Pestana CR7 Times Square — Hotel in New York

tl;dr: Despite a notable lack of amenities, our overall stay was quite pleasant. The staff was, in general, accommodating and friendly. The location is fantastic and within walking distance of many attractions. We would seriously consider staying here again, albeit with some additional planning to compensate for the lack of amenities.

We booked the basic "Comfort" room for a week-long stay in Manhattan for ComicCon. We requested an ADA compliant room for the larger bathroom after reading some reviews that complained about its tiny size and unintuitive shower door. The front desk staff were very accommodating upon check-in and explained the process of using our room keys to operate the elevator. By the way, this place doesn't have door handles at the main entrance. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize I needed to wave my hand in front of the wheelchair button on the wall to even get in the lobby.

When we entered the room, we were pleasantly surprised by the size because, again, we had read reviews that said the room was very small. Our fortune may have been due to the ADA compliance, so take this with a grain of salt. Our room had very little street noise because we were located on the 14th floor, so your experience on lower floors may be different.

When we inspected the room, everything appeared clean and fresh. However, there was a notable lack of basic amenities. No refrigerator, no microwave, no desk to sit at. There was a mini bar, but we never even opened the door. After settling in, we found out there were also no ice machines. We enjoy our beverages ice cold, so calling down to the front desk for ice quickly became a nuisance, both for us and apparently for the staff. They started forgetting about our requests after a couple of days, so we went down to the bar and requested ice in person. The bartender was always very kind to us.

The ADA compliant bathroom was spacious enough and stocked with shampoo, body wash, and hand soap. The shower was fully functional with a handheld shower head, a regular shower head, and a shower seat. There was, however, a strange lack of towel racks and toilet paper holders. Generally speaking, the entire room felt unfinished, not "understated".

Aside from the stark absence of amenities, our stay was relaxing and enjoyable. Food deliveries were quick and easy as long as you wait in the lobby for your order. Almost everything you could want to see in Manhattan is a stone's throw away and, if you avoid the Lincoln Tunnel end of 39th, you won't see too many sketchy individuals.

If Pestana CR7 were to include basic amenities, I could find no reason to stay anywhere else when visiting Manhattan. It's very tempting to come back, but we will be shopping around for complete amenity satisfaction before booking here again.

Personal note: The front desk staff were an acceptable level of nice as a whole, although they still subscribe to traditional, gendered greetings (Mr., Ms., etc.). I was referred to as both during my stay from various staff members, and although I don't mind being misgendered due to my androgynous presentation and gender non-conformity, I would highly advise the staff here to not use gendered greetings. Someone who is transitioning or simply not conforming to gender norms can be especially sensitive to being misgendered, and it can cause a whole host of emotional responses. ComicCon attracts people from all walks of life, and being more inclusive can really set a business apart from its...

Well, this place has the look and feel of someplace you might want to stay at, but at the end of the day it was a let down.

The room was small as you'd expect if you've ever stayed in Manhattan on a budget, though, that's a different kind of problem. The room was just poorly situated. There was very minimal walking space. The combination queen sized beds opposite the built in TV wall cabinet meant walking past the beds to get to the bathroom or the front door meant leaning or turning to the side to get by.

There was no wardrobe cabinet or closet; just a couple of hooks on the wall behind the door with hangers. There was a single drawer underneath each bed facing each other so not only do you have to bend incredibly low to access them, but you couldn't do it at the same time as your roommate if you happen to need access at the same time.

Rather than provide a more standard dresser they chose to provide a non alcoholic mini bar and a Nespresso machine instead. A refrigerated mini bar instead of an empty mini fridge that I could possibly use for cold things that I prefer that isn't made by Coca Cola. Granted they will remove the items at your request for personal use, the fridge is so small that even 6 12oz cans will be a struggle.

The bathroom was no better. A small standing shower whose door never properly sealed so water still escaped pretty easily. The drain struggled to do its job. Toilet was off centered and the generic wall art normally relegated to hotel hallways and above head boards found it's way above the toilet. Fortunate because that meant I only had to glean its ridiculousness upon entering and exiting.

Housekeeping was real spotty. They'd make up the beds but not leave new towels after picking up the old ones off the floor. A couple times they took our towels that were hung up and still didn't replace them. Got to a point where we just didn't have any towels to use and had to call and ask for some.

But enough about the room, the fitness center can fit 3 people max, if those 3 people each chose to do different things (e.g. weights, treadmill, elliptical). While it has a fresh coat of paint and modern equipment, it did seem like a converted maintenance closet or staff break room. And there was no water fountain or water cooler to stay hydrated.

Public restrooms across from fitness center was lacking on more than one occasion, missing toilet paper one day and toilet seat covers the next.

The most egregious thing this hotel is guilty of is not having a single ice machine accessible to guests and as a result, no ice buckets in any of rooms. The only way to get ice in a bucket is to ask the front desk. I can only assume there is some legal reason for this because otherwise, it is just a silly thing to eliminate. Heard the hotel brand is French, maybe it's a localization issue. Either way, it's a deterrent and an annoyance.

I wouldn't want to stay here again, but under very specific circumstances, it could still...

This was a celebration for my best friend‘s birthday. We decided to have a night out in the city go to a show and stay at a swanky hotel. Looking at some of the reviews, which I did, it seemed it was the perfect spot.|| First thing to note is that room is not part of the hotel you walk into. A lovely woman came to greet us after 10 minutes and we went up to our tiny tiny room. Despite the fact that I booked a king sized bed, she tried to convince me that this was their king sized bed. I have this bed in my bedroom at home and it is most assuredly a queen sized bed. I decided to take a shower. That was my first mistake. As soon as I started to run the water, as most people do before they get in, the entire floor was flooded because you can’t run the water and close the door without this occurring. I ended up having to get in the shower sideways and despite efforts to move the showerhead, it was a fait accompli. After texting the sweet woman, she came up and confessed that the showerhead was ridiculous and that the next time I showered, I would have to turn the showerhead towards the wall. Then she said that I should text her when I was ready for a maintenance person to come up and mop the floor. it was fine, until soon there was a knock at the door moments later, while I was still in my bathroom, and guess who it was? The maintenance man. It was like he was a mind reader I didn’t even text her, and he just arrived. Ridiculous. Don’t kid yourself about the amenities. While there are 200 choices of scripture adjacent to the choice of water and slippers. The problem is the sheets they use are rough and incredibly uncomfortable. Lastly, we were never given a door code, Julie, the person who let us to our room, was blocking the door upon entry, so, my friend and I thought we only needed to use the card key. Sadly, at 2 o’clock in the morning, when we returned, we were unable to get into our room. We spent 30 minutes outside waiting until someone answered the front desk, and after not even knowing who was in the room I was in, he gave me the key code, which was nothing to do with me at all in terms of room number, last four digits of my phone number, nothing. In the end, Expedia was unable to achieve a refund for this horrific evening at this hotel. After speaking with someone at the front desk, two days later, I received an email asking me to delineate what went wrong. You would think after asking me to do that I would hear back from someone , but no one has responded. So now I’m stuck paying for this crappy night at this hotel. Do yourself a favor stay across the street....