Metro Hotel, New York City

...York, I will use Hotel Metro again, they are the cheapest one that we could find, but which still looked decent enough. They provided an excellent service and you really can’t beat that. The rooms were small, but lovely still. Well worth the money and it provided us with a great place to stay at the end of the day.

==Pictures==

If you take a look at the picture in the middle, I’ll talk you through what they are of. ...
...hotel from the Empire State Building. What you can see is the rooftop terrace. To the right of that picture you should be able to see the empire state building at night. This picture was taken from the rooftop terrace and I thought it was pretty beautiful. The other three pictures are pictures of the lobby and breakfast room of the hotel. Very posh don’t you think?

(C) Kirsty

Thank you for reading and rating and if ... more

Back when we finally decided to book our trip to New York for my 18th, I decided, for once actually being smart, to have a look on the internet and look at reviews on hotels in New York. Due to the fact that the flight would be very expensive, we had to get the cheapest of the cheap really to make sure that we still had money to spend when I got there. On Virgin Atlantic’s website we saw that they had quite cheap (well for New York) inclusive packs for one hotel, this hotel was called Hotel Metro.

I had a look and made sure that this was a good hotel before allowing my mum to book the holiday, it was within our budget and actually it had the best reviews on tripadvisor.com out of all of the hotels I looked at in New York City. Sure it had some problems and some people hated it, but we were crossing our fingers with wouldn’t be in the small minority that did.

Getting There

When we got to JFK, we got a taxi from just outside and gave him the address to the Hotel Metro. As we were driving down all of these streets, I was getting a bit worried as it almost looked like the back alleys, however the driver suddenly stopped and said we were here. This did seem like quite a dirty street, however by the end of the holiday it just became the norm.

Foyer

When you walk up to the hotel, you’ll notice two sets of double glass doors which take you into quite a old style foyer. I have to say it did come across quite posh and I do remember looking down at my jeans and tshirt thinking, I think I’m in the wrong place, however they were delightful behind the desk and told us that one of the rooms was ready however one wasn’t. This was fine as we knew that check in time was 3pm and this was about 1.30pm or there about’s.

Staff

When we got there the people were lovely, we were absolutely shattered from the plane journey and the woman who dealbt with us was friendly and polite and took her time going through the whole hotel rooms trying to find two rooms which were adjacent to each other. She was able to find this in the end however we did find it weird that she put is into the room on the left of my mum’s room due to the fact the room on the right had a door that if they opened at the same time as us, would allow us to walk back and forth between that room. Obviously that was another twin or something and we hadn’t booked that, but I think that would have made a lot more sense.

On the second day we met with this new lady on reception who really helped us with a lot of our holiday, she went out of her way to get us tickets to see Mamma Mia and originally found us tickets for Wicked but they were just a little too expensive for us. She also got us booked on the Grey Line Sightseeing Bus which was a highlight of our trip.

The ladies in the Breakfast room were lovely, they didn’t speak much English but if there was a problem like the apple juice machine not working, they fixed it pronto and apologised, not that they needed to. Very polite and at such an early time of the morning that’s what you want.

The only time we did have any problems with the staff was when we went onto the rooftop terrace, I understand he was doing his job, but due to the heat, we took water bottles up with us, which were actually filled with the water from the hotels taps. He told us we had to remove those bottles and buy something from the bar instead, but then looked at me and my sister and told us we were not allowed anywhere near the bar. I was a bit shocked by this, we did not in the end buy anything from the bar at all. I have heard it’s very expensive and they put a huge tip on the bill in return for poor attitude, as I could see.

The maid did an awesome job. I’m a messy pup and she dealt with our room brilliantly. I always have a lot of respect for the maid as I worked as a housekeeper for 2 years before damaging my back doing it. 17 rooms on each floor and it looks like they’re 2 maids to each floor.

We didn’t let it spoil the holiday at all, most were delightful and really made sure our stay was alright.

Rooms

Like I said before the room which was supposed to be mine and my sisters wasn’t ready until 3pm, which meant we went into my mum and nans room first. This was slightly cruel as there room was almost double the size, they had booked a twin room, well what they call a Deluxe Double Room on the webpage.

