Best Western Premier NYC Gateway Hotel — Hotel in North Bergen

I have stayed at this location 2 nights for a short trip at New York City. Tough the location was pretty good (infos will follow about it) the services offered by the hotel (one in particular) and the overall poor engagement were nothing short of dredful.

Let me start by saying I am myself a Best Western employee. (Frontdesk Agent) Therefore , when i called in June 2023 to try and reserve my stay, i knew i had to make sure twice the information I ask and answer i was given were understoid and properly answered:

1. EMPLOYEE RATE , I usually book it trough the app but for an unknown reason it didnt offer it for this hotel this time. So i called… i was told not ONCE but TWICE but a man and a lady that they DO NOT offer the employe rate. Not « we dont do it on the phone », the information was clear : « WE DONT DO IT » (wich is true for some best western) When i arrived at the hotel, the lady, the general manager i think, that did my check-in (she was pretty nice like the majority of the staff) told me they do indeed, apply employee rate…. Of course i didnt bring my form since i was told twice it would be useless… I could have saved a lot if i was told by one of the two people i spoke to the right information.

2. SHUTTLES This hotel is in New Jersey, not far from New York but still. There is no subway lines near it aswell. Meaning you need to get to the city using either: Taxi,Uber,Buses or THE SHUTTLE from the hotel.. when I asked the frontdesk agent (very nice again eventough he was eating a whole pizza from a box on the frontdesk counter) what was the best way to get to Time Square and Nyc in general he mentionned the shuttle service without hesitation. We were told to wait for it at 7h30-7h40 pm, the shuttle showed up at 8h20 pm. The trip was nice and at a good price (or so we tought) of 10$ US per adult (40$ for us) the driver even gave us his number and told us he would pick us up at 11h pm at the same stop for the same price (on the hotel website it says it CAN be 22$ for a return trip.. why isnt a fixed charge ? We will get to it)

After a few hours of tourism, at 10h pm, i called the driver to let him know we will be at the stop like seen with him previously. The driver said : no problem im comimg to get you….. oh also since you are only 4 i will have to charge you the whole LINCOLN TOWER TOUR TRIP at 65$ US EACH ?!!! I insisted we only wanted to use the shuttle service advertised by the hotel and the sign in the lobby, he told me it’s either we paid him the price of the 65$ tour for the return trip or he wouldnt come. So we took the interstate bus (wich is a bit confusing at first but REALLY cheap) The next day we took a uber (36$ to get directly to where we wanted) and the bus to come back.

When we told the general manager, she said she would « pass the message », no apologies.

THERE WAS NO HOUSEKEEPING AT ALL, they only went in the room to take the shaker we borrowed, didnt change the towels, didnt do the bed, didnt put new TP or even change the trash bags we displayed near the intrance.

Last thing, on our last night the fire alarm went off at 5h30am and we had to evacuate just to be told the garbage truck had hit a sprinkler…

The hours for the pool, restaurants, bar and other services were really confusing and unpractical (the pool opening from 9 to 9 is a good example)

An overall very poor experience, i would highly recommend any travellers to consider another hotel in the area or paying a little more to be directly in the city.

(Also check the age of the people buying the drinks available in the lobby, the girl that bought it in our group was 21 but I, aswell as the 2 other...

