Herald Square, New York City

.../> '''GRAND TOTAL FOR THE HERALD SQUARE HOTEL: 7/10'''
(52/70 to be exact)
I'm giving 3 stars, due to the small but irritating problems we had as explained above. If I was to stay again, I trust I would be able to give it 4 stars.

'''Would I stay the again?:'''
When we stayed at the Herald, it was going through a series of renovations. Which meant that we could hear workmen too-ing and fro-ing outside our door ...
...of wood and gubbins in the small corridors, which weren't appreciated, but weren't too much of a hindrance either, if I'm honest. It's also worth mentioning that the hotel as a strict no smoking policy throughout. But would I go back? You know what? I think I would. I've stayed in better, cheaper and closer (to Times Square) hotels before in New York, so if these were unavailable, I would check this one out again. The street area looks a bit scabby ... more

Introduction:
Every year, my partner and I take a trip to NYC. This is more of less so I can catch up on the latest theatrical happenings on Broadway. We had our flights sorted, so needed a hotel. Although a cheap price is more important to us than quality (when it comes to city breaks, when in the city why do you need to stay in your room??) we didn't fancy going down the hostel route (we're getting too old to 'slum' it)…so on our quest to find budget or cheap hotels, after a few of our more preferred hotels were fully booked, we came across this one. So, had a look and booked online.

What the Hotel says about itself:
This is what their website says: "Our Hotel is the Original "Life" Magazine Building and was built in 1894, it still retains the charm and humor of its original occupants. Through the years the building was changed in many ways, leaving the floor plans a little different at each alteration. There are many different size rooms throughout the Hotel, behind the scenes, a complete renovation and modernization brings you to the Hotel as it stands today. In our desire to serve you better, please keep this information in mind when you choose a room. . . All of our rooms have Air Conditioning and In-Rooms Safes, Satellite Direct TV, FREE Wi-Fi and your basic amenities. Our rates are the best value in NYC, and the policy of not supplying everything you could ever use in each room [is this some strange excuse?], goes a long way to keeping the rates reasonable in this day of ever increasing costs." (…Their website is terrible by the way I had to trawl through to the 9th page to find this.)

Location:
When I stay in NYC, I invariably, end up being quite central to Times Square, this was one of the first hotels I had stayed in that was a good 20 blocks away…however, it was very close, a stones throw away if that, from Penn Station, which is one of the most common stations to get into the city. Also it is only round the corner from the Empire State Building. So in terms of location, I'm just being fussy. Whilst we weren't close to the hubbub of the action, per se, we were in a great location for a tourist visiting the city. The street that the hotel is on, doesn't look incredibly impressive* but it didn't make us feel unsafe by any means.
Location rating: 8/10

The Lobby:
The lobby had a strangely impersonal feel to it. As soon as you're let in, via the police lobbyesque/glass screen entrance, we get into faux ornate and rather small lobby area, trying to make it crystal clear that we're in the 'Life' building with all sorts of images and memorabilia. On the right hand side as you walk in, there is a fairly decent size waiting area with various leaflets and info on display. As is free coffee or tea in a nice little stand…however, nothing to eat. If you haven't worked out by now, the building used to be the offices of Life Magazine and his since been renovated, maintaining reference to the Magazine with framed front covers from the 1920s. It's cute, but a bit twee for me.
Lobby rating: 7/10

The Room:
Our room was very small, but what did we expect? We had a wardrobe and (what looked like) a wrought iron bed frame, and little desk, all the things you would expect. Our view was non-existence, offering a wall…nice. But I'm being picky, we were in the city. We had a couple of problems with the room. One was that it got rather stuffy when we had a shower. We went in April'08, so the weather was still rather chilly, yet we had to use the aircon to get some 'fresh air' in the room. Another problem I found, being a light sleeper, was that our bed head was clearly wall to wall with our neighbour's bathroom. If (and they did) decide to have a shower at night, we heard the taps, water, you name it, from the bathroom next door. What makes this so silly, is that we went to bed just before midnight, yet kept hearing random flushes and water gushing. Other than that it was fine, we had a safe, TV, iron and ironing board, coat hangers, everything you might need from a hotel room.
Bedroom rating: 7/10
Amenities in the room rating: 7/10

The Bathroom:
The bathroom was again, small, but served us fine. Apart from the shower, which ran from hot to freezing cold, it was terrible and began to get incredibly annoying. It was a mixer shower and seemed impossible to 'mix'! On the way of the bathroom (into the bedroom) was a little ledge down, that tripped me up each time. Whether that's down to my clumsiness or not, it was still annoying too. Other than that, it was clean and that's all that really mattered.
Bathroom rating: 6/10

Other Amenities:
The hotel has free wifi throughout, which was excellent for us to browse and look up shows that we could go and see. There is also an onsite laundry service as well as lockers. We weren't leaving the city until the evening, so were able to check out and lock up our valuables, ready to come back and collect them on our way to the airport. As I mentioned there is also complimentary tea and coffee available in the lobby, but nothing too exciting.
Other Amenities rating (including staff): 8/10

The Price:
We paid $129 a night, for 2 nights. Which works out approximately 140GBP - which works out at 35GBP per person, per night. Not bad for New York City.
Price rating: 9/10

GRAND TOTAL FOR THE HERALD SQUARE HOTEL: 7/10
(52/70 to be exact)
I'm giving 3 stars, due to the small but irritating problems we had as explained above. If I was to stay again, I trust I would be able to give it 4 stars.

Would I stay the again?:
When we stayed at the Herald, it was going through a series of renovations. Which meant that we could hear workmen too-ing and fro-ing outside our door and as we left each morning. They left random planks of wood and gubbins in the small corridors, which weren't appreciated, but weren't too much of a hindrance either, if I'm honest. It's also worth mentioning that the hotel as a strict no smoking policy throughout. But would I go back? You know what? I think I would. I've stayed in better, cheaper and closer (to Times Square) hotels before in New York, so if these were unavailable, I would check this one out again. The street area looks a bit scabby and daunting, but we never had any reason to feel nervous or vulnerable. I would recommend this hotel.

The hotel's website can be found at: http://www.heraldsquarehotel.com

I recommend you go and see it, for comedy value, as they have the WEIRDEST video to market their hotel! (Be warned, they use costumes)

The hotel can be found here:
19 West 31st Street (between 5th Ave and Broadway)
New York, NY 10001
Tel:(212) 279-4017
Fax:(212) 643-9208

Thanks for reading :)

© MarcoG 2008

(p.s. I'm so annoyed, I took loads of photos of our room, the area and loads of other helpful stuff…but they're on my other hard drive…in a different country…I'll try and get them swapped over next month or so)
* I did have a picture of this…waaaaaaaaaaaaah 

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