Hostel masquerading as a hotel
I stayed at this hotel earlier this week for one night and it was one of the most miserable experiences I've ever had. I travel to NYC regularly and have stayed at many hotels around the city. Always wanted to try the Pod Hotel because I like small spaces and it seemed fun, hip and modern based on the website. In reality, this is a low-grade hostel pretending to be a hotel and charging way too much for what you get. There is nothing budget about the prices of the rooms, except maybe for the single rooms with hall bathroom access. You can stay at much nicer, full-service hotels for a similar price so there is no big savings benefit of staying here. Biggest problem we had with this hotel: you cannot control the temperature in your room. During the unseasonably cold weekend we just experienced, we literally could see our own breath in the room once the temps dropped that night. They do not provide space heaters or turn the heat on manually, so we literally froze all night. It was very much like staying in a dorm where you freeze during the cooler months because the heat only comes on once its literally freezing outside. I think this is completely unacceptable when you're paying $200-300 a night for a room. Other problems we had: 1. the bellman arranged for a car and said the flat rate was $35 but didn't mention extra charges for using a credit card, even though I specifically asked about credit card use, 2. bed and pillows were extremely firm to the point of feeling like I slept on a floor all night, and 3. no hot water! Per the maintenance guy, the pipes are not insulated so if a room is vacant for a day, the water becomes very cold and you have to run the water until it flushes out the cold water. It took at least 10 minutes to get warm water, which is a huge waste of water. He told us the trick was to turn on the shower and sink faucet and let them run, which is insane. Not eco-friendly and what guest should have to run the water for such excessive times just to wash their face?! The wi-fi was also not working properly Tuesday morning so I couldn't check-in for my flight when I wanted to. And beware that there is also no insulation between rooms so you will also hear everyone on the hall and everything they are doing. After dealing with little sleep (due to noise and the temperature), freezing conditions, hard bed, spotty wi-fi, and cold water, I was very upset that I had booked this hotel. I honestly feel that I should not have had to pay for this stay as it was unacceptable in every way possible. I wanted to speak with the general manager upon check-out but was only given the general hotel e-mail address as a means of contacting him. All around an unacceptable experience and money very poorly spent.