Hotel 57 — Hotel in New York

Unfortunately, I had an atrocious experience at Hotel 57 in which my friends and I were treated with extreme disrespect, lied to multiple times by the staff, and not given the room we booked and paid for.

We booked a room with a king bed and sofa bed to accommodate four people. Upon arrival, we were treated in an absurd manner. The man at the front interrogated us about our reservation (“Are you sure it’s today?” “Are you sure you’re here the right day and it’s not tomorrow or yesterday”) before even checking. Then, once he searched, we were told our room only had a king bed. We showed our booking which showed otherwise, but the man repeatedly told us that our booking was impossible, that no such room existed in the whole hotel, and that it would be a fire hazard to have a king bed and sofa bed in the same room at all. We were very confused how a hotel would advertise a room and allow it to be booked but then claim no such room exists.

After a lot of waiting, the manager came over and said they could put us in a more spacious room with a queen bed (and a sofa) and they could also get a roll-away bed put in to fit our group. She told us we could leave our stuff at the hotel closet until that room was ready. We proceeded to take out things for the day when the man from the front desk came up and said our room was ready. We informed him the manager had just said it was not, but he rudely informed us that it did not matter what the manager said, the room was ready. We were also told the roll-away bed would be brought up shortly. However, the room we received was not a queen but instead a full bed with a small sofa bed. No roll-away bed was brought. When we returned that evening, a roll-away bed was still not there. The next morning, I requested the roll-away bed again to be brought up immediately as we did not have adequate accommodations the first night. We were told again it would be brought up. That night we returned, there was no roll-away bed.

At that point, I called the front desk to once AGAIN request the roll-away bed. In a shocking turn of events, we were informed that it was actually impossible for a roll-away bed to brought up because it would be a fire hazard to have a roll-away bed in that room. Again, I asked how the hotel would accommodate us having messed up the booking. A different manager on the phone said what she could do was move us into a room with a king bed AND sofa bed. I was appalled - she was offering the room we had paid for, booked, and were repeatedly told did not exist in the hotel.

My friends and I went down to the front desk to talk to the staff in person. There was a different manager and hotel staff member working the desk from the first night. We explained our confusion, the information we were told previously, and asked why we were not given the room we booked in the first place. The man working the desk was extremely rude and disrespectful. He said there was “no way” we were told that this room did not exist. We assured him, yes we were - we were all there and REPEATEDLY told this information. The man proceeded to lecture us and blame us for not getting the room we booked, saying this was a lesson for us to call hotels directly after booking to ensure the booking properly went through (it did, as evidenced by our booking confirmation and receipt).

We ended up moving rooms late that night. We asked for a full refund for that first night but were told it was not possible (multiple times), which was extremely disappointing after the lies, mix ups, and disrespectful treatment. We were told the best they could do was $40 off a night. Our guess is that the hotel double booked our room and instead of owning up, proceeded to continuously lie, switching the story every step of the way, in an effort to make full profit without giving the room that was paid for. Should the hotel care to remedy this situation, we would appreciate a full refund of our hotel stay, or at minimum, 50% off our stay based on the...

I feel it is an almost moral responsibility to actively warn any potential guests thinking to stay here.

To start, I walk into an empty lobby around 5:30pm to see a man standing at a computer who gives no greeting.. I give a Hello with no response and decide I should probably get my confirmation number from the travel agency my corporate team booked for me. This exchange advances exactly as you’d imagine, the most inefficient, completely unhelpful way, escalating in complexity with each new request from the desk clerk ending with him requesting a credit card authorization forms from my management sent to their email????? I later found out was completely unneeded

It was as if he hoped enough unnecessary roadblocks would make give up and leave for another hotel (I should have done that in hindsight). After the supervisor calls me over to complete the rest of check in the man leaves the back room to stare me dead in the eye while I briefly recount why things escalated to her so I wait in the lobby hall.

