Hyatt Place New York / Chelsea — Hotel in New York

This is a difficult review for me to write.

I have been a member of the Hyatt rewards program for just about thirty years. I prefer to stay at Grand Hyatt hotels, on the concierge level. But this hotel is not one of those. I stayed here to be near my friends, who were staying here. So, here we go.

For starters, this hotel is definitely in a good location. From JFK, go to Jamaica Station, take the E train to 23rd and 7th Avenue, use the 24th & 8th Avenue exit from the station, and walk about one block, and there you are. No problem.

Upon arrival, I was surprised at how drab the entrance to the hotel is. It looks like it used to be a loading dock. All they did was put in a revolving door and a regular door and called it done. This entrance is very uninviting. There are no seats of any kind either there or in the lobby, which is very small and usually very, very crowded. There are four elevators. Good luck getting on one.

After check-in, I went to my room. It had a king bed, which I had requested. It was a typical Hyatt room. Nice bed, good bathroom facilities, air conditioning/heat, a small closet, a coffee/tea maker, refrigerator, you know the drill. I measured the room by stepping the distances. It measured 8 feet X 16 feet, with a large window overlooking the street. I was on the 9th floor, so noise was not a problem. I had a limited view of the Empire State Building. I liked the room, and housekeeping kept it clean and tidy. Housekeeping was great.

The problem areas I found were the elevators and the breakfast room and the storage of linens in the middle of the hallway between the elevators.

As I mentioned earlier, there are four elevators, to serve 44 floors with at least 9 room on each floor. You do the math. In one particular instance, I waited for thirty minutes for an elevator, and finally had to walk down 9 flights of stairs to get to the lobby. I should not be doing that. I did hear others complaining about being stuck on the upper floors just waiting to get to the lobby. Something definitely needs to be done to address this issue.

The breakfast room was not a good experience. For starters, I am not a fan of buffets, at all. In this case, the two rooms set aside for breakfast are not adequate for the number of guests attempting to use them. You can expect long wait times, very crowded conditions and short supplies of pretty much anything you want to eat. The staff does their best to keep the buffet supplied with food, but honestly some of these guests act as if they haven't eaten for days and were not likely to have access to food again any time soon. It can be pretty disgusting to watch. I just want to state that you cannot blame the hotel for the unsavory eating habits of some guests.

As I mentioned earlier, there are four elevators in this hotel. They are used extensively. If you take the elevator to any floor, when you get off there is a narrow hall that goes left and then left again, or right and then right again. So, you have four elevator doors with maybe ten or fifteen feet separating the two sets of two doors. Since any space at all is at a premium in New York, these halls are only as wide as they have to be. So, imagine my surprise when I first got off the elevator on the ninth floor, and there was a linen trolley, standing in the hall between the elevators. I thought nothing of it. I figured maybe some staff had put it there while they cleaned rooms. But, no, those carts stay there all the time.

And, they are a fire hazard, in my opinion. Should there be a fire, how are you gonna get past a trolley if it is on fire? Not gonna happen. They also take up space, making it difficult to navigate that narrow hall with a suitcase or two. I think those trolleys should be placed somewhere else. They do not belong in the hallway on a permanent basis.

All the staff at this hotel are very courteous and professional. I do love Hyatt Hotels. Can't wait to stay at a Hyatt on the African continent.

Then I will have...

