INNSiDE by Meliá New York NOMAD — Hotel in New York

I stayed at the INNSiDE New York Nomad on a recent visit to New York this was not a holiday for me and my family, as we were here for a bereavement. We needed a base to rest our heads whilst we ran errands and made arrangements.|I was a member of the Melia Rewards programme which meant that I got to spin to win a prize whilst checking in. I won a free breakfast for those of us in my room. My sister, also a rewards member, won a bottle of wine. This was a lovely welcoming touch.|Our party were split across two floors which was not ideal but didn't have too much of an impact.|A special shout out to these members of staff: Fior, Maria-Laura, Jason, the floor 7 cleaners and the maintenance man (whose name I didn't catch). Thank you for your hospitality and great service. You made a stay for what was actually a sad occasion for us, a pleasant and smooth experience.||THE GOOD|- My room was spacious. It contained a coffee machine but not a kettle. |- Complimentary tea, water, coffee pods, and sodas were provided daily. |- The room was given a good clean daily by cleaners, including mopping, changing towels, and refilling the mini bar. The bedding was not changed daily but I did not mind too much.|- Staff were very friendly and helpful. The hotel is very busy and yet they always have time for your enquiries.|- The reception staff were helpful in heating up leftover food for me.|- I had a blockage in my sink one morning and this was addressed straight away. The maintenance man (shout out to him) had it unblocked within 20 minutes and was kind enough to show me how to turn on the TV as my remote was not working. Everything doesn't always go right 100% of the time but the way that it is addressed makes a big difference and the staff here were happy to help.|- The staff were helpful in arranging later checkout for us. This was so helpful as we had lots of errands to run on our final day and were very stressed at not having the space to sort this out. Thank you for your help.|- The location is great. There is a subway station left out of the building then right at the end of the street. Another if you turn right and head down the next block. You are close to cheap eats, nicer eats, walking distance to Broadway, close to pharmacies (we needed this as we got sick), trader Joe's, Target, Crumbl cookie (Big Booty Bakery is better and also close by) anything that you need is within walking distance.|- The gym is clean and well equipped, with beautiful views.||COULD BE IMPROVED|- My room was extremely noisy mostly from the noise outside. They say that NYC never sleeps and our street didn't. Honking, traffic, loading and unloading taking place outside at all hours. I am someone who can sleep through noise but I felt that the noise was pushing the limits of reasonableness. If the hotel ever gets a future refurb then maybe triple glazing the windows would be a good idea. We were on floor 7. I have heard that higher floors are quieter and so on a future visit, I would request a higher floor.|- My room was cold. We turned off the air conditioning and were still freezing. My family members even commented on this when they visited our room. Their room did not have this problem. We did not address this with the staff.|- The bathroom. My bathroom had one of those horrible low bath, shower combos with a white shower curtain. It felt very low budget compared to the rest of the room. Maybe its my European expectations but I find shower curtains and low baths gross. I want to be able to walk into my shower and I hate the American low bath. The bathroom is very basic and could do with jazzing up a bit. There is more than enough space to implement a full walk in shower. Towels were also rather small and weren't fluffy. Nonetheless, my bathroom was clean and spacious. Oddly, my family members had a smaller room and bathroom but their bathroom had a walk-in shower and was nicer.|- Ultimately, none of these things would deter me from coming back.||I think that I would stay here again. Its a good base for those who are going to be busy and want a convenient place to rest their heads.I can imagine that in the summer it would be nice to sit outside and chill in the aesthetic outdoor areas...

