Not Terrible, But Not Great
We stayed at Yotel for 5 nights starting April 5. It was our first trip to New York, so I don't know how the Yotel compares to other New York hotels, but I was not overly impressed. There were good things and bad things though, of course. We were travelling as a family and the bunk beds were a great option for us. It was also very clean and quiet (on the 16th floor) and we really liked the galley on each floor with the coffee machine. Free lattes are a great perk! But they aren't kidding when they say the rooms are small. There was only one chair in there for four people and it was very difficult to spend any extended amount of time in our room. The bathroom situation was also interesting. It was a beautiful big bathroom with a waterfall shower head, and there was a door on it, but there was no closing or locking mechanism on the door, and it didn't go all the way to the ceiling, which made for some privacy issues. Our biggest problems were with the beds and the concierge. The mattresses were thin and as hard as rocks. I've stayed at hostels with better quality beds. Apparently there were mattress toppers available but that information wasn't given to us until the day we checked out. It would have been nice to know that at check in, rather than check out. Because of the beds alone, we wouldn't stay here again. And the concierge, Ari, was horrible. He told us there was no point in trying to get Broadway tickets and the TKTS booth because there wouldn't be any available, and that we should buy tickets from him instead. This was a blatant lie made to try to sell us overpriced tickets from the hotel. We also tried to make dinner reservations at a particular restaurant and were told that the restaurant we wanted didn't take reservations, but that we could get reservations at a restaurant HE suggested. Another blatant lie. We declined and tried to walk in to our restaurant of choice and were told we couldn't get in WITHOUT a reservation. We also asked him where we should go for brunch. He made a suggestion and we asked him to make us reservations. He then looked at us like we were crazy and said "Oh there's no way you'll actually be able to get in there". Why make the suggestion then?! Overall, he was utterly unhelpful bordering on outright rude. The rest of the staff were very nice and helpful, though. The location wasn't terrible, but I thought it was out of the way; at least a 15 minute walk from Times Square and kind of out of the way. It wasn't the worst hotel I've ever stayed in, but I would not recommend it unless you can get it for cheap.