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Hotel Pennsylvania
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Fashion District
401 7th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
(212) 736-5000
401 7th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
(212) 736-5000
- Nearest Transit:
-
34th St-7th Ave (1, 2, 3)
33rd Street (PATH)
34th St-6th Ave (B, D, F, V, N, Q, R, W)
- Price Range:
-
$$
40 reviews for Hotel Pennsylvania
I stayed here recently, during fashion week, where hotel prices are overblown through the roof in NYC. For what we paid, it was fine. It's not the nicest hotel, but our room was clean and everything worked. I even used the internet for free the entire time.
It's in a good location with plenty of transit in the area making it very accessible to go to all parts of the city. I didn't come to NYC to hang out in a hotel room. We came back at night to sleep and for that it was fine.
I think that this place deserves a better rating then ,most people are giving it. It had a fridge in the room, the ac worked, the staff were very friendly.
My coworkers were paying $580.00 a night elsewhere at nicer hotels where I paid less the half of that.
If you need an inexpensive place to sleep at in the city that never sleeps, this isn't a bad deal. I will return there again.
Don't do it. Just do not. Seriously. Don't.
Want more reasons why?
So, we have one admin at work who feels that a DEAL must be scored on all hotel rooms. This is her mission in life, she feels obligated to track down every single cheap, horrid place and try to send me there. I think she gets happiness out of the deal, I am not sure, but my assistant is under the directions to NEVER, EVER, EVER again let this woman schedule any part of my trip.
I travel all the time, it seems like November and December are big months- and of course- room rates go up.
This lovely admin stuck me here- the last time she ever did any work for me. I checked in- and immediately left and got a room somewhere else. Disgusting, dirty, yeah- not my cup o tea. I know others have slept in the bed, showered, and used the bathroom in the room I am assigned. But see, it is housecleaning's JOB to ensure that there is no record of this, that things are sparkling clean, etc. This place ranks a very close second to the WORST hotel I have ever stayed at. Given that the worst had a bar of soap from another person in the shower- with accompanying pubic hair, as well as pee spots on the floor next to the toilet... we are not saying much. Yeah- Hotel Penn was not quite as bad as that Detroit sewer, but close... really, really close.
You have to give them credit for carefully managing their image on the internet. For my first trip to the city I looked for something clean, reasonably priced and centrally located in Manhattan.
Judging from the pictures available online, it looked like it met all my qualifications.
However, it only met the latter two. The rooms look almost nothing like idealized pictures online, featuring such amenities like the continually-dripping shower head, the 13" tv on a plastic patio table, a window which, while ostensibly made from glass, afforded no view through its cake of dirt, and no fewer than three different suspiciously vomit-splatter-shaped stains on the carpet. I've had better rooms for $9 in downtown Vegas.
The pluses: the bed was intact and the linens were clean, if not exactly fresh. It is right across from Penn station and MSG, with quick access to Times Square -- probably a better selling point before they cleaned that up.
Unless you're reenacting some Hunter Thompson exploits, I'd avoid this hotel.
OMG!! What a Horrible Experience.
Hotel Penn is the worst experience that I ever had. The exterior and the main lobby looks like a top star hotel, however, the interior is a cheap motel.
The room was very filthy with curly (pubic) hairs in the bathroom floor and tub. The floors are so dirty I was afraid to take off my shoes. The bedsheets had yellowish stains and several big holes in them. I slept on top of the covers to avoid the yellow stains.
There were several large to small white spots on the carpet that looked like semen (sperm) stains, gross!! I wonder if the room was used for a hooker the previous night.
The air conditioning did not work properly, the room will not cool and just down right humid. Although the room was prepaid for 2 nights, I checked out a day early because I couldn't stand the filth. Staying in this hotel made my body itch, I just have to leave and find a different hotel. Just a horrible experience. Never again will I sleep in this so called hotel.
One star for the location, across the street from Penn Station, easy access to subways.
If you like sperm stains, pubic hair and dirt, this hotel is for you.
Eh not my cup of tea. The bathroom was grimey. There were water marks on the ceilings- and I wasn't even on the top floor...??
