Gallery Holiday Motel — Hotel in Sayreville

First of all let me say I was immediately drawn to this place because of how cool it looked and I almost didn’t book it because of the reviews. I am SO glad I didn’t change my mind and that I stayed at gallery holiday! It was my birthday weekend and my boyfriend and I were seeing a concert at Starland Ballroom (a 5 minute Uber/lyft away) and wanted to stay in town for a night. We usually go for plain chain hotels when we stay out of town for shows but I saw the gallery holiday and was intrigued. I read reviews about it and did as much reading up on the place as possible so that I would have a good idea of what I was getting into. Let me say the reviews I read all seemed very negative and I was prepared to be uncomfortable with my stay. My actual experience seriously proved all of that wrong. The place has a reputation in the area for being a little seedy but I felt completely safe and clean the entire time. We drove up to the site and they were under mild construction on the outer facade. I though “oh no I made a mistake this place is going to be scary” and as soon as we parked and talked to the super sweet woman working the desk and got our keys I felt more and more at ease. They are incredibly friendly and also very patient with customers!! Yes there is a $5 hold when you get the remote for the TV in your room but they give it back at the end. (Imagine from their perspective having to buy a new remote every time someone runs off with it...the hold is entirely reasonable.) You can buy firewood and bubble bath at the front desk too if you want or just bring your own! Walking to our room I remembered requesting a specific style of room in my notes on my booking form online, not expecting to get what I wanted as they have limited availability, I was prepared for anything. We get into the room (pink neon suite #127) and it’s the exact style I wanted! We chose non-smoking and the room smelled slightly lemony but not at all of cigarettes. It was a clean smell but not overwhelming. My first impression was “wow! This is perfect. This is so fun! And exactly what I wanted!” I was honestly very pleasantly surprised! The pictures are accurate of the condition of the rooms! Super fun, sexy atmosphere, reminiscent of some 70’s/80’s bachelorette pad or maybe something you imagine living in when designing your barbie dream house as a kid. It’s beautiful and just a lot of fun. Mirrors all clean and new looking. There were flowers hung around the room as decoration and frosted glass shapes of roses on some of the mirrors! Very cute and awesome for pictures if you’re looking to show off for social media. The jacuzzi was very clean as well as the attached bathroom itself. I want to talk about the bathroom for a moment because I remember that was missing from other reviews I read. Our bathroom is in the room but has its own door and is a more modern clean theme-less space as compared to the rest of the room. This was perfect because it’s clean and efficient. White and beige tile, marble countertops, standup shower but option for tub use as well. Brand new shower curtain and plastic liner. The toilet has a paper band around the lid to show you that it’s been cleaned recently. The bathroom amenities included plenty of toilet paper, mini shampoo, mini conditioner, mini lotion, and round bar hand soap. All individually wrapped as to ensure you are the only user of these products. Cute modern hotel toiletries. The water pressure was also great! So in the rest of the room we had a super clean new looking black leather loveseat, a faux marble coffee table, a large triangular jacuzzi (bigger than in the photos I saw and honesty could likely fit 5 people, it’s that big), a king sized bed, and probably over 50 mirrors all around the room. My boyfriend and I are both pretty tall athletic people (5’11 & 6’5) and we fit in this room very comfortably. Lots of space to move around and hangout. You can’t hear between the rooms either! That was something else I read contradictory online. I’m sure it would depend on the room you end up in and also on the noise level of your neighbors but truly the only noise that came in was through our front door out of the room and it was mild. Didn’t keep us up. There’s no draft under the door and the blackout curtains in the thematically shaped windows keeps the room properly insulated. There are cleaning crews around almost 24/7 because of the nature of the room turnover rate so it’s pretty safe outside as well and there’s always someone at the front desk anyways if you need anything. So back to inside of the room! The carpet was a little snagged here and there but honestly I didn’t come here for the carpet and it wasn’t a bother. The neon was burnt out in some small spots but that also didn’t affect how cool the pictures of the place looked or how well lit they allowed it to be. I read a lot about cleanliness of towels and linens. That was not at all a problem for us. All towels pristine white and the sheets were spotless. We brought along extra linens just in case and we left them in the car because of how clean the bed was. I have stayed in actually dirty hotels with stains and mystery spills that I have paid much more money for!! This was not at all the situation here. The carpet was dry. The tubs were both clean. It was pretty cold outside at night but we didn’t even have to use the a/c unit or heater because the room was a very pleasant temperature. We even got a cute little wakeup call in the morning (not requested, just a courtesy call from the front desk) to let us know when checkout would be and to check on our stay being satisfactory. Location is close enough to several small liquor stores that you can stop at on your way into town. Overall we had a great stay and we will definitely find another excuse to be in jersey to stay here. So much fun! I’ll add...