Gold level of Meliá hotels. I’ve stayed in them all over the world. Some are better than others, but overall really nice hotels. I have stayed in this one in NYC quite a few times. Las time I was a bit disappointed at how deteriorated the hotel was. But this time it looks a bit better. However my experience was bad to say the least. I arrived early, 9-10 am. No greeting. No welcome. “Passport, ID?” Is what first comes out of the front desk person. I give them my document and they tell me that the room is not available. But that they’ll email me when it is. I’m gold, so I should be able to access the room earlier if available. But no. I get an email at 2:50pm to come and get my keys. I come back to the hotel at 3pm. There is a line of 6-8 people before me. 2 people taking care of everyone. They tell me now that the CC system is down, so they need to take a picture of my credit card to access my room. I express my concern about them taking a picture of my credit card because it can be shared easily. But they don’t care. (Remember I’m gold? Never had a problem with the hotel before?) Manager comes out and says they will not check me in unless they take a picture of my credit card. At this point it is passed checking-in time and I still have no access to my room, and they are treating me like a regular potential burglar. I tell them to check me in, and that when the system is back online, that I can bring my card down.but the answer is again no. To add to this ridiculousness,”their protocol “, the room is pre-paid. In full. I tell them I can wait 10min and that then if they don’t have the system working, that they should cancel my reservation and let me pick another hotel. It’s not my fault their systems don’t work. Miraculously, and after waiting 20-15 min, I’m allowed to check in. They’re supposed to offer you an upgrade if available. No mention of this at all. I go to my room. Room is clean. Very basic although the room is not, it’s a “King city view”. Second day I am woken up by service staff yelling at each other from one end of the hallway to the other. I quickly discovered it is their daily practice. I was woken up every day by their screaming. Third day, I come back to my room at 3:40pm and even though I had left almost 4 hours before, the room was not made. I call them so they do it. Once I can go back to my room I put the do not disturb sign outside and get ready to relax. But nope. Service calls the phone and asks, I quote: “have you used our service today?” I ask what she means. “Have we cleaned your room?” I said: well, I had to call to have it cleaned because it wasn’t. “How would you rate our service?” Well, it’s clean. From one start to five, she follows. At this point my blood pressure has gone up. Why the hell are they doing customer surveys of their cleaning service? And why don’t they check if I have a Do not disturb sign on the door?? As a good member, if available, they should allow me to do a late check out at 4pm. I ask them the night before if it is ok. They say I need to ask them the day of. Ok… The day of I call downstairs and ask for a 4pm check out as a gold member. “Sorry, we could do 2pm, not 4” Ok… Then I go to lunch. Check out day. I come back and I go to my room. The key doesn’t work. I come back to the front desk and ask. They give me a new key. I go up but the key doesn’t work again. I go back down again. They give me another key. I go up, it doesn’t work. Sigh.. I call them and tell them that I won’t come back down. That they need to let me in. Around 7 min later someone comes up and allows me into my room. I finish packing and go down. Again 6 people before me in line. One person. Only one person at the front desk. I am late for my taxi. I ask if someone else can help. “He’s coming back” I’m told. But he’s searching for guests bags who are checking out. Because I guess he’s not only in charge of the desk but also the bag service. A complete and utter disaster. Too many options in nyc to come back here unless something changes....

I have mixed feelings about this place. It was my first time staying in a 4-star hotel, so I guess I was expecting more?

Cons The beds were terrible. Super squishy and not at all supportive. No edge support either, so when you sit on the edge, you sink down. Kinda like sleeping in a hammock. We stripped the beds to check for bedbugs when first got in. (Not even nice hotels are immune!) We didn't see any bedbugs, but two of the pillows did have a few sparse brown spots that looked like old blood. The beds were made up with a just a flat sheet used as a fitted sheet and a duvet. Not sure how common this arrangement is, but we had to ask them to send us additional flat sheets so we weren't sleeping directly under the comforter. The body lotion in the bathroom wasn't lotion. Seemed like watered down hand soap. Clear, very liquidy, would suds up when applied. Not sure what happened there, but they sent us a fresh bottle of actual lotion. The tissue box in our room had like 2 tissues in it. We were able to get a new a fresh box of tissues sent to our room, so both this and the lotion were easily remedied, but it would've been nice if this was checked beforehand. One of the washcloths had a hole in it; another had old makeup stains on it. I don't think the phone in the room worked? We were told to dial 0 to reach the front desk, but whenever we did we got a busy tone? So I always just called using my cell. Phone felt kinda grimy to the touch. Remote was also grimy, like the person before had Cheeto-coated fingers while handling the remote or something. TV wasn't a smart TV but they had directions for how to cast from your phone. This isn't a true con, but I was just too tired to figure out the casting both nights so it would've been nice if they just had smart TVs so you could log in with your credentials easily.

These are the kinds of things I'd experienced in lesser hotels, so I was disappointed to have to deal with the same stuff in something that's supposed to be a step up. Even with a work perks discount, this was quite a pricey stay, so it would've been nice to feel it was worth it, but unfortunately I don't :P

But! Besides the location, there were a lot of lovely things that I really enjoyed about this hotel.

Pros Late check out at noon, and they will store your luggage for the day if you still have more time in the city. Customer service was great, all issues were resolved quickly and in a friendly manner. Comes with a mini fridge stocked with "complimentary" water and GuS (Grown Up Sodas) brand beverages. And you can request as many more as you want.(Complimentary in quotes because the hotel has a $45.90 daily resort fee that's separate from everything else so you're paying for all these things considered complimentary.) Free bike rentals. Didn't get to use, but definitely would've on a more leisurely trip. Yoga mats in the room! I'm a huge yogi so it was so nice to be greeted by one in my room! 🥰 (Although the room was so cramped that I barely had space to do anything.) If you sign up for their rewards program (free, just give your email), you can spin a prize wheel in the lobby. I got a free (small) bottle of red wine, so that was nice! I forget some of the other possible prizes, but I know one was waiving one night of the resort fee! Aesthetics. Just overall a very cute hotel! Cool art in the elevator. "Rose Garden" outdoor seating area in the back with a swing and a rose wall, great for photos. There are full length mirrors to the right of each door in the hallway, great for OOTDs. Just super cute stuff everywhere.

Unfortunately, aesthetics don't make up for the other failings. Better beds would account for a LOT. I'd say they should focus on the basics of what makes a hotel great and then worry about the fluff later. Was looking forward to my first 4-star stay but this was definitely giving 3-star...