Sleep Inn Long Island City - Manhattan View — Hotel in New York

This hotel is a nice jewel and is one of the best Sleep Inns that I've ever stayed at ... and, as a Diamond member of Choice Privileges, I stay in this brand a lot. The hotel scores very high on all the things that matter to me when I travel.

Service: Front desk staff are personable, efficient, and helpful. I was checked in and out quickly, with a smile, and with what I felt to be a genuine thanks for my business. I like that.

Rooms: Comfortable, clean, and pretty much what one expects from a Sleep Inn. Internet worked fine. Beds were comfortable. Bathroom was spotless.

Location: Surprisingly good location - it's not in Manhattan ... but it's very convenient to Manhattan. The closest subway is about a 5 minute walk - the F train gets you into midtown Manhattan in no time. The Queensboro Plaza subway is perhaps less than 10 minutes away, and a number of lines pass through that station. And from both stations, once can reach Roosevelt Avenue / 74th street station to catch the express Q70 bus to LaGuardia, or to change to the E-train that can get you to the connecting point for the JFK AirTrain. For those flying out of LGA or JFK, this is a surprisingly well located hotel.

Now, the minor issue: This hotel requests permission to copy the guest's photo ID upon check-in. With identity theft a major concern these days, and with my having twice experienced problems having hotel-made copies of my ID being misused (although NOT at this hotel), I always decline such requests. I find such practices invasive and risky - and unnecessary for hotels that are well run. I have no problem with showing my ID or even having the hotel manually transcribe any of the data, but to make a physical copy is, to me, unacceptable - and shouldn't be necessary unless there are reasons why the hotel ought to be suspicious of its guests, in which case it would probably be a hotel I'd choose not to stay at. Anyway, the good news is that when I explained the situation to the front desk staff, and my reasons for declining the request, we were able to work it out. But I mention it here, because other travelers who have concern over making copies of their personal ID might want to be aware of this hotel's policy.

I would strongly recommend that the management of this Sleep Inn - if they read these reviews - really consider the necessity for this policy, in light of the perception of distrust that it creates, the concerns that guests may have regarding identity theft - even if, as in this case - the hotel does use good efforts to protect the copies, and the fact that it ought to simply be unnecessary. This is offered as a constructive comment, not as a criticism, from a...

The Sleep Inn @ 38-71 13th St, 11101 is nice. It had a few serious drawbacks, inconveniences . a. They said “free parking” but what they actually do is tell you when you get there, free parking “on the street” if you can find one. $25 additional parking fee for off street assigned parking- which I did, only to find out the following night they reassigned my spot to another guest after charging me $150 2 days prior. They tried to make it right but could not because they allow cars to park where they want and do not enforce the fee---- leaving honest customers to fend for themselves. So I was forced to leave a “luggage loaded new pickup truck on the street. I was so upset I skipped dinner. AND of course did not sleep well worried about my truck. b. The following night the reassigned parking space was completely full- I gave up & took a refund for parking. Do not depend on parking here! Just park in an assigned spot like they all do! I am a Diamond member and was not offered an upgrade. I am a AAA member with the # in my profile. I had to ask for an adjustment when I realized they ignored crediting the discount. Free breakfast starts “late” 6:30 at best, and for a working man that leaves at 6- 6:30 am for work---you are out of luck for free breakfast, the deli outside is open for buying breakfast. With close proximity to the airport and guests leaving early to catch flights, this late service is obviously designed to cut costs and NOT serving the early crowd of guests. There is a very limited TV channel selection, 23 channels- 5 of which are HBO & 2 that are Direct TV infomercial, 1 channel HLN does not work. Housekeeping did not leave coffee packs for the coffee maker, no coffee in the lobby. Early coffee available for sale at the deli at the end of the block. Someone scuffed the paint on my front bumper that requires re-paint at the body shop- another out of...

As noted I have stayed at this hotel 25+ stays in the past 12-15 years, and always satisfied. Performance as we start to move out of pandemic VERY POOR.||FIRST, I arrived around 7 PM and there wasn’t a soul at reception. I called the hotel from my phone and while I could hear it ringing no one picked up. It felt like 100 degrees sweltering heat in the lobby. Fortunately I knew that the Best Western next door (though currently closed to the public as they have a contract with the City of New York) is owned by the same ownership so I called them. Eventually someone came over from next door.||SECOND, when I got up to the room and settled the TV didn’t work (screen read “No signal”) I called the front desk and it took 15 minutes till someone came up. Even after he fixed it several of the channels that were listed in the Hotel’s TV Channel Guide did not work and others like CNN were really fuzzy.||THIRD, After he left I noticed that the mini-fridge had not been cleaned out with items left from previous guest. Called the front desk once more, again it took 15 minutes before someone came up.||FOURTH, the in-room safe didn’t work and could not be activated.||FINALLY, the hotel website indicates hot breakfast. As stated, I had been here 25+ times so I was familiar with this breakfast. Once at the hotel I learned the breakfast as been suspended due to COVID. They did offer a to-go alternative which is certainly acceptable option, but it was not good (bottle of OJ with LOTS of sugar, Jimmy Dean egg sandwich with lots of fat).||I asked if the hotel management was authorized to make an adjustment to my bill for these problems and in consideration of my being a long time Choice Hotels Gold Member. I was told I would need to contact Corporate Headquarters and will be doing so. ||Hopefully this hotel will restore its previous and...