I am currently staying at the hotel, and I'm afraid I just can't recommend it. We booked 3 rooms, with the two other rooms for family (one of them is the premium skyline view, fantastic view). For my room, it is the Empire State view option. When I went upstairs to my room, the TV didn't work, but more importantly, when the air conditioning comes on, both the air con was super loud and a large metal panel behind it shakes and rattles against metal, making the noise of a freight train (night video filmed from bed). I knew it would be an issue for later so I called downstairs and informed reception. They said they would get an engineer onto it while I was visiting family in the other room. When I checked with them not much later in person at reception, they said they had no notes about it and no-one had checked, but they would get someone to check while I was out exploring the city. When I got back I was told at reception that the TV would need replacing and that nothing had been done about the loud noise, that the engineer didn't put any notes about it. Well, ugh. I'm not a light sleeper and will usually fall asleep within minutes, but both me and my partner were wide awake at 5am without any sleep and needing a room change .. we went downstairs in our PJs to request one. We were in room 3401 and now have been moved lower down a few floors but the same position from the other room. There is a heat wave in NYC at the moment, so you need the air con on, unfortunately. The room we were moved into has the same issue, except the panel at the back is more secure and so you don't have that extra metal rattling (video with the light on). I went back down to reception straight away, but was told that was the only other room available at the time. When I asked other folks at breakfast or in the lift about their stays, quite a few mentioned the same issues, with someone else needing to change rooms because their aircon didn't cool at all. I think it's a well known issue affecting one side of the building because the other two rooms for family are positioned well away from our room and are ok (I checked by turning on their aircon and they both had reasonable noise levels). I'm not excited enough to get to the breakfast we've paid for because it's not that exciting and I'm too tired from a missed full night of sleep already. The new room noise makes sleep a struggle, too. The view is 5 stars, absolutely faultless. I'd put photos, but really the view is great and I don't want you to be distracted by a great view when there are more important things to consider. The rooms are small, but that's ok. You're in NYC in a nice location. But let's face it, sleep is very important when you've got a busy schedule and you may have done a bit of flying. Well, sleep is just important for anyone. Now I'm not sure whether to try to change rooms again and worry that I'm put in the room with the aircon out or another issue. From my experience here, there's a one in three chance you'll have a noisy room if you need the air con on during hot weather. Perhaps only book here in the spring or fall or pack sleeping pills if you...

We traveled to New York City with high expectations to explore its many attractions. Our stay at Hyatt Place/Chelsea offered a mix of positives and negatives. We booked a room with a king bed and a pullout sofa for our teenager, and we brought along our two dogs. Upon arrival, unloading was chaotic due to having to double park on the street during heavy rain. The luggage carts provided were small and inadequate, causing some of our belongings and dog food to scatter in the lobby. These luggage carts, often referred to as bellman carts, were not spacious enough to accommodate our luggage and other items effectively. The front desk ladies were friendly though and attempted to help as best as possible.

We were informed that we could park our vehicle in an offsite garage and get reimbursed through hotel validation. However, upon reaching the garage, we were turned away because of our full-size SUV. This led us to find parking ourselves through an app called SpotHero, costing us $300 for five days. It's worth noting that this hotel may not be suitable for families or groups of more than two guests.

On the positive side, the hotel's location is excellent, offering breathtaking views of the skyline and being within walking distance to many city attractions. The facility itself is modern, clean, and well-maintained, having been built in 2021.

The room size is understandably compact at 186 square feet, leaving us with minimal space, especially when the foldout bed was in use. We recommend packing as if you are going for an overnight stay rather than a 6-day stay to manage the limited storage space effectively. Additionally, the bathroom is extremely small and hard to maneuver, which can be challenging for some guests.

Safety concerns arose as we had to stack our belongings by the door, limiting our exit options in case of an emergency. Furthermore, when bringing the cart up stairs, a large rack blocked half of the hallway, preventing the cart with luggage from fitting through. This rack is continuously outside of the room and poses a hazard in case of emergency situations.

At a rate of $300+ per night, we expected a lot better in terms of room functionality, safety measures, and overall guest experience.

The breakfast included with our stay was decent but limited in variety, consisting of sausage links, yogurt, scrambled eggs, cereal, bagels, toast, juice, coffee, and fruits.

In summary, the hotel has its merits, particularly its prime location and modern facilities. However, improvements are urgently needed in parking accommodations, guest amenities, room and bathroom size, space management, and safety measures to better cater to families and larger groups, especially at the premium...