I knew what I was getting into when I booked the hotel but still was surprised when I opened the door to my room. The space was tiny. That being said it was surprisingly comfortable, an impressively designed space and a great model for small space living without sacrificing style.
The bed frame was fitted with drawers so belongings could be stowed out of the way. There was a small wall mounted TV and the lamps were wall mounted as well. They fit in a desk by extending a shelf between the bed and the wall with a Eiffel chair that tucked in neatly.
The bathroom was small but well styled with the toilet on one side of the curtain and a shower on the other with a rain-head and subway tiles. The petite sink was in the main space (convenient if you’re brave enough to share such a small room) with storage for towels and extra toilet paper rolls underneath.
The hotel also boasted a lobby with couches to sit and socialize, a large roof deck with a view, an outdoor garden café and a very helpful concierge should you want to venture from your room.
You can visit their website here for booking info and additional information.
Images: The Pod Hotel
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Most of the time, hotel rooms are used only for showering and sleeping anyway, so the rooms don't really need to be spacious, IMO.
I love it! I didn't check out the cost but I'd be ok with paying less for less space...and I love the common areas!!
I stayed here when I was taking my "lil sister" to college and we detoured to NYC as a graduation trip. I was SO nervous because I got such a KILLER deal from a travel site; under $100 a nite. Unheard of in NYC! We did opt for the most budget option; we had the bunk bed, but surprisingly, it worked out extremely WELL! A friend had recommended looking a hotels with shared restrooms. It saved so much money! It was clean, compact, located in a nice hood. It was GREAT! I mean it wasn't the Acer or the W but it allowed us to enjoy a few days in NYC and was a NICE option! I would totally recommend!
ok, so the hotel is super cute.
not to be a hater, but with a single pod (room for just one) starting at $229 a night, i'm having a hard time calling this a budget hotel (though i know it's cheaper than many in its vicinity).
At $229 you can get into a lot of Starwood properties, as well as Wyndham and Hampton Inns as well.
I got the bunk bed room for a long weekend adventure for my first time in NYC. Midtown Mahattan for under $100 a night. YOU CANNOT BEAT THAT. Even the shared shower/restroom deal wasn't bad. Very clean. The indicator light thing above the door is brilliant and super handy, if at first, strange. :-)
Between that and splitting a bottle of wine on the rooftop at sunset, I don't think I'll stay anywhere else in NYC (until I change tax brackets).
I've had family stay here in NYC and the starting prices are much lower than $229, not sure where that number came from.
The prices vary throughout the year like all hotels. Summer is peak tourist season, so that probably explains the higher prices. Calling the hotel and asking when they're off season is or when they might be running specials will tell you when to get the most "bang for your buck".
*their
Looks great to me! I use hotel rooms for sleeping, a warm shower, and a place to leave my bags. For the location I will trade space any day. There is only so much space my husband and I need to begin with, and with the common areas and the fact that its NYC I think wed manage to find things to do outside the room.
I got the under $100 price through this site: http://www.otel.com/
Do you know who did the mural in the lobby? It's gorgeous!
Cool! Bigger is not always better!
it's a great place to stay and very convenient to the E to the airtrain if you're flying out of jfk
I stayed in a pretty skanky hotel when my husband ran the NY marathon (we got engaged that wkend!) that had rooms ~ that size WITH A SHARED BATHROOM IN THE U.S.!? Wth?! Almost all of the rooms we stayed in in Tokyo were about that big. I figure we don't tend to spend a ton of time in our room, so who cares? This is a good option we'll check into when we return to NYC. Thx!
I used to work in the hospitality industry and spent more nights than I can count staying overnight at the different properties I worked at or for work-related trips. I did this so often, I stopped looking out windows.
My conclusion: Paying more than you have to for a clean, quiet and secure place to sleep, sh*t and shower is a waste of money. You didn't spend time and money flying to that place to sit and look out of a hotel window.
Stayed here on a uni trip to NY and it was awesome. Great base to explore from. Everything was nice and clean and the shared bathrooms are pretty swanky!
I'd LOVE to go back and stay there again!
We stayed at the Hudson last time I was in NYC. The rooms look to be as small as The Pod rooms...but not for a discounted price! These types of small-sleep-and-shower-here-only rooms remind me of European budget hotels...functional, but not somewhere to hang out.
Curses! Just made my reservations elsewhere - day late, $60 short....
I have stayed here many times! NEVER for anywhere NEAR $229/night - depending on the night and the season, I've gotten a double-bed room for $75. Usually it's about $150.
I actually don't really find the rooms excessively tiny. Then again I live in NYC already so maybe I'm pretty accustomed to small spaces? (I know - why am I staying in a NYC hotel when I live in NYC? I'll never tell - I'm a lady.) They are certainly not places to sit and lounge around for an afternoon but I've never really wanted to do that in a hotel room anyway, NYC or elsewhere. They're all efficiently designed and laid out, so they're functional for what you need. In the rooms I usually get (double bed, though I have also gotten the queen-size bed room when that was all they had available) there is a little desk area with a metal chair so that you can get some computer work done; aside from that, you basically can only sit on the bed (or on the toilet...). This is a room for sleeping, showering, and getting dressed, basically. There IS a little closet area in addition to under-the-bed storage so there is plenty of room for stuff to go, so that what little space there is in the room is all yours.
The showers are quite nice and I love the tiling. I am a very bathroom-shy person - let's just say I get stage fright - and the Pod bathrooms have sliding doors, which somehow seem less "closed" than normal doors. Plus the doors are frosted-glass type material, while the shower portion is just clear glass - with the room being so small and the sink mirror nearby I just...no. So when sharing one of these rooms I actually often use the communal bathrooms, of which there are several on each floor. They are single-bathroom units, not like dorm bathrooms with stalls or anything, and have always been impeccably clean in my experience. Never had to wait for one or anything - there seem to be enough on each floor to comfortably support the population.
The communal areas in this hotel in general are pretty nice. I have spent a fair bit of time reading or doing light computer work in the lobby and never felt anything but at-home.
I've stayed in even smaller hotel rooms in Tokyo.
just for the record, folks, my $229 for single pod came from the hotel's website.
it does seem you can get cheaper if you're willing to share the bathroom...
To clear up any confusion, I have never stayed in a Pod room without a private bath and have almost never paid over $150. I've (very) occasionally gone under $100. Of course I imagine that depends A LOT on the time of year and week that you're staying. I usually stay on weeknights, booking within three or four days of the night I'll be staying - basically when it's crunch time and my job in midtown has a less than 6-hour turnaround and I don't have time to go back home to Inwood.