NY NYC Hotel Mela Times Square

[quinnman]

:)

Well boys and girls, I'm here with my report:

STAY AWAY -- at least for a while.

Is the location right for Times Square? Yep, can't beat it. Just across the street from Cafe Un-Deux-Trois and right next door to St. Andrews Pub. And that's where the happiness ends, I'm afraid.

Is it a 4-star hotel? Heck, no. The staff is friendly and tries hard, but the building just isn't ready yet.

Contrary to the published listing at Hotwire, the hotel does not have a restaurant -- and won't any time soon. What does that mean? Well, for starters, it means no coffee in the AM and no breakfast or room service in the AM -- and a run up the block to the deli any time you want something. That would be fine, normally, but since the two elevators seemed to be the size of large postage stamps (when they were both working), it wasn't pleasant going up and down for everything. I had a roll-on and watched someone "navigate" a large bag into the elevator. It wasn't pretty.

Small was the theme, apparently.

The rooms, while "spanking new," are VERY VERY small. It was the classic case of "if I get off the bed, I'll hit every other object on my way to the bathroom." There was no closet -- just an armoire with hangers. BUT -- since the armoire had drawers at the bottom -- there was nowhere to hang anything long.

I had a Queen bed, primarily because I do not think the room could actually FIT a King bed in it.

The bathroom accessories were lovely -- lots of little plastic bottles that were branded with pretty logos (green sea-something shampoo), but the bathroom seemed no bigger than the elevator. The shower had no closing panel on it -- just a piece of glass that was attached to the wall. This meant that the water from the shower ended up all over the floor of the bathroom...a horrible design joke.

I took one for the team here. At $202, it was about $70 off per night, in my opinion. Hotwire has already given me a $50 credit for my stay, based on the fact that the hotel description did not match after booking.

I'm not a happy camper...but I hope that other members of our community read this and make more informed choices in the future.

Better Bidding!

-Q

[TonnySenior]

:) I agree completely I stayed at the hotel mela Thu, Jul 3, 2008 - sun, Jul 6, 2008

Hotel Mela is 2.5* and even that would be a stretch.

on this trip I also stayed at Millennium across the street and that hotel is a real 4*

my advice is to avoid Mela if you want to stay in time square.