dark nightclub - in fact the bar is better lit than the halls on the floors. It was hot when we were there and to come back to that small claustrophobic room after a long muggy day was really unpleasant. We could have stayed at the Waldorf Astoria where the presidents and world leaders stay for $11 LESS!!!
But we wanted to stay somewhere different. If you are very young, very very small, live in a closet at home, and/or if you want to stay somewhere with built in nightlife, those would be possible reasons to want to stay at the Hudson. So if after all of this, you are so obsessed with being trendy that you are still compelled to stay there, you have been forewarned - go be their guest.
