Not the best Dream ive ever had! (Dream Hotel (New York, USA))

Member Name: emmakate06

Product:	Dream Hotel (New York, USA)
Date:	28/04/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Location, location, location!

Disadvantages: Small rooms, no cash deposit or debit cards accepted.

I recently stayed at the Dream Hotel New York for Valentines weekend. The hotel is ideally situated for both Times Square and Central Park and both are within a couple of minutes walk either way. It is located at 210W 55th Street, just off the main street so away from the hustle and bustle and relatively quiet for a New York Hotel.

It is quite a small hotel and very minimalistic. On entrance in the foyer there is a large water feature with fish which spans over 2 floors of the hotel and looks great. Check in was very easy as there were no other customers waiting. The only problem I have with check in is that they require a credit card to check in for incidentals. Whilst this is standard practice in most hotels, most will normally take a debit card or cash if you dont have a credit card, however this hotel doesnt! If you havent got a credit card you are not permitted to check in even if you have pre paid for your room. Luckily I read this whilst researching the hotel and so arranged for my mum to provide them with her credit card details instead. They provide you with a form to fill in to do this which the cardholder must sign, then you just hand this over when you check in.

The room was what they called a 'medium sized' room, however I would describe it as more of a closet size. Very very small. It didnt really bother me as we had so much planned we were only using it as somewhere to sleep, however had we wanted to spend more time in our room I think I would have found it quite claustrophobic. Our room was on the 1st floor and had a fantastic view of the generator lol, slightly better than the room above us who would have just got a view of the wall instead. The rooms do have lovely mood lighting with a blue uv light under the bed which looks fab with the main light off. There is a large lcd screen tv on the wall and you have a small dressing table area. Overall the room was adequate for our needs, however if your after luxury and space I wouldnt recommend this hotel for you.

There are two restaurants attached to the hotel, Seraphina is the main one and serves a variety of italian food and pizzas. This is also where breakfast is served in the morning. At the time of our visit the breakfast worked out to be about £20 each! However this was more to do with the terrible exchange rate more than the hotels prices. The food was fine, nothing amazing. The stonebaked pizzas are delicious and these are very good value working out at about £8 for an extremely large pizza.

On the very top floor of the hotel there is a bar and nightclub which overlooks Times Square from the terrace. I didnt visit this myself and didnt hear any noise from it, but from speaking to other guests who were on the floor under the nightclub, they said it was noisy so probably best to avoid floors 11 & 12. I also heard from other guests that the lifts can become very full with party goers late at night between 12 & 3am with people coming and going from the club. Again I personally didnt experience this so Im unable to give you my opinion on this, but thought I would mention it as its something to bear in mind if your planning on staying here.

Overall, its a reasonable hotel, I have stayed in much better in New York. The room rates average around $129 dollars a night which is ok with a reasonable exchange rate, however I would shop around. The hotels website does make the hotel look a lot more glamourous and upmarket than what it is, so expect to be disappointed if you are expecting luxury quality.

Summary: Adequate hotel, but wouldnt stay here again.