Staypineapple, An Artful Hotel, Midtown New York — Hotel in New York

Let's start on the positive side: The location is great, many things walking distance and otherwise the MTA is nearby, so it's easy to go anywhere. Also, the room was clean and they've certainly put a lot of effort in the total pineapple presentation, which is nice, also we think it's a good value for money.

Now the things we didn't like.... We would have given a 5 star review if they didn't have these negative points, so this cost them 2 stars.

What I mostly didn't like is the ridiculous amenity fee. It includes a water refill station in the lobby, WiFi, in room coffee maker, one water bottle that you can keep and you get to choose a free softdrink on arrival. Apparently you can rent bikes too. But these are all super-cheap services, so asking $29.95 PER NIGHT for this is ridiculous and I wouldn't call that very pineapply, although on their website they present it as if it is a good deal and better than charging you for everything separately.

I don't agree with that. Rental bikes can be left out, and WiFi should always be included in any room rate. The water is a nice extra, but shouldn't be charged or be completely left out. I know other hotels in USA start charging these absurd resort/amenity fees now too, but I hope they quickly stop this practice, as it totally doesn't make any sense. If you really value your customers you should be fair and include everything in the room rate, not publish fake low rates and then add an amenity fee as a nice surprise. I hope this ridiculous practice stays in de USA to die a quick death! Pineapple be original here too please and don't let yourself get sucked into this dumb idea!!! (or if you really want to keep doing it give customers a choice in whether or not they want these amenities for this high price, I bet 80% will not take it for this price).

Furthermore what we didn't like was the alternating-day housekeeping. I don't need fresh sheets everyday, but at least you can make up the bed and see if new towels and toilet paper are needed. And we would like to have a choice in this. It is not very good service to enforce this policy upon your customers.

Also, we missed our first night because of a flight cancellation, which the hotel was informed about, I'm ok we got charged the room rate for that night, but we also got charged the amenity fee for that 1st night, which I think is not very customer friendly. You could have dropped that as a leniency as obviously we can't use any amenities if we're not staying in the room. And also we have only gotten housekeeping service only 1 time because you didn't count the first night and only gave us the first housekeeping in night 3 instead of night 2 because we missed the first night. Not very pineapply either, now we got only 1 time housekeeping on a 5 night booking......

Furthermore, the room was nice but small, only thing we didn't like was the aircon unit that was placed very close to the bed, you can't turn it on without getting sick because of it, the cold air flow is way too close to your bed. The mattress sheets should have elastic in them or something, because now they always start moving all over the bed at night if you move and you need to fix it all up by yourself in the morning as housekeeping will not come every day.

The bathroom was quite nice actually, only the door for the shower didn't close well and caused water to reach to bathroom floor, that was a small annoyment though.

All in all it was a good stay, but it could've been much better and we expected a little more given the great reviews it has here on google. I'm not sure if we'll return here next time if nothing changes for...

The location is AMAZING for its close proximity to Penn Station, Moynihan Hall, and MSG, as well as being reasonably close to Times Square and Rockefeller Center. The blackout curtains worked very well. There wasn't very much street noise up on the 21st floor. The beds were super comfy and I appreciated the European style bedding, as that's what we do at home too. The pillows were comfortable, but a bit flat, so it would have been nice to have had a third. Overall, we slept very well. The shower floor wasn't in the best condition, but didn't impede our ability to get clean.

My one complaint is the $34/day amenity fee. They say it's there to avoid charging you $5 for this and $10 for that, but it's just not worth it in the least. In a response to another review, Lieza Mack says the amenity fee covers 1. wifi, 2. water, 3. a welcome snack or drink, 4. bike rentals, 5. in-room streaming, and 6. a complimentary water bottle. Andrew Brown mentions that other hotels charge $13 per device for wifi and $4 for bottled water in a response to another separate review. First of all, wifi and streaming should just be folded into the room price, but let's break this down.

We connected two devices each, but would have only connected one if we had been charged $13/device, so that's $26-52 total We did use the water refiller, but could have filled up our bottles with tap water in the room if this wasn't available. The welcome snacks are coke, diet coke, yogurt, or a bag of chips. These would probably cost $2 maximum if bought at a bodega, but likely cost the hotel $0.50/each bought in bulk somewhere. We wouldn't have taken any of these if not for the amenity fee, but grabbed two bags of chips because it was "included". We weren't even made aware of the bike rentals, but wouldn't have used them anyway because we were only in NYC for one full day and didn't have time + biking in Manhattan is not my idea of fun. We didn't use the streaming as we hardly ever watch TV while traveling. We already travel with reusable water bottles, but took the one in our room to try and justify the amenity fee. There is also a coffee machine in the rooms, but we don't drink coffee, so we didn't use this.

So in all, we were charged $68 for "amenities" for our two night stay, which based on my calculations, ends up being $52 for internet, $8 for a reusable water bottle that we didn't want, and two $4 bags of chips (or $26 for wifi, $21 for the bottle, and $10.50/each for the chips if we only connected one device each).

I honestly don't think this would be worth it even if we took advantage of everything included! And I don't care if the other hotels on the block charge this too. None of them are worth it! Just fold the cost of the cheap stuff into the room and offer the bike rentals as a separate cost! I'm sure people would take advantage of it for the convenience over dealing with Blue Bikes or...

The first thing that caught my eye was a promotion of pay for two nights, get a third one free. They do charge those annoying amenity fees. When totaled though, the hotel did offer a good value when compared to other hotels in the Manhattan area. Next thing you need to know, the room is small where as they try to be efficient but yet cute or clever with every square foot. It's NYC, Manhattan, near Times Square, expect smaller rooms unless you are popping for $$$$ rates. The building is quite skinny and there are either 4 or 5 rooms to a floor. There are 25 floors. My room was 1004, so my comments reflect what I found in that room. The room was clean and the AC was working. The humidity had been oppressive before and while we were there so the room felt damp even when we ran the "dry" setting on the thermostat. The bathroom was clean and had some nice design features. Mirrors abound, which made it interesting when you are sitting on the toilet. Not sure what they clean the shower floor with, but be cautious your first shower, for me it was a little slippery. After the first shower it was fine. Water pressure was decent and controlling the temperature was easy. The towels were awesome! Some of the best I have come across in my 66 years. The bed was comfortable and each side got it own bedding "packet", which I kept kicking off during the first night. By the third night, I aced it. A big plus was there was a small night stand on each side of the bed that had an outlet and USB ports. That sort of feature is very appreciated for those of us that travel with CPAPs and need to charge phones and other devices. The TV got a number of channels, including a few HBO and ESPN offerings. You can also connect and stream from your device. We were able to watch the conclusion of Murders In The Building by streaming Hulu from one of our phones. Bottled water is free (don't hesitate to ask for more, takes some of the sting out of the amenity fee). Room cleaning occurs every other day after check-in. We waived cleaning when housekeeping was on our floor and just asked for fresh towels. We didn't use them but there are bathrobes in the closet. We didn't have a view of anything but rooftops and the sides of other buildings, but we had almost zero street noise and 36th seemed to be a fairly busy street. Other perks, you get a free soft drink credit with your stay, there is a fitness room supposedly but we did not check it out. We arrived via Amtrak and the hotel is an easy 3 block walk from Penn Station. So in summation, I would strongly consider staying here again, especially if I can find it at similar price point. With the pay for 2, get 1 free deal, the total cost of the room, amenity fee, and taxes came in at under $700.00. Well done...