Whomever gave this hotel 4/5 stars is lying to you. I stay in hotels 3-4 nights a week for my job for over 2 years now and have never had an experience like I had last week when I stayed at the DisComfort Inn Newark.
My room was in the basement on the ground floor below the lobby, and while I wasn't happy with my room assignment, figured I could suck it up for one night.
I proceeded to go to the "fitness center" to find their one treadmill was broken, as was the TV in the room. So instead I got on the one working machine, the stationary bike, when I encountered a knock on the outside window. It was a member of the staff asking me to open the back door to let them in. When I met her at the door, she told me the elevators were broken so the only way for guests to exit and enter the hotel was to use the back door and walk all the way around to the front. Ok, NBD, I figure all I'm exiting for is to meet my UberEATS driver outside.
Big mistake.
When I go outside and get my food, I find that there's no way to get back into the basement where I came out, as there is no key swipe.
So I walk back to the front, and the receptionist tells me that the back door should be unlocked for those guests, because there is no way to get to the basement through the building (wait what?!). I insist it was not unlocked but thought I might have missed something, so walk back around to the back exit and indeed it is still locked and by now, another basement guest has joined me in trying to get into the building. I call the receptionist, telling her it's locked and she begrudgingly said she would come around to look at it. When she does, she says "oh we propped it open and someone moved the piece of wood." Last I checked, propping a back door open in the basement of a hotel in Newark that backs to a warehouse isn't the safest measure to be taken, but ok.
The staff member then proceeds to take a hotel key to try to jimmy the lock open repeatedly, as more basement guests are showing up trying to get in. Apparently, no staff member has an actual key to the back door.
Finally, after my delivery order has gotten cold from me standing outside for a long period of time, the manager calls another guest staying in the basement asking them to open the door for us.
Not only was this a disruption for that Guest, it was a huge inconvenience for the rest of the guests who couldn't enter the building, let alone possible handicapped guests who could have been staying at the hotel with no working elevator. Had my grandmother been staying at the hotel, she would never have been able to climb the stairs to get back to the front of the building.
Do yourself a favor and skip this fire hazard of a hotel. They clearly do not care a smidgen about the comfort of their guests. read more