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Riverside Tower Hotel
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Upper West Side
80 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10024
(212) 877-5200
80 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10024
(212) 877-5200
- Nearest Transit:
-
79th St (1)
- Price Range:
-
$$
6 reviews for Riverside Tower Hotel
I love this place! This hotel is so awful it's hilarious, but I would happily stay there again and again. I do think it is the best deal for the money in NYC. But: be prepared... The halls smell funny, the rooms are BEYOND tiny, and the shower was so small I could barely get into it. The doors usually have over a half-inch of empty space above them. There's no place to put your soap in the shower. And if you drop something under your bed, it is lost for the ages since you can't get under the beds since the room is so small. My roommate woke up to smell her blanket melting because it was up against the heat radiator. That's the bad side.
The good side is that it was actually reasonably clean, though it is so old and worn out that it doesn't look clean. And the neighborhood is just terrific. You can catch the bus right by the hotel on Riverside (you must have a Metropass, though, which you buy at a subway station), which will take you right down to midtown, down Fifth Ave. and to Greenwich Village. The subway at 79th Street also goes to Times Square and Greenwich Village. Zabars is 2 blocks away, which is reason enough to stay here, and the Manhattan Diner on Broadway is a great place to eat, though you won't get in the door on a Saturday morning. A Cosi and Starbucks are nearby on Broadway: the Starbucks is impossibly crowded but the Cosi is spacious and comfy. There are also a Duane Reade drugstore and a McDonald's nearby, as well as H&H Bagels, which looks dirty and seedy but has good bagels, if very rude staff. Some think H&H has the best bagels in NYC but if these are the best NYC is in trouble.
Hotel staff are great, and the clientele is very nice. Lots of Scandinavian and Russian students when I was there.
If you don't mind tiny, bare bones, grungy hotels, this is a good deal. It is a safe area. Just don't expect to walk around in your room. I saw no bugs there at all.
I really, really wish I could give more stars. For one thing, I love a bargain, and $119 a night is definitely a bargain. For another thing, the Riverside Tower Hotel is in an adorable neighborhood - very safe, clean, yupscale and VERY "New York."
Alas, the place wasn't quite as clean as advertised on the website - with big stains on the carpet in the hallways, grimy-ish carpet in our room, and a sort of funky smell in the halls. In fact, though we booked for three nights, we ended up only staying one. My husband took one look at the carpet, the tiny rundown elevator, the old TV and the weird A/C unit in the closet (not to mention the unmatched doors in the hallway) and said, "We're checking out."
That being said, the bed (though small) had a decent mattress and was comfy, the linens were clean, as was the bathroom, and the shower was great! Our shower was one of those tiled boxes that you step down into, and for some random reason, we got amazing water pressure, for a nice steamy lavish shower experience. And the woman at the desk gave us an immediate refund for the two nights we didn't stay, even though we'd booked on line AND we had already paid the entire three nights before we decided to relocate. So that was good, too.
This is the sort of budget/student traveler hotel that is disappearing rapidly in today's world of chains and franchises, and for that reason I might recommend it to someone younger and less picky than my husband. (If I were traveling alone, I probably would've stayed.)
And of course the problem for a place like the Riverside Tower is that, with sites like Hotwire out there, it truly isn't all that cheap. Through Hotwire, we found a room at the Barclay (now an Intercontinental Hotel - a chain) on East 48th between Park and Lex for $139.50 a night. It was swank and elegant, in an amazing location, and at only $20.50 more per night, it was the kind of deal that (a) we couldn't pass us and (b) will probably be putting places like the Riverside Tower out of business soon. Which is really sad.
The price is great, rooms are tiny, but clean, and the whole place is rundown and old. It's a fine place to stay, especially due to the fact that you get a clean room for not a lot of money. Staff is extremely rude, however. I love the neighborhood & it's really easy to get to midtown/downtown from the area. While I might not stay here again, there really is not anything wrong with the place.
As far as price vs. location goes, your not going to find a better deal no matter how clever you think you are. Rooms are clean and fine, but really, really small. I believe this building was actually a college dorm for many years, hence the many tiny, teeny rooms. However, when I just want a nice, quiet place to lay my head at night when I visit NYC, and I don't want to spend $200+ a night on a place I'll really only sleep in, this is really the only option.
The Palace Hotel this is not. But for the amount of money you are going to pay and the cozy, safe neighborhood you are in, you can't beat it. My Mom and I had 2 rooms connected by a bathroom. The rooms are very, very tiny. But hey, you are in NY. You aren't hanging out in your room. Just up the street is Zabar's and H&H bagels which is great for your breakfast in the morning. Easy to catch a cab right off of Broadway or walk down one street and you can catch the subway at 79th St. Also, not a far walk at all to Central Park from the hotel. All and all, I will be staying here again on my next visit to the city!
A fine budget hotel in New York located in a luxury Upper Westside neighborhood. Rooms here are low priced and as far as New York goes the best value for your money.
