Chelsea Star Hotel, New York City

Advantages: good location, friendly staff
Disadvantages: limited facilities, small, no disabled access

The Chelsea Star Hotel is situated on the corner of 30th street and eighth avenue in Manhattan. It is quite a small hostel with dorms as well as single and double rooms which are all custom designed. The bathrooms are nice and the place is always clean but there is nowhere to sit and relax - something you long for when you are staying in a dorm. There are phones, an internet machine and a coffee machine and good tourist information. I found the ...
...welcome. The hostel itself is in an ideal location: mid-Manhattan and within easy reach of the subway, Times Square, Madison Square Gardens and Penn station. Over all it was a good place to stay, if not a little expensive for the limited facilities. The room prices are not bad for Manhattan but not as cheap as the International Student Centre, uptown on the west side. And you get better facilities at a YMCA such as the one on the lower west side. ... Read review

Advantages: Fab Location, very helpful staff.
Disadvantages: Small Rooms, No Communal area.

...booked. Upon phoning the Chelsea Star they too were fully booked however, helpfully offered me a pull out bed in one of there dorm rooms for a discounted price. On arrival the staff were exceptionally helpful, offering advice with what to do for my stay and carrying my bags to my room (as someone who had been staying in hostels for the past 3 months this was rather a surprise!). The room was a crowded 10-bed doom with me on a little put up bed ...
...I found the Chelsea Star very clean, with very friendly staff in a top-notch location. However, I used the Hotel as a Hostel staying in a dorm room and there for purely sleeping had I of booked expecting a hotel I feel my experience would have been somewhat different. ... Read review

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: BED BUGS

This has got to be the worst place I've had to deal with. >Although the room was very tiny, it was worth what we paid for. The only >problem was that we should have paid less for having to share the room >with BED BUGS!!!!!!!!!! There were all over the place. At first I didn't >know what they were until I did a search on Bed Bugs and behold there were >snapshots of our friends there!!! The first night we thought it was just >the blankets and asked ...
...>didn't have bed bugs and didn't have another blanket to give us. Then when >I found one of the critters I took it down and showed him. He still gave >me an attituded and told me there was nothing he could do. I left the >blanket on the floor and tried to get through the night. The next day they >changed our sheets and told us they didn't have another room to give us. >And just left it at that. We'd already paid for the 2 nights and had >planned ... Read review