Lousy accommodations...you can do far better.
First off, let's list all that's right with the Hotel Pennsylvania:
• It's located right across the street from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.
• It's got a lovely lobby.
• It has a history of being open for almost 100 years.
• I paid $179 for the room.
That's it. Now, let's go into what's badly wrong with this hotel, why you should avoid it and why it simply won't get any better:
• Management has simply given up on making this hotel anything more than a badly utilitarian flophouse. I reserved a room with a king bed; the room was cavernous...the mattress was hard....the carpet was stained and threadbare...the lighting was dingy...the armoire in the room was Sauder quality, and had doors that fell off when pulled out. The bathroom had tiles that were cracked around the tub faucet, and had stains in the tub. The door to my room had the valet enclosure that, at one time, was used so guests could put their suits in for overnight pressing. The sign on my door said that this was the original valet door from 1919. Somehow, I felt like the room hadn't been upgraded since then. (Now, to the hotel's credit....I didn't see any roaches or bedbugs. But when that's the best you can say about a room, that says something right there.)
• The lines in the front lobby, even at 11pm, were significant. I had to wait half an hour in line to check in. The screens above the front desk brag about Penn 5000, the hotel's service for business travelers. But the Penn 5000 office across the lobby was closed; I would have gladly paid extra to bypass the line and upgrade my room, but the woman at the front desk told me that the Penn 5000 office was shut down, and some of the workers had been laid off.
• The lines are they key to why things won't get any better whatsoever. Travelers from around the world come here for a cheap room that's centrally located in Manhattan. And unless I'm badly wrong (and if I am, I'll gladly apologize), it seems to me that management has made a conscious decision that they don't need to upgrade the facilities, because they'll still get that steady flow of visitors willing to suffer through a night in a substandard facilities in return for a low per-night rate.
I did feel safe in my hotel room, but I didn't feel welcome, and I didn't feel good about staying there. Under no circumstances can I recommend staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania.