Romer Hell's Kitchen, neighborhood hotel — Hotel in New York

I try to write reviews with the info I like so here goes.

We stayed here as a family of 3 for NINE nights over the Christmas holiday. We're late 40s, early 50s with a 15 yo kiddo. For reference, we've stayed in Manhattan and NJ (right across the river) in 7 different hotels and we absolutely loved this hotel! Area feels super safe!

UPSIDES: This is a BIG Room - it's a remodeled Hampton Inn (you'll see some of the old pics online) and I think suites were just bigger when this hotel was originally designed.

300 sq ft may sound small but it's a massive room compared to others we've stayed in on Manhattan. You never feel cramped!

1. The 2 bed room actually has two QUEEN beds. Not a full bed like most hotels in NY! If you're sharing a bed, a queen is manageable. But try sharing a full bed and by day 2, you're a zombie.

2. There is PLENTY of room around the beds. On the window side, it's probably about 3 ft to the bed, between the beds is probably 3 ft, and then the bed to the bathroom wall is probably 20".

3. There is a HUGE closet area. It's probably 7 feet wide and 3 feet deep. We could store our 3 26" suitcases in the closet and it wasn't even half full. We were able to completely unpack onto hangers (had to ask for more, ofc) and the rest of our stuff was tight, but we got it into the drawers and one shelf.

4. There is a TUB. While the bathroom is smallish, it's wonderful to use the tub after a long day.

5. There is a fridge!

6. The window opens! It cracks open to a limit but it's great to get fresh air in.

7. The hvac is nice and loud. I like to keep the fan on all the time so it acts as white noise to the hall sounds and this was great. It has 3 speeds and worked perfectly.

8. There is an in room safe.

DOWNSIDES:

1. The room cleaning could have been a bit deeper. It wasn't dirty, as such, but I'm used to seeing the baseboards and every corner of the bathroom CLEAN, and this needed a little more attention to detail. The staff was on the older side, so I understand their ability may be a bit more limited, but they were super friendly. I didn't say anything bc I didn't want anyone to get into trouble. I just wiped the crevices myself and was fine.

2. If you're near the elevator, you're going to hear the elevator. The dings and the elevator function and the ice machine are loud. Even though I made our reservation 3 months in advance and requested a room far away from the elevator, our first night we were the first room to the left of the elevator hall - too loud! They did move us the next day though. If you're staying for a long time, move rooms.

3. If you're very sound sensitive, there is a lot of NY traffic noise through these windows. Even 8 floors up. But that's just NY. You'll hear sirens, drag racing and even a little yelling from the street.

4. There are some kinks in the remodel. The first room had terrible carpet wear. It was dingy and the padding was oddly flattened. And in our second room the wall hooks fell out, then fell out again after they were "fixed". They're not anchored correctly. All we hung up were our coats, not anything crazy.

5. The one table in the room tips over easily! Terrible design.

LOCATION: We could get anywhere we wanted to easily!

A NY "tip" is to give yourself double the amount of time you think you need to get anywhere. If you have a reservation, give yourself an hour. I'll be very honest - for things that had a 20 min travel time, it usually took us 35-40 min. We'd get turned around, need help to figure out the uptown/downtown track, wait for the subway and need extra time to walk!

Citymapper is FANTASTIC app and works much better than Google Maps to get around.

FOOD:

1. Fiorentina directly across the street is SO GOOD. My husband and son probably went 6x, anytime they wanted a snack.

2. The few grocery shops here are absurdly expensive. If you need fruit or veg, get it from the street stall that's barely a block away. It's at least HALF the price of the shops. 7 Eleven or Duane Reade are cheaper for snacks.

3. Cascade is good...

I had a really bad experience at this place. In general, I believe this place have a really bad business standard – so watch out!|In short:|At arrival, the hotel had cancelled our booking. We (my wife and I) had extra costs of more than 290 dollars due to this cancellation. All in all, this place only cares about their own earnings not legal obligation or the welfare of their guest!|The story:|Via booking.com I found a nice deal at this hotel for a total of 317 dollars for 2 nights. I confirmed the booking via my credit card and thereby a legally binding contract. I also booked early check in a 11 AM, planning to deliver our car rental back before 1 PM.|Tre days prior to our arrival, I received (via booking.com platform) a note from the hotel that there were “a technical glitch happened with the parking package”. As I had booked a room and not a parking lot, I checked booking.com and my booking was still confirmed on the booking.com platform.|Less than 24 hours before my booking I also got a massage from booking.com customer service that the booking would change rates to 400 dollars plus tax. I replied within an hour and asked “on what legal grounds” but never received an answer. I checked booking.com for pricing and found the price 267 dollars including tax per night.|At arrival at the hotel there were no booking. The manager where at the time occupied with a young girl that the hotel had fines 500 dollars for smoking in her room. I talked to the girl who claimed she haven’t been smoking in the room. When the manager got time for us, he explained that the hotel had cancelled the booking several days before and referred to the message on parking. We explained that we had a confirmed booking and the hotel was legally obliged to the contract. The manager claimed that our booking only was to booking.com and not the hotel.|I tried to call booking.com but after 20 minutes waiting to get through and about 5 minutes in contact with booking.com the line suddenly was disconnected. As we are European citizen the call cost us around 50 dollars! Several times I tried to get in contact with booking.com and even they claim to reply within 24 hours I haven’t heard from booking.com.|I asked the manager to write a message confirming that the hotel could / would not accommodate us, but he refused to write or sign any message. As I continue to address the legal issue of changing a legally binding contact we were, offered a room for the first night to 222 dollars including tax but the hotel was sold out the second night. I discussed with the manager for about an hour and gave up.|As this was the weekend up to Laborday I expected it to be difficult to get a reasonably room in NYC at a short notis. We ended up finding a room at Fairfield Inn by Mariott at a cost of 512 dollars for the two nights. The stay at Fairfiel Inn was a totally other experience than Romer Hell’s Kitchen, friendly and helpful personal.|We had a late return of our rental car due to more than one hour at hotel Romers Hells Kirtchen and time used on finding another hotel resulting an extra day rental of 51 dollars. |To sum up:|I believe that the hotel made a mistake on booking.com with a to-low price deal. I do not believe that booking.com made up the deal or confirmed the booking themselves. Legally a confirmed booking is a legally binding contract. The hotel should therefor provide a room at the confirmed price. The hotel simply tried to get out of there mistake but did it in a very unfortunate manner. First of all, a communication on parking do not cancel a reservation on a hotel room. |When making a mistake, a professional company would stand up for their mistake. Just cancelling a confirmed booking is unlawful and certainly not customer friendly. Clear communication would have saved me a lot of trouble and money as we would have found another hotel before driving to Romer Hells Kitchen.|Booking.com is no use, when a booking does not work. They do not reply when contacted via their own system and via phone is expensive and does not...

Summary: The majority of reviews for this place are misleading…as some folks rightly mentioned this hotel is much more run down than advertised and rooms are LOUD.

My husband & I went to NYC recently for our anniversary weekend and chose Romer’s Hell’s Kitchen based on overwhelmingly positive reviews, location, and price. The website shows it as a cute boutique hotel with posh, mid century modern type decor. What it doesn’t show is that this is a converted budget hotel (it was originally a Howard Johnston for many years, then maybe a Homewood or similar before being purchased a few years ago) which is evident as soon as you approach it from the outside. It is also on a busy street, not a side street in Hell’s Kitchen, and the rooms are LOUD. Not only are the walls paper thin, but on the first night of our stay our room was literally vibrating. My husband (who is a deep sleeper) shot up & asked if there was an earthquake. I (who hadn’t been able to fall asleep due to noise) told him I think it might be the Subway trains. Eventually, it stopped and we were able to fall asleep — despite continual sirens, horns, and dorms slamming in the hallway. We wanted to ask for a higher room (we were on the second floor facing the street) but by the next day we figured it was too much for a hassle to move for one night (if they even would’ve allowed us to).

I am from a big city and have stayed in NYC many times — I understand noise is a part of the deal. But rooms are rarely as loud as ours was — especially to the point where the room feels like it’s shaking. Romer’s should and could have done a better job of soundproofing the room / walls.

The room itself, while a decent size, if not roomy for NYC standards, did not have many amenities - no mini bar, no robe (despite being advertised), and an overall feeling of shabbiness despite the updated decor — the tile in the shower felt worn and at one point while I was turning on a light, the knob fell off.

Like others have said, the staff left much to be desired. Our checkin girl gave us the crappiest room on the 2nd floor, perhaps as punishment for booking through a third party, and didn’t explain the WiFi or water benefits like her colleague was doing with other guests. At one point during our stay my husband went to get us pizza and when he came back carrying the box, the door man just stared at him and didn’t press the button to open the door (this was during an afternoon, not after hours) — instead letting him struggle to open it himself and come inside.

The rooms also don’t have door tags to indicate whether or not you’d like housekeeping or not to be disturbed, so both mornings we were woken up or disturbed by the maid knocking on the door.

Romer’s Hell’s Kitchen likes to advertise itself as a mid-range or even middle upscale boutique hotel when it is really more of a budget hotel in terms of services, amenities, and overall feel, with a higher price point. Next time we will be sure not to fall prey to misleading reviews and hope this helps someone else make a more informed decision about whether or not they want...