The Pod Hotel New York, New York > Reviews (3)

So I was recently staying in the Pod Hotel for 5 nights and had a pretty mixed, but ultimately pleasant experience. I'm glad I stayed there, but I may have done things a little differently in hindsight.

So the hotel is located in Midtown, on the east side. There are two close by subway stops - 51st/Lexington (which is nearest) and 53rd. Generally this is a useful position to be in, but perhaps not so much so as being on the west side which just seems to be a lot easier to hop on/off. On a previous trip to New York we stayed West 40-something and we were travelling all over the city and didn't seem to do as much changing and faffing about as we did over in this area, so I'd say that was something to bear in mind if you're just looking to stay in any area.

Anyway, there are bars and restaurants of the usual price range, but of good quality, either side of the pod. Theres a Chase bank on the corner of the next block, which for a 5 dollar fee (but no other charge) changes currency. There's also one of my favourite places in NYC literally around the corner - Ess a Bagel, which is the best place to get a bagel in the whole city (so delicious). So there are a lot of places around of varying price ranges to visit. Also in walking distance (although not a short walk) is the Museum of Modern Art and the Rockerfeller centre.

The hotel foyer is large, has a reasonably sized lounge area with WiFi and a cafe (not run by the hotel) which also spans outside into the nicely decorated courtyard area. There is a happy hour in the cafe for breakfast and I gather it's cheaper at this time. The quality is good but outside of the happy hour I thought it was pretty pricey. Five dollars for the smallest 'handful' of strawberries I've ever seen and a squidge of whipped cream... Or a bagel for 8/12 dollars... Bit pricey if you ask me. The coffee is very nice though and in the right time, it would be worth eating here in the morning. There is a roof terrace which had a lovely view but wasn't worth writing home about.

The foyer staff were nice enough, the concierge was very helpful. The porters were very nice but there weren't enough of them in terms of how many people needed help. There was a bit of a wait to drop off bags or pick them up. But they were quick to offer and flag down a cab for you if needed.

The rooms were mixed - you can either have a single room, a bunk bed style sharing room, a double or a queen sized room. The single/sharing rooms had communal bathrooms down the hall which we didn't see but there is another review on here which says they were very clean. I saw the size of the bunk bed rooms and they were fine, in terms of looking for hostels it looked very nice indeed. I heard that for the shared bathrooms there was a light to tell you which one was free, which sounds handy and saves walking all over the shop to find out!

The room that we initially stayed in was a double on the fourth floor. We've stayed in some budget and 'pod' style hotels before and been more than happy.

But this wasn't a great room at all - I felt a little cheated in terms of the picture online which made the room look a hell of a lot larger than it was. We we looking out onto a brick wall, the bed was against the wall but with no bedstead so you could only sit up facing the shower and not the telly which was at a right angle to how you should have been sat. There was an ipod dock radio which you could use and which had an alarm, this was great.

The bathroom facilities are really cool, the shower is wonderful and the sliding screen door is pretty nifty. But be warned - if you're sharing with someone other than a partner/husband/someone who you're not shy in front of, this might be a problem. Basically, the door into the bathroom is frosted, so you can't be seen on the toilet, but with this door shut there is just a glass panel in between the bedroom and the shower. It is a lot nicer than it sounds on here, really innovative. In the double room the sink and mirror are in the bedroom. I wasn't a fan of this. The room itself is tiny and there wasn't enough space for two people to walk around, let alone have suitcases knocking about - you're supposed to put the clothes under the bed in drawers...

There are two pillows provided, which were quite flat so we requested some more, once we'd done so it was a perfect nights sleep in a very nice bed.

So, because we weren't happy with the first room, we paid 30 dollars per night for an upgrade which got us to the 12th floor and into a great room. It was so much larger in the room and the bathroom (which had mirrors inside the bathroom!) and there was a great view of various roof terraces/buildings out of both windows. The telly faced the bed, there were two bedside tables, a desk and somewhere to hang your clothes.

This room was absolutely great and with hindsight I'd have paid the extra in the first place for the queen sized room - it really made a difference to the quality of our stay in the Pod hotel.

In terms of cleanliness both the double and the queen were spotless, also in general terms the whole hotel was spotless. Also the air conditioning was great in both rooms, plenty of options for temp and pressure and given we were there during a heatwave this was greatly appreciated.

I read some reviews that said the hotel was noisy, other than the odd noise now and again we didn't hear anything - no voices, no lifts, no hassle!

Getting back to the airport was easy, there is either a shuttle from the hotel which costs 20 dollars each or you can get the subway to 34st Penn Station and take the NJ transit train, which is what we did for 30 dollars and it was completely hassle free.

I'd definately recommend the Pod hotel to others, but either on the basis of a queen room or sharing/single rooms. Otherwise if you can find a cheaper double in another hotel, that you know is good I'd suggest perhaps doing that instead. Otherwise, I'd say that the Pod is worth the money as it was always accomodating, clean and very nicely designed and decorated. It's modern without the arrogance, clean without feeling alienating and large but without feeling like a complex. As an over all experience I was very happy with our stay here.