Deluxe Double Double
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This room was quite large, it managed to fit all four of us watching TV when we were seriously shattered and could not move another muscle. The bathroom was lovely, you get a marble bathroom, and the shower in this room we were in, was half the size of the bathroom, about 3x the size of the one we got in our room.

Superior Queen
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This room is a lot smaller than the Deluxe Double room, I think you pay less for it, I can’t be sure however it was just enough room for me and my sister to live in for four days. I am very messy and I was able to store my mess and still have enough room to walk around without falling over.

The bathroom disappointed me however; it was about the same size as the one in the double deluxe one, however the shower was miniature. On the first day I was very tired, rightly so, jumped in the shower, expected to turn the dials and get just right water, and all I could get was scolding hot, and scalding cold. However, there was nowhere to run to, the shower was so small that it fit you and the water, no spaces at all. I eventually used the shower in the deluxe room every day.

Extras

In both rooms you get a mini bar, which we never even looked in as we didn’t want to tempt ourselves, however on top of the mini bar sat this little box full of goodies from water, coke, Pringles and M&Ms. In front of this box was a sign which said if any of these were taken off for more than 20 seconds you would get charged for them. This was cruel as it was on show. In the end we brought our own Pringles and M&M’s but still, we did find it quite cruel.

The reason why we were annoyed with that little box full of goodies on display was the fact that in the room was a few plastic glasses. That was it. I have worked in quite a few hotels and B&B’s since I was younger and have always had to put things in like tea bags, coffee, biscuits and most importantly, water. There was nothing for free in this room; we were even worried when we went to have a shower that the shower gel might be charged to our bill as well for using that. Luckily it didn’t. They told us on the little slip of paper that there was a sensor which was attached from the box to the phone and an item was taken for more than 20 seconds we would be charged. We might have been gulliable as it does seem a bit of a longshot, but we didn't wanna risk it. We did wonder if they would notice if we flicked the lid of the Pringles box and eat them from the sensor box. Didn't try though.

Finally the only other problem with the room was how noisy it was, I didn’t notice it as much as we found out quickly how to drown out the noise (stick on the air con) however my mum and nan did struggle sleeping the first night. You do have to remember that it is the city that never sleeps, so this does mean that dustbin men work at 2am right outside the hotel. It is very noisy, but stick in ear buds or put on the air con and you should be fine.

Rooftop Bar

An amazing idea, really gorgeous views of the empire state building at night, however rude staff. On the Tuesday night after a hard day, we went up to take some pictures. It was, almost 40 degrees, so we each took up a bottle of water with us. We sat down and started taking pictures and a big burly guy came over telling us to remove the drinks and buy water from the bar. He then turned to my mum, pointed at me and my sister and said ‘These two are not allowed anywhere near the bar, they can’t approach it at all’. I said ‘not even for water’ and he glared at me. Very ridiculous and we only visited it one more time on the last night.

Metro Grill

On the last night, we wanted a nice meal before the theatre show. We sat down here and got... nothing. We were out of there within 5 minutes, nothing on the menu that we would like for the price, I’m sorry but I’m not paying the prices on there for the small portions that they were giving out. I had also heard rumours that they put a huge tip onto the bill and give terrible service.

Internet Access

I thought I could make it but I think I failed on Tuesday and went downstairs and asked for the password and username. They gave it me and I had internet access on my IPod. Every day I had to keep putting in the password and username but it’s free access, can’t ask for more. It’s not the fastest internet in the world but it’ll do.

Continental Breakfast

This was a life saver, not only did it fill us up for the rest of the day, but it was so nicely done and there is so much choice that it was one of the highlights of the holiday. The breakfast room is stocked with everything from toasts, croissants and bagels, and even cereal. Great selection and it’s always well stocked up. Croissants disappeared very quickly, I know we each had one each morning that we could.

Great little dining area. Main portion, can be quite noisy, but if you venture of onto the left or right portion of the area, very nice and quiet. Throughout the whole breakfast room, about 4 TV’s are on the wall, they keep them low, but you can still hear them if you try. It’s nice to watch a bit of TV whilst you’re eating your breakfast.

