Hotel Indigo Lower East Side New York by IHG — Hotel in New York

This was our 4th stay. Sadly standards have dropped while prices have risen. ||Booked months ahead, I had messaged the hotel prior to arrival (via Expedia) to notify of late flight arrival and check in. I received a message back directly from the hotel acknowledging this. ||On arrival we (later) learned that, we had been allocated the last room available next to the gym. We were not warned that there was zero sound proofing. Exhausted from travelling we were woken abruptly early the first morning by the noise of running on the gym treadmill, banging against the wall next to our bed headboard. (No soundproofing). ||On raising this with the two staff members on duty at reception, we were met with an extremely rude, defensive and unsympathetic response. I was quite taken aback at the ‘attitude’ where we were more or less told that it was tough luck we’d checked in last, it was first come first served, the hotel was busy, they didn’t care if we were loyal, returning customers, the fact I’d emailed we were checking in late didn’t count because I’d “done it through a third party” (ie Expedia), even though I pointed out I’d received a response directly from the hotel. At this point I asked to speak to the Front of House Manager who they reluctantly called. ||I have to say the Manager was great and dealt with our issues as I would expect from a hotel of this standard. I have no complaints about her. It was, however, frustrating as we had unpacked so had to repack and technically check out and check back in again at 3pm which basically spoiled our plans for the first day. ||On checking into the new room, it was slightly smaller than the previous one, with less clothing storage space and no full length mirror, which I found very disappointing as we had a few smart events to attend, and strange for a 4/5 star hotel. However, we liked the views, were relieved to be away from the treadmill noise and really could not bear the hassle of moving again. ||One of the compensatory things we were given was a token for a coffee and light breakfast snack served in the bar area. There was a large queue with one poor staff member struggling to make coffees, and we were surprised that the hot rolls offered were small, processed and warmed up in a microwave, basically like a McDonalds McMuffin but not as tasty. Again from a hotel with 4/5 stars I’d expect better breakfast options to be on offer. I’d have been pretty cross if I’d paid for bed and breakfast. Fortunately we always go to our favourite local diner. ||The water was not replaced in our fridge over our whole stay. As they give you a $10 credit per day for the fridge, I’m cynically suspicious this was to tempt us into purchasing the very expensive alcoholic options which went way over the allowance. ||On the subject of subtle or not so subtle rip-offs, the newly added “amenities” tax is outrageous! ||We knew when booking that the bar, Mr Purple has always been a popular draw, however, it now seems to have got out of hand. Hoards of millennials (not hotel guests) with rucksacks and no intention of buying a drink piling up in the lifts to the bar staggering around outside to pose for the ‘gram’, making it uncomfortable for hotel guests to relax and enjoy drinks. A couple of them, obviously intoxicated. fell onto our table and there was almost broken glass and injury, plus there was often very loud screaming from the bar into the early hours. (At weekends it doesn’t close until 4am). You can tell by the Instagram posts with obvious influencers and models (the actual crowd are nothing like this), they are really trying to promote a glamorous nightclub scenario. The hotel should perhaps remember that it is a hotel first and foremost with paying guests. ||On the subject of cocktails, they are overpriced at around $10 more than most of the 5 star establishments in town and those we tried were not particularly well made. (I’m guessing we were paying for the view). Consequently, we mostly drank and brought visitors, friends and business associates to the bar at the hotel opposite, where the cocktails were fairly priced and of exceptional quality. Also the reception staff there were so welcoming and lovely to us unlike those on reception at the Indigo who just scowled and seemed to hate their job and us! ||On the plus side, the guys who helped us with our luggage and airport taxi were really courteous and efficient and the Front of House Manager was professional and very helpful. ||Sadly, I’m not sure we would stay there again for the...