Great location, but awful!!!
I booked a room at the Hotel Penn. I couldn't believe the price, $53.00 a night. I figured times are tough and I would save my company some travel expenses. You know what they say "No good deed goes unpunished". The room was small, dark, and nasty. The oder was like a combination of Urine, Feces, and Lysol. The bathroom sink was falling of the wall. The A/C did not work and the windows were stuck shut. The smell and heat kept me up.
However I will give them 2 stars. The shower had hot water and good pressure. The staff was friendly. The location is excellent. I didn't die or get lice ( I think ).
Great location. If you make reservations online through Orbits or Expedia you can find good prices. My only complaint was the humidity in my room and the A/C was not the greatest. The room was allways very humid and uncomfortable.
The room was quite for the most part and the staff was very nice and helpfull.
It is walking distance from Time Square and the Empire State Building. In fact you can walk to quite a few of the local attractions.
I would stay here again if I had to but would look elsewere first. But it will be hard to beat their prices.
Okay, it's not the finest hotel in NY, but it does have a few things going for it.
1) It's cheap (for NYC)
2) It hosted some pretty great events (including HOPE2K)
3) The staff are really friendly
4) Why live large? Haven't you all been waiting to slum it in Manhattan?
5) Cute girls work at the restaurant downstairs
6) Right across from Penn Station (nice pick-up spot)
7) Walking distance from wherever you want to go
8) Location
9) Location
10) Location
I like to keep it real in Paris, London, Hong Kong, and NYC. Then I can feel better spending my money on jazz and booze.
There's a 50/50 chance the girl you bring up to your room might not be too impressed, but IF SHE REALLY REALLY LIKES YOU, she'll jump your bones no matter what. Keep that one.
My door may have read 547 but I could have sworn I was in room 1408.
This is by far the worst hotel I've ever stayed in!! Trust me, I read the reviews and my stay there was not by choice as my hotel reservations were made by someone else (and had it not been my mom I would probably never speak to that person again).
Paper thin walls, disgusting carpet, dirty windows, random doors in the room that open up to brick walls, public restroom style toilets, a bed so dirty I slept on top of the covers, a room key that never worked, a bath tub that looked like it had a grey bath mat but it was just the dirt build up, and a million other things, make Hotel Pennsylvania the shit hole everyone says it is.
I could write a book about how terrible this place is but I think most people here summed it up best: eww, nasty, bad, shitsilvania, stinky, crap, misery. I hated my stay here. It felt like part of my soul died after I left that place.
The hotel is a great place if you're on a budget.. but otherwise.. I wouldn't recommend. I told friends to say here since it was only $199 a night which is cheap for an NYC hotel and its in a good location. However, the room was so gross.. there were stains on the walls and carpet.. the shower was filthy, tiles in the bathroom were cracked.. and the door wouldn't close.. not to mention the water pressure was so weak it took forever for the water to warm up and to even take a shower. I felt a little scared even brushing my teeth at the sink. The beds were hard.. the sheets were scratchy.. but like I said.. if you don't care about those things since you want to be in a good location and you're on a budget.. you are getting a roof over your head.
This place is a great party hotel because it is already a piece of shit. So when you crawl back to your hotel at 4:30 in the morning... this place will still be here and you can keep the party going. The only shitty thing is that there's very little food available in the area at 4:30 in the morning... but maybe I'm expecting too much from 'the city that never sleeps.' Amazingly we did find some. We never did sleep and not suprisingly I never noticed all of these problems in these other reviews. I'm sure they're accurate... at check-in and sober time... the hotel didn't seem too nice. It looked like it was nice fifty years ago. CHEAP!
Booked a room about three weeks ago through http://www.getaroom.com. I was impressed with the service and location, but this place seems a bit outdated. It could really use some cleaning/remodeling as well. Other than that, I had an OK experience.
I don't know that I can add much here to help discourage people from staying in this hotel, but this is Yelp and I should try.
I travel a lot for work. Nearly every week, I'm in at least one hotel room somewhere. In my lifetime, I've been to some pretty bad hotels. Some of those, I've been happy to see as there was absolutely nothing else around.
This has to be the worst hotel experience I've ever had.
I came in at about 11am or shortly after. I went to the desk to see if my room was ready. Not an unreasonable request as I've been to many hotels where I could check in early. The desk clerk looked at me like I had three heads. He told me to come back at 3. I pressed for something earlier, and he made a quick check, then told me to come back at 1.
Having just gotten off a train and not having been able to take a shower that morning (overslept a bit), I was hoping to be able to use their gym locker room to clean up before I went to get a bite. This is not a feature they offer. Very disappointing!
I carted my luggage off to get a bite to eat at Lindy's next door, then came back at 12. I asked another desk clerk if my room was ready. Again, the three head stare.
FInally, at around 1, after sitting in their lobby for another hour, I found they never blocked out my request. The third person I spoke to at the desk finally greeted me with a smile and without the three head stare. Finally I had a room to go to, and a shower to clean up in.
My joy was quickly squelched as I entered the hallway. But, I had seen bad hallways with nice rooms before. This was not going to be a repeat event. The room looked like it was refurbished sometime in 1966. Wires protruding from the walls, interesting smell, wailing sirens, and a generally unwelcoming feel.
The shower was like being pressure washed. When I tried to adjust the temperature and pressure, I found an interesting phenomenon of turning it down slightly and getting more pressure as if I had given a half turn up. This was not a pleasant surprise. The 10 minutes I spent getting the shower pressure and temperature right was more than it should have been. After finishing cleaning up, I grabbed a towel to dry off, only to find a large hole in it.
Next time in NYC, even on my own dime, I'll walk the few extra blocks to get to a better hotel instead of using the location as a guide.
Whatever you do, do not stay at this hovel. It's not worth the money you'll save by staying there.
If you slept in the lobby you may have a better experience.
The rooms look 400 years old. It does not seem very secure. The carpet looks moldy. The place smells moldy. I felt dirty staying there. The curtains looked dirty.
I am someone that is more than happy to stay at a days inn or comfort inn. I've even had better experiences staying at an econo lodge when I thought someone was trying to break into my room.
This is a sad representation of the NY I love.
Step it up guys.
My friend from Canada stayed here while he was in town.
It was such a tiny room but with such big smell - STINKY!
But if you're on a budget this place is quite affordable!
You walk into the hotel at about 11 at night. You're tired, ready to sleep and you're excited that you found a hotel right in the middle of Times Square. That's when you see a line of about 40 tourists, their crying babies and open maps, waiting to check in. It looks like all the worst of Disneyland. But what choice do you have--you wait line.
It's about 11:37 now, you're half way to the counter and you realize you have to go to the bathroom. Do you continue to wait, leave the line, leave your bag? You continue to wait, what choice do you have.
Finally, you check in, squeeze into an elevator with sticky floors and plump tourists, and run to your room. I should say duck. When you enter your room it's like stepping into a submarine. In it, you'll find a big foamy bed and a tiny tv--the kind you'd give your cousin who lives in another country.
You decide to sleep with your clothes on...
i have some advice for anyone looking to stay here. It would be a better experience if you slept on the floor of the LIRR platform in pennsylvania station. The bathrooms and walls in the train station are cleaner. Plus you would save $200 dollars
MISERY!
Oh, how can I possibly capture my abject horror and distaste at every single aspect of my experience with this disgusting, mismanaged establishment that styles itself as a "hotel?" Where do I start with why one should avoid this wreck of a quasi-hostelry?
Hm, maybe I should explain how it took over an hour to make it through the check-in line? Upon finally making it up to the concierge counter, the agent stood around for at least five minutes, saying that her computer was slow, and that there was nothing she could do. I asked whether or not the check-in process was generally like this, and she stated that this was pretty normal - "it's a good location" was her defense. I felt ill.
Finally, after another ten minutes of this, I finally obtained my key card to the room. This is where the second part of the nightmare began. After taking the elevator up to my room, I wandered aimlessly for a few moments due to jacked up signage (mind blowing - a hotel that can't even get directions to its rooms correct?!) before locating my room (with the help of an equally lost unfortunate tenant).
