La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham New York City Central Park — Hotel in New York

I feel that any poor reviews are from people who do not have proper expectations and are unfamiliar with NYC and what constitutes a GOOD hotel. First off, Manhatten is old. The buildings are old. There are 2 million people living just in Manhattan, and it is doubled to 4 million people during work days. Space is prime. If you can find a hotel room that is not only affordable, but clean, with its own private bathroom, AND in a fabulous location then you have A BIG WIN!! The La Quinta fits all of the above. It is a BIG WIN! Every employee we interacted with were polite and helpful. The woman who runs the morning breakfast room was exceptionally kind and hard-working. She must prepare hot food and keep restocking and cleaning in a small space for many people every day - and she really deserves a raise! We upgraded our room to the King Bed, and the upgrade was worth every penny. We scored a room that was MASSIVE by NYC standards! Meaning, we had a tile hall vestibule to enter the room [handy for our wet umbrellas on rainy days], a separate area with a writing desk, two small closets [we called them "his & hers"], and plenty of room to walk all around the bed [this is seriously a big deal in NYC]. We had packed light, so we had no issue finding room for things, but if you bring a big load of clothes and other stuff you will need to use your suitcase as your storage drawer. [PACK LIGHT] ||We had a good chuckle at the tiny bathroom with a sink barely the size of my two hands [washing your face is an adventure - and you might as well combine it with taking your shower]. Again, this is all NORMAL for a budget hotel in an old NYC building. What is important is that everything inside our room was spotlessly clean [older, yes, but CLEAN]. Our huge King-sized bed had a new mattress and was very comfortable. The small window unit kept the room appropriately heated or cooled as needed to the temperature we set. Because we were on the 2nd floor if someone smoked outside the front door of the hotel we would have to shut off the unit or it pulled in the cigarette smoke. This was only an issue 2 times out of 9 days. ||Yes, the elevator is very tiny and slow [NORMAL for an old NYC building]. We were on the second floor, and always used the stairs. So, if you can walk the stairs, I would recommend simply asking for a room on a lower floor and don't use the elevator. ||The location of this hotel is priceless. Just a half block to gorgeous Central Park - which is a destination to explore all on its own. a couple blocks north to the Natural History Museum, and a quick half-block walk to the 72nd Street Central Park subway station which is served by the B Train on weekdays, the C train all days of the week [except late nights], and the A train during late nights only. You can get everywhere you need to go from this station because the trains take you to Penn Station which literally connects you to everything else [subway/metro, Long Island Railroad, and bus lines]. ||We stayed at the La Quinta for 8 nights, so we bought a 1-week unlimited subway pass on our second day for $34 [each person needed their own pass] which covered all our rides to anywhere, and it saved us so much money [otherwise each ride is $4.60, so get yourself an unlimited pass!]. This hotel is located in a very safe, desirable Mid-Town West Side area just 4 blocks away from Lincoln Center [we walked one evening to a Metropolitan Opera performance], multiple delicious restaurants, and bakeries, and if you like to walk everywhere like us, then it is just a 15 min brisk walk [or 20-minute stroll] south to Times Square [we walked to and from our Broadway shows in mere minutes] - however, the hotel feels like a world away from all the chaos and noise of downtown/broadway/etc. DO NOT stay down there! [I once paid big bucks to stay at Marriott Times Square and had to endure sirens and street noise all night, plus it was required that I enter and exit through the Times Square madhouse every day. NOT worth it!] The La Quinta Central Park hotel is in the middle of a quiet one-way residential street with no traffic. Out of 8 nights, with a window facing the front of the hotel and being close to street level, we only heard a dog bark once, and a siren once from a distance. In other words, nights are peaceful here - which is unusual for Manhatten. ||PLEASE prepare yourself to understand that NYC is just like any very big city with millions of people - there is a lot of trash generated and it must be put out at the end of the day for late-night pick-up. This La Quinta must stack up their garbage bags at the end of the day. And, when you see that, it is a sign they are conscientious about keeping the property free of garbage each day. Just like the inside of the hotel, they keep the sidewalk and hotel entrance very clean. Arrive with appropriate expectations, and you will have a wonderful time. We will absolutely stay here again when we return to NYC, and have already recommended it to...

This hotel is the only one in the area and a perfect location, and it knows it. That has to be the only reason this hotel stays in business.

It's location is the only good thing about this hotel. It is one subway stop from the museum of natural history, less than a block from Central Park, and two blocks from a nice strip of stores and restaurants.

I recently travelled for work for 3 nights, and this was the closest hotel to the work location. I knew LA Quinta wasn't any sort of amazing 5 Star hotel, but i had stayed at La Quinta's elsewhere and never had any issues. I had some basic expectations that this location sorely failed at achieving.