OWNERS!! – please decide whether you are running a 4-star hotel or a night club. ||GUESTS!! - By all means avoid staying on 12th floor.||We booked this hotel through an agent for our 8 nights vacation in New York City. We chose this hotel due to its good central location on Manhattan and the small pool that we intended to use after a long day of walking in NYC. The hotel has a nice rooftop bar at 15th floor and a night club at 14th.||We arrived on a Monday and the first days we were quite satisfied with our room on 12th floor with a fine view of Lower East Side towards the Williamsburg bridge. A small room but nice and clean.||The problems started on Friday with loud music and noise from what we at first thought was the rooftop bar “Mr. Purple” on the 15th floor. This continued until 2 a.m. when there was finally silence. Things got worse on Saturday from around 10 p.m. onwards. People were literally dancing on our ceiling (as there is no 13th floor). The noise from the night club on 14th floor was so loud in our room on 12th floor that we felt we were inside the night club. This is what you may expect from a two star hotel in Bulgaria – but certainly not from a rather pricy 4 star hotel in New York.||After no chance of getting any sleep this night, we at 1 a.m. tried to call the reception but the phone was not picked up. We decided to get up and went to the reception to complain. The receptionist could tell us that the party in the club would continue until 4 a.m. – and that fortunately the night club party next day (Sunday) was expected to be only until 2 a.m. !!||Must disturbingly we got the impression that everybody at the hotel was very well aware that there was a noise problem after the night club was opened earlier in 2024 – nobody seemed to be surprised over our complaint. Management claimed that “Mr. Purple” is a different entity and they could not do nothing about the noise (except providing us with earplugs !). This is probably partially correct as Mr. Purple is run as a separate business – however the hotel owners IHG seem to be quite entangled in this – which makes sense if you decide to ruin the business of a 4 star hotel because of a night club. Business of the owners is clearly focused on running a bar and a night club for young people in NYC – and not on hotel guests. Most visitors to the rooftop bar are not staying at the hotel.||Next day we could be moved to another room – which happened after some annoying procedure where we had to pack all luggage and leave our room before we could get a key card for the new room – instead of just moving things directly to the new room.||Apart from the noise problems mentioned above there are other things to be mentioned:||The pool which was part of our reason for booking the hotel – we ended up never using. It turned out that it closed at 5 p.m. everyday which was usually before we were back at the hotel. During the weekend the closing time was already at 1 p.m. However, you can book it for 150 $ afterwards!||If you book this hotel, be aware of the high amenity taxes (we were aware of that during the booking so was not a surprise to us). If you book with breakfast – this consists of a 15$ voucher that you can use in the bar for coffee, a muffin and a croissant. ||Staff at the reception generally showed not much interest in guests and was somewhat rude. Not often have we stayed at a hotel where the staff did not greet us with a “Hi” when we passed through the reception - however both managers and the house keeping staff were quite friendly.||To be fair we were moved to another bigger room and got some compensation from the hotel. - however, this stay turned not out to be what we would expect from a 4 star hotel.||The good things:||The rooftop bar is nice and has a fantastic view of Manhattan. |The location on Lower East Side is great for walking to both uptown and downtown Manhattan and is also close to metro stations “Delancey St– Essex St“ (catch line J or Z from Jamaica station near JFK Airport) and “2 Av”|Lots of bars and restaurants in the area if you like to go out||If you are a younger couple who wants to go out you may enjoy staying at Hotel Indigo Lower East Side – seniors and families, stay away – or consider the other hotel right across the street. ||Will we come back? NYC – most likely… Hotel Indigo –...

Booked this for a 5 night Christmas break from the UK, using my "complimentary suite upgrade" voucher, and was therefore expecting to have a wonderful experience in what I was expecting to be a fairly decent 4* hotel, albeit only receiving a "Premium" Tower room due to no apparent suite availability.

Upon arrival on the 24th December the reception area was very busy with seemingly only 1 member of staff available. After waiting a short while another staff member came out from the office and proceeded to assist. I was disappointed to note that on no occasion was my status mentioned and the reception we received seemed a little unwelcoming - The customary "thank you for being a platinum/diamond member" was nowhere to be heard for example!

The room itself seemed okay at first, apart from somewhat gaudy decor. It was however very cold. Fiddling with the heating controls had no effect, even set on high the maximum temperature we could get the room to reach according to the thermostat was 67 Fahrenheit (approx 19.5C). Honestly it felt colder than that. In addition there was no heating in the bathroom whatsoever, making the move out of the shower very unpleasant and meaning towels had to be changed at least every day as they just wouldn't dry - not ideal for a supposed 4* hotel.

Unfortunately it seems that this was all due to the cold weather in NYC during the first half of our visit and the very poor performance of the hotel's room heating system - clearly not helped by large floor to ceiling windows. As such we had to sleep in additional clothing as the thin blanket on the bed was seriously lacking.

Mentioning it to the hotel reception on two separate occasions the following day was met with "we will get the engineer to check" with no feedback after that whatsoever. I even checked online for availability of other rooms at the hotel (which interesting showed basic suites now being available) but was told that it was not the hotel's policy to upgrade ppl to a suite and there were no other rooms available when I queried this with reception - ultimately they just didn't seem to care with no offer of a room change, no-one suggesting an additional heater (prob they don't have them to offer), and no-one offering additional blankets or bedding (granted we didn't directly request this though as we ended up just wearing extra layers in bed).

The only other critisicms seem somewhat minor by comparison:

Panelling on the left hand lift was coming loose, you werent sure whether selecting a floor would have the whole thing fall down on you - poor maintenance.

Lift music was seemingly linked to the bar upstairs so rather than an eclectic mix you were met with heavy bass beats, hip hop and singers swearing and mentioning the N-word during your lift ride.

The stand to hold your suitcase, provided in the room, turned out to be very flimsy and poorly maintained with the wooden legs coming apart in places. Upon initally placing a case on top of it it completely collapsed narrowly missing scraping my legs and feet.

The only real positive I can think of was that the cleaning staff were good and the room was clean.

Suffice to say it will not be my hotel of choice...