Part three of my craptastic hotel saga: I walk into my room, and my olfactory sense is immediately assaulted by the reek of old smoke. Ugh. Okay - I'm all for secondhand smoke breaks at work to have an excuse to go outside, see the sunshine, feel a real breeze, blah blah blah. But when a room smells like a freshly used ash tray, it's absolutely revolting. Strike one.
I break out my work laptop to get a few things done, catch up on some e-mails, send out some documents that I've been working on, only to discover that there's no wireless signal, and no Ethernet port to be found. A hotel that I'm paying hundreds of dollars to stay at, and there's no ready internet access in my room?! Strike two.
Cracked tiles in the bathroom with grout that I shudder to think about what might have caused such significant staining. Strike three.
As I'm unpacking and going about my arrive-at-a-hotel routine, what's that I hear? Oh, it's barking. There's some yappy dog in the room immediately adjoining mine - with the wall that has a door between units on it. This place does the impossible and obtains FOUR strikes.
Summary: If there is any possible way that I could dissuade anyone from staying at this place, I would - I'd count it as my good deed for the day. Maybe to the homeless man wandering the subway asking for change for a 99 cent crispy chicken sandwich from Wendy's, I'd say, "Oh, yes. By all means, please spend a night here." For all those seeking any modicum of decency in a bedding establishment, I'd like to hang a giant sign above the front door of this place that reads: "THOU SHALT NOT"
Small rooms, uncomfortable beds/pillows, dirty and gouged walls, a nearly clogged sink, and a shower obviously built by and for hobbits who couldn't decide what temperature of a shower they'd like. So, yeah, essentially the rooms kinda suck.
However, it's hard to beat the location. It's so very convenient.
I booked two rooms through http://lastminutetrave... for $59 for this past weekend. Then I yelped the hotel and about had a heart attack. With rock bottom expectations I traveled to New York.
Maybe it says something about me, but I liked the hotel. Even at twice the price I would have liked it. The rooms are clean. I looked carefully and saw no evidence of bed bugs. With the window open, the musty smell faded away. The toilets flushed. The shower was hot. The bed in each room was a king size and firm. Did I mention $59 was for two people? The hallways are dingy but they are wide and spacious. The elevators are fast. The staff was, without exception, pleasant and helpful. The lobby is grand. The location is front and center in one of the great cities on the planet. If the smell is still getting you down, go over to 23rd St. and buy a plant. You paid $59...buy two plants. Take the plants home as a souvenir.
If this all sounds too good to be true, there is one huge problem. The checking in is grueling. All afternoon and into the evening, every day the lineup snaked through the lobby. Since there are no lobby washrooms, don't arrive needing to go to the bathroom. We only missed this great aggrevation because we arrived at 3 in the morning.
Valet parking is $40 or you can park around the corner on 32nd at CentralParking (go to http://www.centralpark... and download the discount coupon).
There's 24 hr. everything, all around you. Have a great stay.
And if the room does get you down, with the money you saved, go get drunk.
This was the worst and most expensive hotel I have ever stayed in. I have stayed in 12-Euro a night hostels that put this place to shame.
For a $700 3 night stay, I got a room that looked as though it should have been condemned for some type of plague. I have been on many day trips to NY, but never needed to stay overnight, and I got the discount rate?!? bc I was participating in the Direction show.
The lobby is quite nice and very misleading. I should have brought my pillow (thank goodness I brought my own!) down there and slept on a bench.
As for the room..the carpet was DISGUSTING. The walls were DISGUSTING. The bathroom, well, you can imagine. After the first night and waking up with itchy, almost scabby like rash on my legs (I have sensitive skin, but c'mon) I had to go to the nearby Kmart to purchase a set of sheets.
I cannot say enough about the atrocious rip off that is this hotel. I understand it is prime location, but there is a difference between staying in a very basic room, and a room where you can't even feel clean while showering!!
And to top it all off... not one.. not ONE member of the staff was courteous or helpful.
