No bedbugs, half clean, very cheap
First, the location: It's great. Three blocks to the subway, buses everywhere, and absolutely safe with hundreds of restaurants and stores within walking distance, ranging from Zabar's Deli to Barney Greenglass, the Sturgeon King (for great breakfasts) to Barnes & Noble that seems to have a free speaker every night. If you're unfamiliar with NY, this is a great place to stay, with a direct train from Times Square, Penn Station, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal (where airport buses stop).
The good news: The OK mattresses are encased in plastic, the sheets are clean, and we didn't encounter any bedbugs. The bathroom is mostly caulked with a minimum of mildew, and the floor is marble tiles. It was May, and we didn't see any roaches or other vermin. The toilet was clean. The air conditioners worked. The TVs (one for each room) work and get about a half dozen VHF stations, all you really need to get news and weather. (Although the clicker for one of the TVs was broken or out of batteries.) The tap water tasted and looked fine. The shower had good pressure. A maid actually comes by every day to make the bed and replace towels. The lobby is tiny, but there's a lounge (with unfortunate wicker furniture and pillows) that has wifi (but no public computer). The price is dirt cheap for NY.
The bad news:
1) Would it be that expensive for the hotel to actually clean each room thoroughly after each guest? We ended up not using the closets because they were so dusty. The tops of the door frames? Filthy. The tile ledge in the bathroom behind the pipes? Filthy. Wherever there's a nook or cranny, filthy black. I'm not asking for a major renovation: Just cleaning the black grit off the ledges and in the closets.
2) The hotel website warns that the rooms are tiny and suggests that guests rent a "suite" for $10 more. My girlfriend and I rented a "suite" which were two tiny rooms (beds flush against the wall) so you have have about a 3-foot wide passage) separated by the bathroom (shower and toilet). Each room had a small sink. Want to wash your face in the sink? You'll bump your head against the cabinet. Want to clean lift your arms in the shower? Watch your head so you don't hit it on the curtain bar. Want to sit at the table with another person? Shut the air conditioner off first because it abuts one of the chairs. Each suite has two doors, but the key to one of the doors is useless, because a bed butts up against the door so you can't open it. (Not sure why the desk clerk even bothered giving me the key.) Two people fit in the suite OK. Three would be a crowd.
3) Security. Not really. Each room has only a single lock---no bolt. While you can't enter the building without going past the desk clerk, does the desk clerk on duty really know who's entering? Not.
4) What lurks in the walls? Wherever a pipe entered the room, there was a gap in the wall, and there were a few small holes where there were no pipes. Having lived in NY, I know that at some point, creatures will appear, even if we didn't see any in May.
5) My girlfriend and I arrived at the hotel separately (different flights), and she arrived first. Having allergies, she was overwhelmed by the first room's cleaner smells and/or mustiness, and had the clerk change to a different room, which was tolerable for her once we turned the AC on.
6) They don't seem to have more than one set of sheets and towels for each room. It was almost at random whether we got one or two hand towels. One day, we didn't have a bathmat. The front desk clerk said they ran out, so he gave us a hand towel to use. Another time, they didn't leave enough soap bars.
I guess you really get what you pay for. I thought the cheap price was because the hotel was a bit off the beaten tourist path. But it was more than that. It's just maintained in a haphazard way. A thorough cleaning when each guest leaves and sealing of the wall holes would raise my rating from two to three stars and turn it into a real basic budget find. But I won't return to find out.