Rodeway Inn Near JFK Airport — Hotel in New York

We spontaneously ended up at this hotel for four nights during a NYC tourist visit because our original arrangements at a different hotel fell through. I give it one extra star because the room was always clean, stocked with linen, and tidy. The space is microscopically small, but hey, this is a bottom feeder hotel in NYC so that aspect was OK also.

The problem with this hotel is the thoroughly horrific location. There is no coffee shop, no fun NYC breakfast, nothing, nada. Jamaica (this town this hotel is in) is a total tourist wasteland, so you can do nothing fun from this hotel except for try to get to Manhattan as fast as possible. Actually, this hotel is not even on a real street; it has this scary back entrance from a side street. Luckily my girl is brave, most women I know would have nothing to do with this situation.

Their website lists all the NYC attractions, suggesting that this hotel is an option for inexpensive and easy access to Manhattan. But the real deal is that neither the A or E trains get you anywhere near this place, and there are 2 extra rides (AirTrain and hotel shuttle) required to get to the room. Either of the MTA trains have more than 20 stops between Manhattan and a second train station, the AirTrain, servicing JFK. AirTrain costs $5 per ride even if you have a MTA pass already. So for two of us, it was an extra $20 per day just to get from the MTA subway train to JFK. Then you still are not at the hotel, because you are at JFK; you have to call the hotel to send their shuttle. Well, especially at night, the front desk did not answer the phone. When we called, they let it ring and ring until some worthless answering service picked up. The best night (of four) was a front desk answer on the fourth ring; the worst night was an answer on the eight ring. So we never knew night to night if they would actually answer the phone and send the shuttle. When they did answer, they insist you already be waiting at the pickup spot, so you cannot call earlier from the AirTrain (although you might as well start, because they don't answer for 10 minutes anyway). The front desk actually hung up on us once, as well. So, the total commute from Manhattan to this hotel is about 2 hours of stress, and costs $20 (for two travelers) depending on how lucky you get for waiting time in the MTA station in Manhattan. If you are really skilled and lucky with the MTA, an express train is a little faster, but we ended up actually waiting longer for this rare express train than any time we saved. We also tried the taxi from AirTrain to the hotel, which is $20 each way. So given that AirTrain fare, this hotel is not even a deal; we could have stayed closer to Manhattan for just a little more money, and been much happier spending the same amount somewhere else.

So this hotel has exactly one purpose: a single late night arrival, inexpensive stay to catch an early flight out of JFK. Do not use it as a base of operations for access...

I enjoyed my recent 1 night stay prior to a flight at JFK airport. The hotel is a restful place close to the airport. There is no airplane noise that I noticed.

The rooms are small compared to hotels in middle America, like Kansas City or Atlanta, but of average size for New York City. The room that I was staying wasn't worn out. The bathroom fixtures were shiny and in good shape but the bathtub fixtures is a little too fancy for stupid people, like me. (left knob for bathtub, hand held shower wand, or rain forest shower, right knob for water temperature). BE CAREFUL not to hit your head on the upper support of the sliding glass shower door! Ouch! The bump on my took 3 days to go away.

The towels and sheets are not thin and worn. Good.

One should plan their meals depending on their needs. There's a Burger King very close to the hotel as well a few (not many) restaurants. There is far better selection either by airport shuttle at JFK or taking the Q6 bus between the hotel and Jamaica Center/Parsons station.

As for the airport shuttle, it only takes about 10 minutes or less to JFK. The front desk told me it runs hourly at the 0:30. It was on time and the driver nice.

I will probably stay here again. Very restful but not fancy. No rowdy neighbors as guests.

One more warning: There is a well lit and easily see canopy to the hotel. Once you past the canopy to the lower level, it is not clear where the front door is. Just enter the only door. I thought it might be the back door to the utility section and laundry room. Once you walk in the hallway, there is a bank teller style window on the left. That's the check-in desk. This is not a criticism, just some information. In fact, not wasting money on a lavish lobby or front desk saves expenses and allows a...

Unlike other hotels: this was not okay for the price and location. I wouldn't recommend this hotel at all and would certainly not stay here again.

Surroundings. The location is sinister. Every night there were people along the road in their parked car to smoke a joint and drink booze. One night (8pm) we did see a baby carriage with them. They weren't noisy however. Noise. Our room seemed like it had paper walls. Everyone has to walk past our room in before reaching the main desk/lobby thing. Of course guests would enter that hallway 24/7. So every night we woke up every now and then because of shouting/angry guests and their luggage. Shower. The shower had either low (like very low) pressure or extremely hot water. The water wasn't reasonably lukewarm water. Hot or extremely hot.The water could easily burn our skin. Breakfast. You have to leave the hotel and go down the street for breakfast in another hotel. Breakfast was served in a tiny restaurant/kitchen room. That room accommodated guests from both hotel and was good for max 20 people. Food was okay, except that their eggs tasted weird. Airport shuttle. We asked 3 times what we should do in order to reserve an airport shuttle. Last minute the shuttle "was full" and that the desk had to call and make a reservation for us. Supposedly the shuttle was also "stuck in traffic". So we had to wait another half hour in the first place. Oddly enough, the bus was the hotel within 5 minutes and we could get in. The shuttle driver was helpful and friendly.

What also bothered me is that information concerning airport shuttle, public transfer and breakfast information isn't provided voluntarily by the hotel desk. We had to ask, and...