I haven't been around for the past few days because I was in New York, I can't wait to go back again but next time in a good hotel!
But on Saturday morning, the day I left for Gatwick, I didn't feel all that excited. I think I'm numb from the excitement of going abroad as I've been abroad so many times - dunno. Had to fly with BA which I wasn't extremely pleased about. Personally I think BA is below par because of the bad service, food, management of luggage and entertainment however I must say their service and management of luggage was much better this time round - the plane food was still a bit iffy though especially when I found jelly covered over my breakfast (but I've had worse!).
To be very honest I was underwhelmed when I reached JFK, maybe because we were at Terminal 7 but it just didn't feel like America (maybe I should rephrase that to; my imagination of America). We stayed at West Side YMCA. As I was on a school trip I'm not sure about the exact cost but I knew it was cheap. A few friends educated me that rats were running around the ground floor - NICE! With the price in mind here's my lowdown;
Location
All the reviews were praising the location, it was a good location but definitely could have been better. Still 4 out of 5 though. Station was about 5-10 minutes walk away and Central Park was next door. What would have made the location spot on was if it was 10 minutes walk away to Fifth Avenue and Times Square!
Food
None present! Alternatively there were 2 Starbucks located less than 500m's away and some hotdogs stalls near Colombus Circle. 1.5 out of 5 due to lack of variety and the fact that they didn't actually provide any of the food.
Room
Possibly the smallest room I've ever slept in (and being a room for 2!) Besides the quite aged funrishings and furniture the room was compact and enough (I guess). The bed was too squeaky though. 3 out of 5 - considering the price this room probably only lacked in size and a simple en suite.
Bathrooms
As bathrooms were communal I had to give a seperate section. Though not as bad as I had imagined they were still bad! Toilets regularly had faeces and urine floating around emitting a waft of bodily smells. The showers were not the cleanest of places (though I wasn't a victim some friends were regularly faced with boiling hot or freezing cold showers. The sink was probably the worst section I had to regularly live up to! Privacy wasn't my issue here; it was the cleanliness - I felt dirtier having had a shower in there than I would of if I hadn't! 1 out of 5 stars.
Service
Normally I'd have very little to comment but as I locked my keys in mu luggage I realized I needed the help of the "staff". About 6am I apologetically headed for the front desk to be greeted by Maximo. Looking confused (and somewhat smirking at me I think) he told me to wait in my room after asking for an engineer through the phone. Having waited for 1 hour I headed back down, quite aggrevated. Maximo then led me to the front desk where the confused guy tried to fish someone out to help him help me! Found this south american looking guy who looked extremely fed up. He told me to wait for him in my room - again! After another 15 minutes he was at 924 (my room) and told me the cutters he had were too big, so I'd have to wait for the engineer (wait wasn't he the engineer? who the hell was he!) He told me to wait until 8am (at this point it was about 7:20 or so I think. Waited until 8:10 knowing that I'd have to leave at 8:45, I rushed down to the front desk to be "greeted" by another guy who was obviously not very fond of his job, waited for another 10 minutes until they found David (I think he was called David). And finally I got my lock cut off, with huge bolt cutters, at about 8:30. David is an absolute legend - unlike all the other guys! David would get 4 out of 5 stars (because he did make me wait a bit) but the service in general was about 2 out of 5 stars, not to mention that I think the cleaners didn't actually change my sheets but just made my bed - dunno.
Safety
There weren't too many safety measures installed in my opinion. They did however check our door cards every other time we came back, a safe would have been nice. Though not really a safety issue two of my friends were locked out of their room the whole night because the door didn't work - I guess that could in some perspectives be linked back to safety. I'll give it a 2.5 out of 5.
So overall;
Location: 4
Food: 1.5
Room: 3
Bathrooms: 1
Service: 2
Safety: 2.5
This gives it a total score of 14 out of 30. This may sound like an awful score but I'm quite a harsh critic. I'd try to avoid the 9th floor (the one I stayed on). The vending machines sometimes ate your money and look out for the "nonexistant pool" - well one of my friends never found it but I never looked! There were however a few nice brush ups with foreigners.
Overall verdict: I wouldn't chose to stay there for too long but it's an Ok budget hotel (I mean hostel!).