OH HELLZ NEVER AGAIN NAW!!
nyc is notorious for having seemingly legit hotel facades and lobby's but when you go upstairs, it's like you've entered a hostel in a 3rd world country. okay maybe that's slightly exaggerated (only by a fraction) but from friends' experiences and my own, it's like you would prefer to just sleep standing up.
when i came to nyc w/some family my aunt booked us here. it was inexpensive and it was perfectly located in midtown manhattan, across from madison square garden, penn station, times square, yada yada.
now, i love old buildings...when they're maintained. when we got to our floor and stepped out of the elevator, you sort of get a creepy feeling. the hallway had dim lighting and a dingyness to it, and i recall a door we passed w/a very large stain on it. ewww?! it was like an old building in a scary movie--5 yrs later and i'm still not over it. when we got in our room there was a mysterious stain on the floor next to a chair, the toilet had yellow tinted water, and the adjacent room (that was also ours) had a small room (like a walkin closet thing) except it had no hardware in it or a light! we're not sure what purpose it served but it seemed like a good place to stash...bodies? we explored no further. i think we actually spent 2 of the 4 nites we were supposed to be there, which were 2 nites too long! *shudder*
You know those sleazy motels just off the interstate that you know are for extramarital affairs and tractor-trailer sex - this would be the NYC equivalent.
I've had this misfortune of staying here twice - both times were before I moved to this area and knew better. The vast majority of the rooms are as out of date as the building. I would be afraid to shine a black light - the whole room would probably glow.
There are rooms that have been updated and from what I understand are nice - as a matter of fact you can see pictures of these rooms on their website. Too bad you will never see them in person - I am guessing these rooms are reserved for business customers that pay full price.
This hotel is all about location - nothing else.
Surprise! Or not. You should have an idea of what kind of hotel this is by averaging the ratings of our fellow yelpers including my one star. The check in and check out lines are excruciatingly long and you have to pay a $10 fee per bag to leave it with the bellboy if your flight is scheduled for later on in the day. This is the first time in my life where I was asked to pay a fee to leave my bag in a room. Maybe they break it down so that it's $2 to tag your bag, $4 to carry...er, throw it into storage, $1 to match the tag and $3 to bring it back out to you. The doors to the room resembled a coffin, I really don't know what the designer was thinking when they assembled the doors. Maybe he was a vampire? The room itself made me feel like a fugitive with dank carpeting, dim lighting, no alarm clock, rusted bathroom, drains that don't work and a shower that was so out of control, my friend and I almost got blasted out of the tub. Every time I stepped out of the shower I looked like someone with an allergic reaction because the water pressure was so hard. For all the ladies, I would advise you to apply makeup across the street in the Penn Station bathrooms because I have faith the lighting in public bathrooms are better than the ones in Hotel Pennsylvania. The light in the bathroom makes you look overly pale and hungover whereas the lamp in the living area makes you look yellow and could lead excessive makeup because you can barely see your face. I understand the location is good and maybe the lowest I've ever gotten was to a 3 star hotel or Motel 6 (which in my opinion is still better) but I'd rather walk 10 blocks than to stay here again.
I stayed at this hotel, which had great rates for being in the Madison Square Garden location, but I was apalled to find HAIR in my bed (not my hair!). The front desk nor housekeeping did anything about it. I ended up sleeping on top of my covers with a towel as a blanket.
***I had to edit this and add...it wasn't just one or two pieces of hair, it was clumps of hair...like someone got their weave pulled out or was...killed in the room.
I must say eww.
Okay so you walk into the place and it looks amazing. HA, wait until your in the elevator and get off onto your floor. Walking through the hallways makes you feel like your in a movie - dark and creepy,... then you get to the tiny room, just as dark as the hallway and it had a dirty feel to it. We had an AWESOME view of the empire state building too bad we couldnt see out the filthy window. How long had it been since they actually cleaned the windows?! I felt like I was in an OLLLLDDD lead painted apartment. The bathroom door known was painted to match the gross white painted door, therefore sticking rather than turning, the bathroom door did not shut all the way so you had to leave it opened a crack. The sink and tub are completely outdated and the shower was awful, i was taking a luke warm shower, not even! I did not even feel like I showered. Another awful thing, the walls are PAPER thin, you can hear EVERRRRYTHING going on next door... I just felt dirty and unsafe being there, YUCK!