Checked in on 12/28 for a one night stay with my boyfriend as we were attending a Phish concert in the city at MSG. After our check-in close to 6 PM we promptly left for the concert and did not return until after 1 AM. Around 12:30 the next day I was notified by my bank that there were suspicious charges on my account in the amount of $300 from the best western hotel. I, not thinking, accepted the charges approving that I was at the hotel and had authorized them to use my card to pay for the room and the, what I assumed, was the security deposit hold. What I didn't realize was that they were charging me $300 in ADDITION to the $210 that I had already been charged for our stay. I promptly called the hotel, thinking that this was clearly a mistake, to be told that we had been charged a fee for smoking in our room...When I was finally connected through to the front office manager, Angie, I was told that they could smell marijuana in our room and they were therefore sure we had been smoking and issued the charge despite any tangible evidence that smoking had gone on in the room. I brought to the manager's attention that we had been in a concert venue that evening that was packed with smoke and there was bound to be residue left on our clothing, but the fact was that we absolutely did not smoke in the room. We were located on the sixth floor which, of course, does not have any windows that can be opened.. if anyone had been smoking in such a small place the smoke detectors would have sounded. In addition to that, there were no complaints voiced to us from any of the neighboring rooms nor the staff that there was an odor coming from our room at any point in our brief stay. And to add to the fact, I am severely asthmatic and have trouble being in closed areas with smoke - if someone had been smoking in that room there would be a very high chance of me leaving in an ambulance - carry a rescue inhaler with me EVERYWHERE. The manager met my argument with little to no interest, insisting that the room had been smoked in and that the charged would not be reversed. After spending a great deal of time on the phone with her, and after my boyfriend patience had grown extremely thin as we had explained multiple times the blindness of their accusation, she told us it "didn't look like this was going anywhere" and hung up on me. After spending another hour on the phone between my bank (who recommended that I ring corporate) and BW customer service, I was alerted that the hotel itself would be responsible for reversing the charge, and that they would send them a file stating that I would like to speak with a general manager. After further investigation, it looks like there have been a number of fishy guest experiences here and I feel that I will be lucky if a general manager even calls me, nevermind refunds me my money. Multiple reviews discuss their terrible experiences with management as well as complaints about the staff stealing as well as smoking marijuana on the premises while on duty. I wish I looked further into the recent reviews before our stay because if i knew it would be THIS awful I would have paid the $60 charge to park at a NYC hotel. My boyfriend is a musician and we travel regularly and have NEVER been accused of such an act nor would we be so disrespectful as to smoke in an establishment as such. The hostility and poor management that I was met with was disgraceful and we will NEVER be staying at a Best Western hotel again and will advise all of our friends who travel to do the same.

Update - refund was issued after...

We stayed Thanksgiving weekend. When we checked in, the parking situation was very confusing and not really explained to us. We weren't sure once we parked, where we supposed to go - where the elevators were and where they even led to. After we figured that out and got to our room, it was very nice. And clean. The hallways were chilly but the temp in our room was ok. I went down to the pool to check the temp of the water because on their website, it clearly states - indoor, HEATED pool. It was freezing. I went to the front desk and told them and they first said that isn't what their website says but said it is supposed to be lukewarm and that they would have someone fix it. I was too tired to argue. ||After finally getting my kids settled and asleep, an alarm starting going off telling us to evacuate the building and not use the elevators. We grabbed our coats and headed downstairs to the lobby along with other guests. The man at the front desk continued to check in guests while we were all just standing in the lobby wondering what was going on. He never addressed us. I went up to the desk and asked what was going on and he never really answered me. He then went to the back for a very long time. While he was gone, a fire truck and police cruiser pulled up. The firemen started entering with a hose. After a while, the firemen started leaving and the chief addressed us and told us that an alarm malfunctioned and that everything was ok and we could return to our rooms. He also told us that we should stay in our rooms when an alarm like that goes off because it is the safest place to be. I informed him that was literally the opposite of what the alarm told us to do. He said he would address it with the staff.||We had just gotten settled again when the alarm went off again telling us to evacuate. We followed the Chief's advice and stayed in our rooms. We were able to see down to the floor below and saw the firemen come through again. They removed an alarm. And then left again. The Chief came over the loud speaker and told us that everything was ok and that the faulty alarm would not go off again. My kids were scared and did not really sleep well that night. ||At the very least, the staff should have addressed us and told us what was going on. ||The next day we went to go swimming and the pool was not heated. Not even warm. It was one of the reasons that I booked this hotel so my kids could swim in a warm pool. ||I did not have time to address my complaints before i checked out as we had a reservation in new york city. I did reach out to the hotel and they kind of blew off my complaints. Although they did offer me 5000 reward points. I said i wasn't interested - i normally don't stay at a best western and have no plans to in the future. They are still claiming they didn't advertise a heated pool. I sent them a screenshot of their own website. They never responded. Very, very disappointed in their...