I WISH I COULD GIVE NO STARS FOR THIS PLACE. I wish that my experience here was just a nightmare,…read morebecause at least I dont lose $140 in a nonrefundable deposit when I'm dreaming. Disgusting facilities. Horrible staff. Ended up crashing on a friend's house instead. So let me tell you a little story....
My three friends and I were in New York for a school trip and booked Tony's place because it was cheap and not too deep into Harlem... but boy oh boy were we in for a surprise. We get to the hotel (which is actually a beat up, unmarked house) and the manager is outside greeting a cab she called for another guest. She yells at us, "JUST STAY RIGHT THERE!" At this point we have no idea who this loud ass woman is, so we half ignore her. She then comes up to us and tells us that "TONY'S PLACE IS OUT OF SERVICE. YOU CAN'T STAY HERE. GET IN THE CAB AND WE'LL TAKE YOU TO OUR OTHER PLACE." My first thought is... uh no. She goes on to explain that she's the manager yada yada. My friends and I were all running late for a seminar, so we decided to just get in the cab (which was sketchy and black) and go. The driver takes us to another run down, gross house on freaking 153rd street. Her husband greets us at the door, and helps us take our bags upstairs to our room.
THE ROOM
Two dirty looking beds with unwashed sheets. Dirty looking stuffed animals on the walls as decoration. Entire place smells like mothballs. The bathroom (shared with all other guests) was disgusting -- sink covered in toothpaste spit, and someones retainer balanced on one corner. and to top it all off NO LOCK ON THE DOOR. In fact, NO DOORKNOB either. I look at the husband and say, "We cannot leave our stuff in a room with no lock on the door." He looks at me incredulously and tells me, "Your stuff is safe! I'm fixing the lock now -- the last guest took the key with her by accident, so I'm replacing the lock! No one has access to the room! There's no one here!" First of all, we came in with another guest, so that last part is obviously false. Plus, HE has access to our stuff. He keeps telling us over and over to just trust them.. but uh. no. The wife gets there. And she starts ARGUING with me. I'm trying to tell her that I can't leave my stuff in an unsecured room. We are four girls, unfamiliar with the city, staying in a hotel in deep Harlem, and we cannot leave our stuff in an unlocked room. She literally tells me, "YOU'RE YOUNG. YOUR ATTITUDE ISN'T HELPING. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. YOUR STUFF IS SAFE." I was amazed. We argued with her for a good half an hour before she let us into a locked room downstairs to store our stuff. She gave us her only keys (?!) to the house, and we walked out to our seminar. At this point, we were all fuming and could not believe that she would tell us we were being unreasonable for demanding a lock on the door.
I ended up calling a friend to let us crash on his floor because I couldn't stand staying at that place. Even when we got back from the seminar later that afternoon, the woman CONTINUED to argue with us even after we said we weren't staying there. We told her that she should have contacted us via email, telling us about the location change, etc. She tells us that it "just happened last week!" I say that "last week would have given her plenty of time to contact us." Then she changes her story to " it just happened yesterday!" then "it just happened this morning! There was no way for us to contact you!" Unbelievable. And complete bullshit. We talked to the other guest that was staying there, and she told us that she had been moved to the other location three weeks ago.
BOTTOM LINE: NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER IN A MILLION YEARS WASTE YOUR MONEY HERE.