Lamartine Chelsea – Hostel

I stayed here the weekend of the NYC marathon and you could tell a few of the other guests were staying here for the marathon. I thought it was a good spot personally. Private rooms with keypad entry and shared bathrooms. Despite a fully booked house, I never had to wait for a bathroom. There are 2x on each floor and if your floor is busy, just try another floor. - I stayed Nov. 1st. so it was cold outside and the heat was on, my room got very warm in the morning, like 80 degrees without controls to change. Luckily each room has a their own window AC unit, I kept the fan running during my stay. Thankful for the window unit. I guess this is just a New York typical with radiator heat. - Great kitchen spaces, always felt like I was at a real home with appliances, a nice change from hotels. I kept leftovers and microwaved them for lunch or snacks later and saved a little money there. - Excellent location to feel like a real New Yorker, not in a tourist area like Times Sq but also not in the hood - you can tell you were with locals by all the dogs being walked 🐕‍🦺 - I suggest emailing the reservations email while arriving at the airport, just as a precaution. I emailed and a nice American called me about an hour later (5PM) and shared details of the facility and my room numbers. - There isn't staff on site, but after you get your room number, you shouldn't need anything else. I saw a cleaning crew taking care of the bathrooms as well. - Would recommend 100% if you just need a place to sleep and shower while in Manhattan. Will stay again I saw a few people struggle with check-in, mentioning and they showed up and no one called them, all these guests showed up before check-in time at 3pm, so again, try emailing the reservations email beforehand and share your arrival time. If you can get in the front door from another guest, you can drop your luggage off in the kitchen and roam the city until you get your key codes.

I stayed in this place for a weekend with a friend. Glad it was only two nights. I do not recommend anyone stay here unless you're looking for the absolute bare minimum for the "cheapest" place in downtown NYC, which will still run you at least $150/night. Honestly I've stayed in cheaper places in bigger cities with better accommodations than this place. Pros: -Clean enough; Nothing was grimy and I never saw a pest. -Has A/C -Fantastic location (You're going to get city noise - shouting, sirens, horns, etc. - so if that bothers you get a place outside the city) Cons: -Hidden fees when you arrive -The "front desk" is a shabby kitchen with the only amenity being a single vending machine. -Room was not clean when we got there on time at 3pm. We had to wait another 40m until our room was ready -Sheets are bare bones. They did not fit on the mattress and there was a single sheet and a tiny "blanket" that barely covered one person -The bathrooms are shared, and there is no soap, shampoo, towels, or paper towels provided in the bathrooms -You are provided a single towel per person -There was a fire alarm that was beeping the entire time we stayed. We asked the doorman MULTIPLE times to fix it but he never did -The door code never worked. We had to ring in every time and never knew if we were going to be able to let in when we came back. We were constantly opening the door for people on our way out or waiting with a group of people to be let in. -After we first arrived, we never saw the doorman again, and he rarely picked up the phone. We had to leave voicemails. There was no way to communicate with anyone in the place beyond that.