- (Photo credit: wildmann59 via Flickr)
New York City is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, and for good reasons; the winter holidays, fast-paced culture, Broadway, and museums both famous and funky. A lot of Americans can trace their roots in this country to Ellis Island, making family travel take on extra poignancy. There are, of course, no shortage of super-luxurious hotels to stay in, as well as more reasonably priced rooms and suites (the Mudslide family is partial to the Affinia Gardens hotel in the mid-60s). But there are are also a bunch of cheap hotels -and anyone traveling to NYC on a budget would be smart to research these before making reservations. Case in point: The Hotel Carter, on West 43rd Street. Yes, basically a Times Square location. This hotel is, quite possibly, the absolutely worst hotel in New York City.
While planning a spring vacation week in New York, I stumbled across some reviews of Hotel Carter on Trip Advisor. Now, keep in mind that I haven’t stayed in this hotel myself (and certainly don’t plan to any time soon!) so these reviews were written by other visitors’ experiences and not mine. Their reviews are so descriptive and …impassioned, though, that I need to help spread the word.
A Tripadvisor reviewer calling herself “cvbabygurl” wrote, “Horrible hotel! Horrible Horrible Horrible…Stay away if you love yourself.” She also describes the person at the front desk as rude (though a lot of us have had that experience at hotels), the two double beds too close to each other (again, when we stay at a budget hotel, that’s not unexpected), and “something” left in the toilet (okay, that’s disgusting!) when she arrived in her room. Andreas, from Denmark, wrote that bed bugs infested his luggage, and infested his home when he returned from his vacation. And that’s just one of the Hotel Carter experiences with bed bugs; this issue comes up again and again in the reviews, along with photos. Various people wrote reviews that included the fact that, despite many many bedbug bites, they were offered no refund.
- Wanna Roommate in NYC? (Photo credit: Dana Lee)
Some of you may be thinking that a budget hotel is a budget hotel, and that high expectations shouldn’t be had for a way to cut costs during a vacation in New York City. Sure, that’s true – to an extent. But there’s a world of difference between shabby and filthy: Someone wrote that she saw a rat in her room. Someone else described the hotels in the walls, stuffed with steel wool, and dead cockroaches on the floor. Is that really worth the savings? Alysha wrote, “I am very frugal and I read the bad reviews, so I have no one to blame but myself…I will never stay there again. Not even if they offered me a free room.” Please, consider yourself warned.
Never before has the term “fleabag hotel” seemed so fitting. I plan to try to swing by the Hotel Carter when I’m in New York City in the spring. I’ll take a camera, and possibly a hazmat suit. It will be interesting, to say the least, to get a first-hand look at what seems to be the worst hotel in New York City.
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Wow, this is disgusting. I think I’ve considered this hotel before too.
As wonderful as NYC is, if you’re not careful it can be extremely overpriced. Filthy hotels, poor restaurant meals, and high-priced cab rides await the unwary. Even some of the more expensive hotels are cramped and expensive when you compare what’s available in other cities. When it’s good NYC is really good. But when it’s bad, it’s awful.
If you want to avoid the equivalent in LA, avoid Adventurers All-Suite Hotel near the airport. Check out those reviews at TripAdvisor … in fact, go on over to Uptake.com and plug that one in to see how many different sites register complaints. After spending a night listening to pimps fight in the alley, blocking the door to avoid getting raped, and killing cockroaches to pass the time, I filled out a few of those forms myself.
Warning: This hotel is becoming very aggressive about participating in Travelocity, Expedia, and Priceline channels.
I have to wonder how hotels like this haven’t been shut down by the health dept….
Hey Mamas! Do you have a recommendation on a solid family hotel in the value to moderate price range (1 – 8 yr old). I am paging thru a Frommers 2009 NYC with Kids – would you consider this a reliable guide to use?
First, yes, you can generally trust the most updated Frommers guides. Personally, We Mudslides are partial to the Affinia Gardens in the mid-60s, east side. I don’t know what Frommers has to say about it, but the staff has always been fantastic with my kids (not condescending or dismissive). It’s moderate-ranged, and not a 4-star experience. But it’s in a great neighborhood, safe and clean, with freshly redone accommodations and some attention to detail that we appreciate.
Hey! I’ve had roommates like that! They just never showed up quite so obviously!