Since no one else has posted a review of this place, I'll go into a lot of detail. ||||This is a theme motel oriented towards sex. From the outside, it looks like a pretty generic motel in pretty decent condition. Inside the rooms, though, are amenities like jacuzzis, fireplaces, circular beds, wall murals, colored lights, and mirrored ceilings. Different rooms have different themes like "Roman" or "Ocean". My girlfriend and I had a fabulous time here. I'd totally recommend it for open minded couples in search of fun, or someone who wants a basic bed for the night. Not appropriate for children; they probably don't even allow them here. ||||It's very affordable (we paid $100 for a Monday night, I think it's more on weekends and may depend on what room you get), and you can get rooms for less than a full night if you just want to pop in for an afternoon of fun. It's a little short on motel basics; no breakfast, and I don't think there was a clock-radio or hair dryer. There was a coffee machine in the office lobby, but not in the room. I'm not sure if they offer wifi, and I think all the rooms have only one bed and technically only allow two people. The lighting is great as mood lighting (several ceiling fixtures and often colored lights with separate controls), but no desk lamps; you don't want to read a lot of small print here. Our room had two pairs of electrical outlets, but both were on the same side of the room, and none in the bathroom, though one was just outside it, close enough to plug in a razor. ||||Rooms have decent sized LCD TVs (there's a $5 deposit on the remote if you want to use the TV), and there's a landline phone and soap and hair stuff and plenty of towels, and a pretty standard heater/ac unit that can get the room whatever temp you want it pretty quickly. The office sells duraflame logs for the fireplaces and bubble bath for around $3 each. There's a room next to the office with an ice machine and also soda, candy, and condom vending machines. I think the condom machine only carries one kind, it was the old-fashioned men's room type. The office also has an ATM. The cleaning staff has a set of industrial laundry machines, so no worries about the linens being sanitary.||||So, as a $100 motel room about an hour from Manhattan, it was fine but not fantastic. But normal motel rooms don't have fireplaces or mirrored ceilings or fun theming; if you want those things in someplace more upscale, I think you'll have to go to the Poconos or Atlantic City and pay about twice as much.||||The hotel website has good professional pics of most of their rooms that are pretty accurate. Different rooms have different bed shapes, mirror arrangements, artwork, jacuzzi shapes, and other decor. Most rooms seem to have a big jacuzzi, sofa with small table, and fireplace, and the bathrooms also have regular bathtub/showers. Some rooms have car stereos built into the cabinet work with speakers in the ceilings, but the one in our room wasn't working, and in another room I saw one had been removed. Our room clearly had a lot of expense put into the lighting; there were two panels of three switches to control things plus a master switch by the door.||||Overall the place is in good but not amazing shape. In our room, which had a round bed, the surround covering the edge of the bed really could use replacing (but is probably hard to find), the bedspread and jacuzzi had a few wear spots, and the carpet while not terrible was clearly not new. Rooms with rectangular beds seemed to have less worn bedding. I noticed two rooms were in the process of being renovated. There's a lovely kind of 1970s fountain in the center of the parking lot amidst some shrubbery with bas reliefs of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh, but I'm not sure it is operational. Hurricane Sandy clearly took the tops off of some of the trees on the property.||||While there were not a huge number of customers the night we stayed, I suspect overall sound isolation between rooms is ok. The only noise we heard came from right outside our door; at one point some folks stood there talking, and another time or two we heard cars in the parking lot. But no road noise from the highway and no room noise from inside other rooms. ||||A place like this suffers unfairly due to our culture's hangups about sex; clearly they are prepared for difficult customers, with the desk staff behind thick glass, and all rooms paid in advance. The prepayment means that when we wanted to stay an extra few hours, they could not just add a charge to our card, because they'd already run it the night before. They did graciously offer to send someone over to us to get payment instead of making us go to the office. ||||I'm very happy with my experience, and hope I get to come back sometime. My five star rating doesn't mean this place can go head to head with the Waldorf-Astoria, but I think the value was excellent; my girlfriend and I could have afforded a $300/night B&B, and it might have had softer towels and pretty views, but I think the Gallery was more fun and will be...

