This is the first time in my life that I have felt the need to write a negative review about a hotel. Unfortunately, the experience was so poor that I feel a responsibility to warn future guests.
The overall experience was extremely disappointing. The staff was consistently unprofessional, unfriendly and unhelpful. The way we were treated throughout our stay was unpleasant and dismissive. In particular, one staff member named Winnie (or similar spelling) was especially rude and unprofessional.
On December 31st, we were locked out of the hotel and left on the street, unable to return. There were families with children, including ours, standing outside for over two hours in temperatures of -6°C. We were told that we would be able to re-enter the hotel with a paper they gave us, but the police did not allow us to pass with that document. Around 30 guests, many of them with children, were left stranded outside. The hotel did not apologize, did not warn guests in advance, and showed no concern whatsoever for anyone affected.
The hotel has no room service. The only food option is a very basic cafeteria with a few plastic-wrapped sandwiches that closes at 6:00 pm. There are no real facilities, not even a proper lobby. Waiting times for the elevators were around 20 minutes every day, which is completely unacceptable.
The towels were ridiculously small. At check-out, the hotel charged us almost $1,000 more than what was stated in our Booking.com reservation, claiming that this was mentioned in the fine print. In addition, they have held a $1,000 deposit on our credit card, which they say will not be released until two weeks after check-out. They insist this is “standard procedure” and simply tell us to wait.
Customer service was lamentable, and the facilities are very poor.
We will never return to this hotel, and we never expected this level of service from Hyatt, a brand we always believed to be at least professional. With so many hotels in New York, I strongly recommend never choosing this one.
The only positive note is for the housekeeping staff, who were kind, professional, and did their job well
