The Worst Part Of My Stay in NYC
I've stayed at many amazing properties in NYC. I recently stayed at The Belvedere - NOT AMAZING and was disappointed from the get go. Upon arrival, instead of opening my door, the doorman was chit chatting with another co-worker and couldn't pull himself away from converstation blocking the door for me to enter so I had to go around through another door. When I stepped into the lobby it was packed with people sprawled out all over the place - it looked like rush hour at Grand Central. (This was the case throughout the weekend.) The Lobby was dreary and dated, not welcoming at all. The room was not ready so I had to hunt down a bell hop to store my bags - no problem . . . that is until I returned to retrieve them and they were MIA. (There was no organization between the bell men. You have to wander around until you get lucky to finds someone with a name tag and hope that they can help you.) Back to my lost bags. The second bell man was not on duty when I first handed my bags over so not being able to located my bags was not his fault. After waiting 20 minutes, they ended up having me go in the back to look through luggage to see which one was mine. We couldn't find it. My heart sank. He checked every possible area in the hotel where it could be . . . I told him the previous guy (who I tipped $5) said he would hang my 2 bags. It was not hanging anywhere. Refusing to give in to the fact that my bag could have mistakenly ended up in the hands of another guest I asked to go back in the back room. Found my bags. They were tossed up on top of a 12' shelf in the wrong section my ticket referenced. Thank goodness I found them. I went up to the room. The hallways are dark and depressing. The room was equally depressing. I'd rather stay at a lower end hotel where they at least attempt to look nice. The bathroom was decent and there was a little efficiency unit with small fridge and microwave which was nice to have. There was an ac unit in the room that worked well. The beds were fine - not uncomfortable. The bedding could be updated along with carpets. I just wonder how many filthy city streets were rubbed off on the dingy carpet. Later that night, we came home to find that none of our room keys worked. How irritating at 3am! There were four of us, each with a key and none worked. We went down to the front desk where we were told this never happens and it must have been something we did. Of course the last thing I wanted to hear was that it was my fault. How about, sorry for the trouble, Unfortunately this happens from time to time? I would have said no problem and walked away but, now it was my fault. We were rudely awaked by loud talking to what seemed right outside our door. Our room was next to the service elevator. After a decent amount of time had passed and the conversation continued I got up and asked them to be quiet. Back to bed . . . only to be awakened twice more by someone trying to get into our room. What in the world is going on here. OK, the universe is telling us to get up. Again the door handle gets jiggled and someone tries to open the door. We opened it up to find housekeeping who said that their sheet said we had vacated already. That explains why from 8am-10am someone kept trying to come in. We told her - NO we are still here and we never checked out. She responded with, "are you sure? it says here you've checked out." Am I not standing here in front of you? We haven't checked out! Check out was not until noon. Amazing. I will never return here. Never.