Hotel Le Bleu — Hotel in New York

I travel 30+ weeks a year for work and found the following issues with this hotel.

Their website claims “2023 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Award”. While this may be true, their listing on their main page has no link. Additionally, if you find Hotel Le Bleu on Tripadvisor, it does NOT have the award in the upper left corner. There is a hotel Bleu in Madagascar that has won the award. I uploaded an image that has both hotels’ listings on TripAdvisor. Note the logo in the upper left-hand corner of the one in Madagascar and not the one in Brooklyn. I also googled “2023 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Award Hotel Le Bleu” and could not find any reference to winning the award except for their website. I challenge the hotel management to post a link proving they won the award. The bed, bedding, and pillows were very uncomfortable. The bed was lumpy like no other bed I’ve seen. The pillows felt like they were filled with soft baseball size lumps. The bedding was worn and course. I’ve been travelling for work for just over 30 years, and this was hands down the worst bed/sheets/pillows that I’ve ever slept in. The bed cover was a disgusting blanket sandwiched between two worn sheets. The room was not clean. See the attached pictures of the blinds which are covered in stains. I was concerned about security. The building is not locked and despite the sign in the elevator that you need to insert your key, you don’t. I entered the front door of the hotel multiple times, walked by the one person at reception who had never seen me, and could ride the elevator to any floor. Their sign is attached. The walls and doors were thin allowing sounds to pass through quite easily. I could hear my neighbors talking and watching TV. At 7am, the alarm of the room next to me was so loud that we looked around the room for an alarm clock. The hotel has signs posted around the halls (see attached) which seem to be ineffective. If you’re traveling with someone, the bathroom has glass panels that let the light pass to the bedroom. Additionally, the door between the bathroom and the bedroom was a thin piece of wood that didn’t block sound. When I went to the restroom at night, the light and noise would wake my wife up. This hotel doesn’t have the typical entry area where you check in and have a common area. There is no place for breakfast as there is not breakfast. There is no bar area as there is no bar. While I have no reason to doubt that their pictures online were actual pictures. I did not find them representative of the room. The pics show luxurious and welcoming. I found the rooms dated, depressing, and dirty. Their website claims “450-thread count Pratesi linens” which may be true, but they were scratchy and exceptionally uncomfortable. They claim “Plush bathrobes and signature lounge slippers” there were none in the room. The claim “oversized” bath towels, they were old ratty normal size towels. They claim “complimentary weekday newspaper delivered to your room”, none was ever delivered. They claim “A new standard of hotel cleaning” we received no cleaning at all. The “fully stocked mini bar” had two bottles of water in it. I paid more than the average price for this room expecting luxury. What I found was one of the worst hotels I’ve ever been to. My job takes me to very small towns where there are only budget/mom and pop hotels. I would take any one of them over this hotel...

TLDR: Make another choice. ||In early November we were so excited to book a king room with a Manhattan view while visiting family and enjoying NYC at Christmas. Booked online through the hotel directly and took advantage of the manager discount offered through their site. ||Recieved confirmation email with a conf# but no room details. Called ahead of the trip to confirm and when we arrived we were placed in a room with 2 double beds and a balcony with a view of the buildings across the street. With only the original email with no details, the hotel claimed they could only see details for the room they put us in...AND charged us the same rate for. ||We were offered an accessible room w a king bed which we declined because we are not in need of accessibility and didn't want to take the room from someone who may need it. That was the only consolation offered by the hotel. We spent half of our evening in a circular conversation with apathetic staff about our reservation and what they had in the system. ||Parts of the shelving in the room were held together with scotch tape. The heavy glass door for the bathroom (that is inches away from the bed) was dirty and covered in handprints. The wall heater made the room so dry our sinuses were wrecked. The toilet paper holder would not stay hooked and the roll constantly fell on the floor. ||We felt forced to stay in the room because there was nowhere else to go and we couldn't afford to just walk away from a $400+ room rate. [Which is an insane price point even for NY standards given the condition of the room.]||We have been married over 18 years and did not enjoy sleeping apart. Not to mention that my husband is tall and looked like Buddy the Elf on the double bed. Not exactly the restful nights of sleep we needed after days spent walking all over Manhattan and Brooklyn. ||Frankly, it ruined the start of our trip. We were frustrated and angry and felt so foolish. We were expecting to spoil ourselves w the nice, expensive room with a view and ended up getting completely ripped off. ||And to top it all off, we've tried to handle this offline by reaching out to the GM via the email posted on the site and have not heard back in over a week. No make-goods. No refunded rate for our lesser room. Nothing.||We were also not the only guests complaining and asking the staff for amends. Several times as we walked through the lobby someone else was at the desk trying to resolve an issue and asking for refunds. ||Never again. Do not waste your time or your money here. They don't seem to care one bit about their guests. We are out hundreds of dollars that we shouldn't have been charged at the hands of their absurd and shady reservation process. ||Thanks for making our experience so utterly disappointing. You still have every opportunity to make this right for us. ||The cost of doing better business should be YOUR expense and never that of...

I identified Hotel Le Bleu for my stay during my getaway to Brooklyn because of its distance from sights and activities of my interest. Out of three other hotel options noted, it was the rating, and the fact that it was affordable as an Expedia package deal that won me over along with it being in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn.

When looking for hotel stay, you literally have to look outside of yelp because there are some reviews that will discourage you from considering hotel stay anywhere. So, my planning always involves looking at ratings and reviews from other sites like Expedia which had it rated a 7.8/10 out of 1,008 verified reviews; that rating alone was the only verification I needed to see rather than rely solely on yelp reviews.

My experience with the receptionist behind the desk was nothing less than professional. Since my room was already paid for, check-in consisted of the receptionist verifying my information, explaining the rules, and giving me my room key cards. For your information check-in starts at 3 PM and ends at midnight! And check out ends at noon!

I absolutely adored the room! Its appearance had a modern-day vibe with its gray wooden decoration that I could not take my eyes off of. And to further charm me out of my panties, I had a room with a balcony overlooking 4th Avenue! It was those things that certainly won me over in spite of the room having a slight musty smell. An adorable thick glass slide door led to the bathroom, which had the most unique shower design inside. And inside of the bathroom, there were mini Essentiel Elements Bathe hygiene products that make great travel hygiene additions. Since I am an avid traveler, I have my collection that I sporadically use.

Along with adoring the room, it also met my cleanliness standards. I had no issues whatsoever getting comfortable in the king-sized bed during my overnight stay as my head was engulfed in-between the comfortable pillows. The shower came with dual shower heads, with one being handheld offering multiple spray settings while the overhead one solely discharges a gentle misting spray. Other things the room came with were a Keurig coffee maker, an iron with an ironing board, a safe, and a few electrical outlets with USB inserts. The Wi-Fi internet was easy to connect to and I had no connectivity issues with it during my stay.

There are plentiful sights, activities, and restaurants within a radius of Hotel Le Bleu. Some that I experienced and noted were Old Stone House, Prospect Park, Barclays Center, Brooklyn Museum, and Gowanus Canal.

I am well open to booking with Hotel Le Bleu again because the hotel did meet my comfort needs and I loved that its location is within an accessible distance of things of my interest in Brooklyn.

Have courage. Be...