I will NEVVVVVVVVER return to Hotel Penn. I wish they have a Negative Star cuz thats what this hotel would get. Convenient location and moderately cheap but its not worth it!!! Stay somewhere else..
Can we get some negative stars pleaseeeee?
For using this hotel strictly as somewhere to sleep, it was not bad. I'd rather spend my money on great food & shopping! We're there to enjoy the city, not to sit around a hotel room....so for us, the room served its purpose.
We liked to think of it as shabby chic & minimally hygienic but come on - you know going in that you're getting a 2-star quality hotel, so you already know what to expect......it's all about the location!
Biggest plus: It's 1 of the VERY FEW hotels that can sleep 4 to a room for a reasonable price. Most rooms in the city seem to be built for 2 & it's impossible to cram in any more so 3 stars for an awesome location & being able to sleep four.
This hotel is located across the street from the flagship Macy's Department store and Penn Station. This is a GOD awful hotel. Be forewarned, DO NOT STAY HERE. This place needs to be torn down and rebuilt , a renovation just won't do, it would be too time consuming and costly to renovate. This hotel is dingy, creepy, run down, and depressing. This hotel doesn't even deserve one star, but Yelp doesn't have an option to give it zero, at least not at this time, perhaps one of these days...
They should change the name of the hotel to Hotel Shitsylvania...excuse my French.
I paid about $250.00 for a night, which was really expensive considering the fact that this hotel should be shut down for unsanitary health violations and that the hotel was run down. I wouldn't stay here even if was free. Spend a little more money, for a decent nights sleep...
One star is generous.
You get what you pay for. This is a truly skanky hotel but it is cheap. It is run down and smells pretty weird. I stayed here once and dear god I will never put myself or any traveling companion through it again. The first room they put us in did not have a shower, I repeat- DID NOT HAVE A SHOWER. Just a tub. Doesn't everyone love the thought of washing yourself sitting in a tub that god knows who was sitting in the night before you? Um, NO. We asked to have the rooms changed and we did and ended up in a room that had a very suspicious brown stain on the wall... I won't even wager a guess on what it was. I managed to ignore it and just focus on the fact that at least it had a shower. Thankfully I spent barely any time in the room and spent most of the time out in the city enjoying myself and getting totally legless. I literally came home and passed out fully clothed on top of the blankets. By the look of the place this was probably the smart thing to do. On the way out my boyfriend used one of the bathrooms near the lobby and there were actually 2 people having sex in one of the stalls which is sort of appropriate because nothing says "Thanks for staying with us at Hotel Pennsylvania" like dirty bathroom sex.
Do yourself a favor and DO NOT stay here.
I know this isn't news to anyone, but this is just a crappy hotel. The entire place is pretty run down, small rooms and bathrooms, toilets that don't flush, no wifi, no high speed internet, long lines at the check in desk, no early check in and well you get the idea. Just do yourself a favor and find somewhere else.
Location gets 4 stars.
Actual quality of the stay gets 2. I guess that averages to 3 stars, then.
Maybe I'm just not used to NYC in general, but this place was, in my opinion, way overpriced for an experience that I'd expect out of maybe some of the more developing parts of Eastern Europe.
A place to sleep and take a lukewarm shower in NYC, is about all I can say for it. I don't have specific horror stories, but, old, musty, small room, inconvenient to navigate inside the hotel, with slow elevators.
On the upside: right across the street from the Garden and Penn Plaza.
This was my second time coming to NYC for a concert. I decided to book at this hotel this time around instead of my previous one. It was right across the street from MSG and that's what I wanted.
1. Overpriced
2. My room was pleasant except for the noticeable cracks and paint peeling on the closet and bathroom doors/wall.
3. The hot water knob in the shower was loose and it took me a good 10mins to push the knob in so I can take a shower.
4. I booked through the hotel website and put the exact amount and some change on my credit card. They couldn't process it and demanded that I give them 50 bucks for a deposit. I told them no and to charge me for the exact amount of the room. I did this because I wasn't going to be in my room all the time.
