Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
excellent location, it is really downtown NYC |
| Disadvantages: |
expensive, dirty rooms and unbelieably dirty decaying bathrooms |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
no |
I had been to YMCA West Side in New York once ten years ago, before they renovated it, and I enjoyed it much. Thus last summer I went back there with my girlfriend without even having a look at the rooms. I wish I did not go there! Definitely I will not go there any more.
I am 32 and since I travel quite a lot I can say I have some spirit of adaptability. However there's a limit to everything.
The place where this hotel is locate is very good, one minute on foot from Columbus Square in the middle of downtown New York. Unfortunately this is the only positive thing about YMCA West Side.
PRICE: price is too high for what you get. 100$ for a twin bedroom is a bargain for the are you are going to stay, but it is a theft for what you are provided for. What's more YMCA demands you to pay in advance for the whole period you are going to stay. In fact I had reserved it for 5 days and had to stay there all those days, despite the problems, not to lose my money.
ROOM: here at YMCA West Side two kind of
rooms are available, the cheap ones (~100$ for a twin bedroom) have bunk beds. The room is cleaned in a very approximative way, there is carpet on the floor, which probably has never been washed. The bunk beds do not even have a stair in order to get to the upper one: you actually have to "climb" to get on it. It may sound stupid, but the least thing you would ever want after being around all day is to climb to get on and jump to get off the bed.
There is a TV, however only one tv station can be clearly seen. There is also an air conditioning device, though it is very old and makes a lot of noise. It makes a very annoying noise also when it is turned off and it is raining, due to the water drops that drop on the metallic case.
BATHROOM: the worst I have ever seen in NY. Only one bathroom per sex per storey with 3 showers, 4 basins and 4 WC, all this for over 46 twin bedrooms totaling around 96 people!! It was terribly dirty with an urine smell hard to stand. It does not have any window and the air device does not work leaving th smell all inside. It is cleaned only once a day. Basins are very small and provide you with very hot water (when I washed my face I could not stand it on my eyes). Furthermore water was timed to a maximum of 15 seconds each time, not enough even to full my hands to wash my face!
The day after I checked in water had been over for 12 hours from 9 pm to 9 am, exactly the time people usually stay in the hotel. In fact next morning WC were all clogged up! Only 2 had been unclogged in the evening and the remaining 2 were still clogged up when I left, 3 days later. (Imagine 46 rooms with only 2 WCs...)
SECURITY: The entrance is guarded 24/7. The room key is an electronic key. This in fact prevents you from being able to lock your room twice. I personally found that device less secure than standard keys.
Ladies bathroom had a code, however that code was the same for all the storey and it differed by only one cypher (which represented the storey number) from one storey and the other. A secret code indeed!
Being all this not enough, one morning at 06 o'clock we had been waken up by the fire alarm! I do not know why since we later realized there had been no fire. However all the hotel guests were panicking not understanding what was going on. The alarm kept going on for one hour, intermittently. At a certain point a guy spoked in a megaphone reassuring it was "just" a test. However, speaking in slang and with the siren's noise, it took us a few moments to understand what he was actually saying and that just increased panic.
Well, looking on the bright side at least the fire alarm works, at least when there is no fire...
SERVICE AND FACILITIES: the personnel was unpleasant and with a couldn't-care-less attitude.
Even though the hotel had a laundry, it did not have even a basin where one could rinse its clothes. (The bathroom basins were useless since they are timed to 15 seconds).
The hotel also has a computer room, however it costs you around 10$ per hour! Note that in YMCA Jamaica NY each guest was granted 2 hours free of charge each day.
Of course YMCA has lots of fitness facilities, however I think a tourist does not care less for them. After being around all day the least thing you would ever do is to do fitness exercises.
Luggage deposit was not free at all, it cost 2$ per bag.
Not all YMCA are like this (we had been also to YMCA Jamaica NY which wasn't that bad with a much higher value for money), however it is clear that in YMCA West Side guests are treated like animal stocks to be spoiled.
In that hostel I could feel the extreme consequences of extreme capitalism, where thanks to an always high demand the price can be very high and the expenses in services can stay very low.
All this makes me think since YMCA originally meant Youth Male
Christian Association...
Never ever again there!
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