I go up to the counter to receive the key after waiting for them to finish but the unhelpful man hands her my key and says “I already made the key for him”, with her then passing it onto me for room 817. I get in the elevator feeling completely humiliated with other guests and that’s when it gets… SO MUCH worse!

I walk back and forth between the two hallways 4 or 5 times, then to the back of each hall and realize they’ve given me a key for room 817 when it only goes up to 816! At this point I am so sure that I am being played with that I go down to the lobby fully expecting them to tell me there’s no room for me and I should just find somewhere else to stay. Instead I find out from the unhelpful man that there is indeed a room 817 but it’s not listed and that there is someone waiting on the 8th floor to escort me to the room (???)…

I am so defeated at this point that I turn around to the elevator and find out my room key was not even functioning and that the guests I first rode the elevator with were the reason I could even get to that floor to not find my room in the first place. :)

After getting my second key from the hostile desk man I go up, where a building engineer escorts me down a corridor of supply closets that few normal people would think to look beyond to find a room at the end labeled 817! “Newly renovated” so that’s why the numbers aren’t posted.

Onto the room, they probably replaced the carpet recently to this industrial grade dark grey which is always concerning in terms of what kind of stains it is hiding.. a basic Full Bed…. And a questionably divided tiling choice.. but I didn’t pay for the room so as long as I can sleep for this one night work stay more than a bed. Not even water in the unit tho…..

After being out for the evening the final blow is a key card malfunction at the room door that requires me to go back to the lobby for a third key.

There are MANY basic economy hotels that far surpass any service experience or amenity I have had at this place. There are plenty of nice people working at this hotel that aren’t the desk clerk but nothing can be done to overlook the extreme level of dysfunction present in the hotels...

We booked this hotel for my daughter and her friend through Wyndham Rewards. At that time we received a booking confirmation (Feb 2024). At the time of booking, the hotel had an affiliation with Wyndham. When my daughter turned up to check-in (early June 2024), she showed them the confirmation, but they said they had no record of the booking and their affiliation with Wyndham had ceased in late April 2024. The front desk (FD) staff member said that if they wanted to stay they would need to pay upfront, otherwise move along. FD refused to speak to me on the phone at the time. As a father, you can imagine I don't want my daughter wandering the streets at 6pm in a new city looking for a place to stay, so I asked her to request what the price would be and we would sort it out later with the hotel and Wyndham. Staff gave her a price then took that payment from her debit card. After putting the payment through and giving her a receipt showing the price paid for 3 nights (as he verbally confirmed minutes earlier), FD said he had made a mistake and had only charged her for 2 nights (even thought the receipt clearly showed 3 nights). The amount charged for what we thought was 3 nights seemed reasonable, given it equated to what we had seen online on their website. So, rather than discuss and correct any misunderstanding then and there, they were shown to their room and told it would be sorted on checkout. Prior to check out (which was pre-6am), the hotel decided to charge my daughters' debit card for an extra night without requesting authority from her. In anyone's language this would be considered ILLEGAL! And the amount was much higher than for any of the prior 2 nights!

Now, ordinarily a hotel would honour bookings regardless of whether they had ended their affiliation with another provider or partner, but not so here at Hotel 57! And they are happy to kick you out of the hotel, if the situation appears too difficult for them to get their little minds around.

This is up there with some of the most disgraceful levels of empathy, problem solving and customer service you would ever encounter. The hotel had no interest in discussing it with either my daughter, myself or Wyndham. And before anyone says, take it up with Wyndham - I have - and they are baulking at speaking to the hotel...."because they don't have any association with Hotel 57 anymore". So where are we left? In the middle, AU$1,500 out of pocket. Thanks Hotel 57 and Wyndham for nothing! Absolutely hopeless. My advice to anyone reading this - stay away from these less than empathetic thieves at Hotel 57! And yes, I am taking it up with Wyndham.

I gave this hotel 1 star only because I couldn't...