5. The place was overcrowded as the lobby was full with kids.
I would suggest going elsewhere; it's not worth the price.
Let me keep this brief. I did not leave my suitcase unzipped because I did not want to bring any stow-aways home with me. I would NEVER stay here again. It makes a motel look classy. Even the NASCAR looking clients didn't help with the hotel's image, you know what I mean cuzzzzin? Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, slimey, gross, nasty, yuck.
This place is the pits!! The one star i give it, is for the location.The staff are the rudest I have ever seen at a hotel lobby, the rooms themselves are miserable,dirty carpets,bathrooms that are small and not even functional - basic stuff like shower heads and flushes don't work!
DON'T STAY HERE! There are many hotels in the same price range in that neighborhood, pick any of them,don't waste your money here!
My favorite place to stay in NYC! Highly recommended.
Yeah, I have to agree, it's the location. Room was okay. Not a 5 star type of place. Husband and I stayed here when we were newlyweds and still on a budget. It served it's purpose. It doesn't have room service.... I don't recall.... but it was close to pretty much everything we needed.
A solid jumper motivator for businessmen on a trip gone awry. You came to Manhattan for the first time in your life on the company's ticket and in high hopes; "You will be staying in front of the famed Madison Square Garden and a couple of blocks away from Times Sq.... No, don't thank me, I know I'm an awesome boss, just don't come back empty handed, you hear?" - The poor man nods and swallows. He comes to America and hails a cab to the Hotel Pennsylvania. "It's 85 dollars my friend!" -says the cabby. "Ezcuse me; vat is it meanz 50 dollahz flat reate?" -the poor man asks. The cabby responds: "Uuhh, it means that rate is old and very flat!"
He pays, and passes by the Golden Columns into this huge vestibule, but strangely, its devoid of light; a pale, rotten yellow darkness permeates the environment. He can't believe it's true, but it is. This is the hotel where his company has sent him. Depression starts to set in; he climbs into the 5th floor to find an ugly old carpet, ugly ass walls and paint job, and the smell... a smell of fart mixed with aged lavender. He enters his room; same. The small tiles in the bathroom remind him of the tiles used in public schools and jails. He decides to walk to the famed Times Sq..... 45 minutes later, he is gasping for air clutching the door outside Bubba Gump. The next day he fails to close the deal. He returns to the bleak hotel in low spirits.... he needs air, light, release... his stomach grumbles due to the Sbarro pizza slice he just ate from the Hotel's concessions spot. It is at this juncture when he entertains the thought.... of jumping.
This pretty much is the way I would feel if I was that lonely traveler; my friends were sent here on the company's ticket and I felt their pain; furthermore, I decided to test my disgust nerves and not only trekked up and about the hotel and it's underground restrooms (which are so desolated, disgusting, and located inconveniently in the bowels of the hotel, in the middle of what seemed as storage doors and the like), but actually slept one night there, as we had a long party evening and I couldn't bring myself to cab it home. I should have though.
Now unless I have it all wrong and everything is just an elaborate ploy to wait out a decade or so more, to automatically gain the tittle of being a "classic" hotel of original 1970's decor and architecture; this place is crassly outdated to the point of consternation. If this is the 70's that will be handed to future generations, they will totally understand Nixon, the Partridge Family, and the need for ppl to be high on LSD all the time; to forget the tackiness of their Era and everything else before disco.
Why two stars? Because of the people that work here, I feel for them....
The room sucked and the service wasn't friendly at all. I felt like I was in a college dorm. However, it's all about the location. This place is cheap, and right across the street from Penn Station, and I didn't feel like I was going to get mugged, so that's a plus.
I never actually stayed but did spend several days here for a conference. The public spaces were dated with little airflow. Once we arrived for the first session I was so happy we didn't book in this hotel.
There's a good English as a Second Language class here, and Landmark Forum meetings also take place in this hotel.