First, the room was exceptionally tiny. I knew I was getting a small room, but I never fathomed it was going to be THAT small. We're i a larger person, its possible it would have been very difficult to maneuver. Also, when i first entered, it seemed there was an issue with the door jamb. I had to forcefully push on it to get it to open. This did not occur again after that. I had a single queen room, and on either side of the bed was perhaps 4 feet between the bed and the wall. I am unsure if that would even meet building code. The television worked, but it had issues with color and i was unable to get the setting open to try to fix it.

In addition, the air conditioner did not work properly. It was during the days that insane heat wave came, and the AC just couldn't keep up. It could not cool down until late in the night. Fortunately I brought my own blanket, or I would have been unable to sleep. In addition, the bed and pillows are not very comfortable. I woke up every morning with a stiff neck.

Second, there is an exceptionally tiny elevator. This cant really be helped, as its limited by the building's size, but you can maybe fit 5 normal size adults in at a time comfortably. It is also slow, and there is only one, so you may be waiting a while for it. The stairs, while creaky, are fine.

The service is hit or miss. The day before I arrived, I called to inquire about nearby parking. The front desk was very dismissing and told me to look it up. However, when i arrived, the front desk staff was very helpful and even recommended a place to get pizza when I asked.

I spoke with another guest who said their toilet was overflowing when they got there and ended up having to fix it themselves because the front desk said they couldn't send anybody up. In addition, at the breakfast provided, a guest spilled some milk and turned to one of the staff that were monitoring the room and refilling the food asking for assistance. They did not hear them at first and asked them to repeat themselves, and when the guest did, the staff just walked away and stood in the corner without a word.

However, the cleaning staff were exceptionally helpful and kind. Every interaction I had with them was pleasant and helpful. They spoke clearly and directly and made me feel comfortable leaving things in my room.

They clean the rooms every other day of your stay, not including check-in. So, if you check in at 5:00 on Friday, cleaning staff will not come to your room until Sunday. This was not an issue for me, and my expectations of the hotel had sharply dropped by the time they came to clean my room. I was very pleased with the cleanliness of the bed area and the bathroom. However, the shower was clearly rarely cleaned, as mildew could be seen in places where water clearly would pool regularly.

On the first full day, I returned from my work and there was a foul stench pervading the hallway on the 9th floor, where my room was. I attributed it to an overflown toilet or other bathroom mishap, and since I could not smell it in my room. The smell remained at least until I left. The morning I left, two days after I first started smelling the smell, the staff were unsuccessfully trying to identify where the smell was coming from.

If you are planning on ONLY using this room for sleep and preparing for the day, it is fine....

I would like to recognize Stephanie and Christie from the front desk, Myriam from the breakfast room and Lynn from the lobby. All great people. The breakfast is also a highlight, diverse options and self service. Finally, the room bathroom and the shower were pretty good (temperature, pressure, overall feel).

However, my overall experience at the hotel was mostly disappointing. Here are the overwhelming reasons:

The hotel looked messy and dirty, very different from the photos. The floor carpets were worn and stained, with signs of humidity. The lighting was cold and dark, kind of depressing. Please add some warm lightbulbs. The room was very tiny and stuffed with big furniture, so it was very uncomfortable for 2 people to do anything (getting dressed, charging the phone, using the coffee maker). No chance of opening the window for ventilation except for a hole the size of a videotape in the bathroom. The room was always smelly of humidity and the only way of circulating air was through an old, unmaintained, dusty air conditioner. (And noisy! Very noisy!). If you’d put it in fan it would spread all the dust inside the room provoking allergic reactions. If you’d put it in cool mode you would freeze to death and the noise would be even louder. The ironing table fell apart the instant we tried to use it. Some days they’d forget to replace the shower soaps and/or shampoos. There was only one elevator, too small and slow for its traffic (took forever to go up and down up to 14 stages), which was used not only by all the guests but also by all the cleaning personnel for their ongoing tasks. The elevator had no mirrors in it, only dark walls. One of the worst things of our experience, from which i would have expected a partial refund from the hotel with a big apology, was the fact that all the card reader system for the host rooms was not working. That meant that every time you would want to enter your room, you would have to ask the front desk to send someone to your floor and open it for you. That alone is unacceptable because guests should be able to come and go as they please without warning everyone. But the worst is that sometimes you got to your room first and had to wait for ten or fifteen minutes for the staff to actually open the door (because slow elevator) while sitting on the dirty floor carpet. The problem got solved two days before our departure, in a 10-day stay. The water dispenser at the lobby was always leaky, until they decided to just remove it (yep, no water at a hotel lobby!). Every time you’d use the stairs (because slow elevator), all the floor’s corridors were stucked/blocked with laundry karts and sheets. Another big fail is that these people don’t recycle. They have big bins with different holes but it all goes to the same bag, to the same container. Maybe they pay fines or something, but every day they offer piles and piles of plastic dishes, bowls, cups that will be used just one time and thrown away along with the landfill waste. No sustainability policies for a hotel around central park in Manhattan 2023. One last thing: i sent an email before i went asking if they had plant-based milk options. They reassured me they did, but then when i realised everything was dairy and asked for plant based milk they shrugged at me.

So no, not in a million years would i recommend this...