But on Saturday morning, the day I left for Gatwick, I didn't feel all that excited. I think I'm numb from the excitement of going abroad as I've been abroad so many times - dunno. Had to fly with BA which I wasn't extremely pleased about. Personally I think BA is below par because of the bad service, food, management of luggage and entertainment however I must say their service and management of luggage was much better this time round - the plane food was still a bit iffy though especially when I found jelly covered over my breakfast (but I've had worse!).
To be very honest I was underwhelmed when I reached JFK, maybe because we were at Terminal 7 but it just didn't feel like America (maybe I should rephrase that to; my imagination of America). We stayed at West Side YMCA. As I was on a school trip I'm not sure about the exact cost but I knew it was cheap. A few friends educated me that rats were running around the ground floor - NICE! With the price in mind here's my lowdown;
Location
All the reviews were praising the location, it was a good location but definitely could have been better. Still 4 out of 5 though. Station was about 5-10 minutes walk away and Central Park was next door. What would have made the location spot on was if it was 10 minutes walk away to Fifth Avenue and Times Square!
Food
None present! Alternatively there were 2 Starbucks located less than 500m's away and some hotdogs stalls near Colombus Circle. 1.5 out of 5 due to lack of variety and the fact that they didn't actually provide any of the food.
Room
Possibly the smallest room I've ever slept in (and being a room for 2!) Besides the quite aged funrishings and furniture the room was compact and enough (I guess). The bed was too squeaky though. 3 out of 5 - considering the price this room probably only lacked in size and a simple en suite.
Bathrooms
As bathrooms were communal I had to give a seperate section. Though not as bad as I had imagined they were still bad! Toilets regularly had faeces and urine floating around emitting a waft of bodily smells. The showers were not the cleanest of places (though I wasn't a victim some friends were regularly faced with boiling hot or freezing cold showers. The sink was probably the worst section I had to regularly live up to! Privacy wasn't my issue here; it was the cleanliness - I felt dirtier having had a shower in there than I would of if I hadn't! 1 out of 5 stars.
Service
Normally I'd have very little to comment but as I locked my keys in mu luggage I realized I needed the help of the "staff". About 6am I apologetically headed for the front desk to be greeted by Maximo. Looking confused (and somewhat smirking at me I think) he told me to wait in my room after asking for an engineer through the phone. Having waited for 1 hour I headed back down, quite aggrevated. Maximo then led me to the front desk where the confused guy tried to fish someone out to help him help me! Found this south american looking guy who looked extremely fed up. He told me to wait for him in my room - again! After another 15 minutes he was at 924 (my room) and told me the cutters he had were too big, so I'd have to wait for the engineer (wait wasn't he the engineer? who the hell was he!) He told me to wait until 8am (at this point it was about 7:20 or so I think. Waited until 8:10 knowing that I'd have to leave at 8:45, I rushed down to the front desk to be "greeted" by another guy who was obviously not very fond of his job, waited for another 10 minutes until they found David (I think he was called David). And finally I got my lock cut off, with huge bolt cutters, at about 8:30. David is an absolute legend - unlike all the other guys! David would get 4 out of 5 stars (because he did make me wait a bit) but the service in general was about 2 out of 5 stars, not to mention that I think the cleaners didn't actually change my sheets but just made my bed - dunno.
Safety
There weren't too many safety measures installed in my opinion. They did however check our door cards every other time we came back, a safe would have been nice. Though not really a safety issue two of my friends were locked out of their room the whole night because the door didn't work - I guess that could in some perspectives be linked back to safety. I'll give it a 2.5 out of 5.
So overall;
Location: 4
Food: 1.5
Room: 3
Bathrooms: 1
Service: 2
Safety: 2.5
This gives it a total score of 14 out of 30. This may sound like an awful score but I'm quite a harsh critic. I'd try to avoid the 9th floor (the one I stayed on). The vending machines sometimes ate your money and look out for the "nonexistant pool" - well one of my friends never found it but I never looked! There were however a few nice brush ups with foreigners.
Overall verdict: I wouldn't chose to stay there for too long but it's an Ok budget hotel (I mean hostel!).
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