It does get busy between about 8-9am but you should be able to find a seat quite easily, if not people are very polite there, and will probably let you borrow a chair or something like that.

Lifts

The reason why I have put this as a sub section is because I have read a lot of reviews on trip advisor which said the lifts were awful and dirty. Not once did I notice that the lifts were dirty, they were small, no doubt about that and at 7am they were very hard to work out, however they were what we expected to be. I am usually terrified of lifts, just the idea of them used to freak me out, but these didn’t bother me in the slightest.

I would like to think I’m quite fit, I still enjoy sport, but one day when I tried running up the stairs to the seventh floor I was knackered and almost passed out, especially when I realised I had beat my family up to the floor and they had the key. The lifts were great and saves you walking up all those bloody flights of stairs.

Help

Throughout the holiday we had a lot of help from the receptionists, when we wanted to book a trip to the theatre, she rang around for us and found the cheapest possible tickets for us which was brilliant, she also booked the Grey Line Sightseeing Cruise for us as well. They’re very helpful at this hotel, the bellman on the last day was great, we got out of the room at 12pm but we didn’t need to get a taxi till about 2.30pm. When we were ready to get a taxi, he helped us with the bags and when we walked out of the hotel, we found he had already got a cab for us, and the cabbie was emptying out his boot for our large cases. Lets just say he got a nice tip for that.

Price

I’m sorry to say, but we seem to have misplaced all of the receipts from the holiday which includes the price for the hotel. I have looked on the website and the lowest prices I’ve seen per night I believe is $165, which is about £90 or so which really isn’t too bad at all in my opinion.

Location

Everyone swoons over the location in every review I’ve read, it’s not right on times square which means you don’t get as much noise in the rooms, but it’s not in the middle of nowhere, this is what is near the hotel:

Empire State is left out of the building cross the road at the end and carry along 5th Avenue and it’s there. 5 minute walk with a disabled person.

Macys- Only have to cross two roads to get to Macys.

Times Square- Most people would say it’s easy to find Times Square- it is only technically 10 minutes away, but after going to Madame Tassauds on the Tuesday and getting completely lost getting back home, we never tried the walk again. It is easy to find, if you have a sense of direction.

Central Park- 30 minute walk, we got the grey line bus one day and then a taxi another, cost you about $10 including tip.

Shops- Along 5th avenue in between 35th street and 36th street I believe is some lovely clothes shops. Rainbow is my favourite shop that I found, it is just around the corner from the hotel, on the same road as the Empire State Building. Just a brilliant shop.

From what you can see, you have some amazing places around the hotel, it never really becomes too busy on the street and you only have a small walk to wherever you want to go.

The Good

- Great air con. Such a relief to walk into such a cool room at the end of the day.
- Great staff
- Complimentary Internet Access
- Continental Breakfast was gorgeous.
- Really comfy bed.

The Bad

- Noisy all throughout the night.
- No free food/drink in the hotel room. You could get coffee/tea from downstairs, but no water/apple juice unless it was breakfast time.
- TV buzzed whenever you watched it. You could be watching it on volume 17, turn it down to 16 and it would be louder somehow. It couldn’t make up it’s mind. We only watched this sometimes though.

Final Opinion

If we go back to New York, I will use Hotel Metro again, they are the cheapest one that we could find, but which still looked decent enough. They provided an excellent service and you really can’t beat that. The rooms were small, but lovely still. Well worth the money and it provided us with a great place to stay at the end of the day.

Pictures

If you take a look at the picture in the middle, I’ll talk you through what they are of. The top left picture is a picture taken of our hotel from the Empire State Building. What you can see is the rooftop terrace. To the right of that picture you should be able to see the empire state building at night. This picture was taken from the rooftop terrace and I thought it was pretty beautiful. The other three pictures are pictures of the lobby and breakfast room of the hotel. Very posh don’t you think?

(C) Kirsty

Thank you for reading and rating and if you get a chance, please tell me what you think. Kirsty

 

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