I am SO glad I didn’t change my mind based on other reviews. I was seeing a concert at Starland Ballroom (a 5 minute drive) and wanted to stay in town. Sadly, the reviews I read were negative but it looked too cool! I felt completely safe and clean the entire time. I parked and talked to the sweet woman at the desk, I felt more at ease. They are incredibly friendly and patient with customers! There is a $5 hold when you get the remote for the TV but they give it back at the end. (Imagine having to buy a new remote every time someone runs off with it...the hold is entirely reasonable.) You can buy firewood and bubble bath at the front desk too or just bring your own! I asked for a specific room in notes on my booking form online and got the exact one! non-smoking: room smelled lemony but not at all of cigarettes. It was a clean smell. The pictures are accurate of the condition of the rooms! Super cool, sexy atmosphere, reminiscent of some 70’s/80’s bachelor pad or maybe something you imagine designing into your barbie dream house. There were flowers hung around and frosted glass shapes of roses on some of the mirrors! Very cute! The jacuzzi was very clean as well as the attached bathroom itself. I want to talk about the bathroom for a moment because I remember that was missing from other reviews I read. Our bathroom is in the room but has its own door and is a more modern clean theme-less space. This was perfect because it’s clean and efficient. White and beige tile, marble countertops, standup shower but option for tub use as well. Brand new shower curtain and plastic liner. The toilet has a paper band around the lid to show you that it’s been cleaned recently. The bathroom amenities included plenty of toilet paper, mini shampoo, mini conditioner, mini lotion, and round bar hand soap. All individually wrapped as to ensure you are the only user of these products. Cute modern hotel toiletries. The water pressure was also great! So in the rest of the room we had a super clean new looking black leather loveseat, a faux marble coffee table, a large triangular jacuzzi (bigger than in the photos I saw and honesty could likely fit 5 people, it’s that big), a king sized bed, and probably over 50 mirrors all around the room. My boyfriend and I are both pretty tall athletic people (5’11 & 6’5) and we fit in this room very comfortably. Lots of space to move around and hangout. You can’t hear between the rooms either! That was something else I read contradictory online. I’m sure it would depend on the room you end up in and also on the noise level of your neighbors but truly the only noise that came in was through our front door out of the room and it was mild. Didn’t keep us up. There’s no draft under the door and the blackout curtains in the thematically shaped windows keeps the room properly insulated. There are cleaning crews around almost 24/7 because of the nature of the room turnover rate so it’s pretty safe outside as well and there’s always someone at the front desk anyways if you need anything. So back to inside of the room! The carpet was a little snagged here and there but honestly I didn’t come here for the carpet and it wasn’t a bother. The neon was burnt out in some small spots but that also didn’t affect how cool the pictures of the place looked or how well lit they allowed it to be. All towels pristine white and the sheets were spotless. We brought along extra linens just in case and we left them in the car because of how clean the bed was. I have stayed in actually dirty hotels with stains and mystery spills that I have paid much more money for!! This was not at all the situation here. The carpet was dry. The tubs were both clean. It was pretty cold outside but we didn’t use the a/c or heater -room was a nice temperature. We even got a wakeup call in the morning (not requested, just a courtesy call from the front desk) to remind us of checkout time. Overall we had a great stay and we will definitely find another excuse to be in jersey...