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Jazz on the Park Hostel Details
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Jazz on the Park Hostel Reviews on Other WebsitesHostelz.com Guest Reviews
Don't be fooled by pictures I decided to stay at Jazz due to the location and reviews. I tried to focus on the positive knowing that some may just not used to hostels. However, I arrived and must say very disappointed with the hostel. I stayed with my two siblings and mother. Our room was not ready at the time of check in. We had to wait for them to clean the room for 1 hour. The staff made an excuse that if he knows that we were tired, he will have the room ready for us on time. I was like, 'are you kidding me? That is why I made a reservation so you can get the room ready when I checked in'. The key cards did not work properly after the room was not being ready. When I asked about the refund policy, the staff told me that they will charge us for a day even though our room was not ready then. The room itself is a joke. Honestly, I would recommend people to stay at YMCA, hotels in Brooklyn or Queens which will have the same great locations and convenience of subways. The location is great for sure, 3 blocks away from a subway station and is closed to central park but it is not worth the trouble. I am glad that I spent a night and decided to see it first before I booked a second night. I traveled NYC another day and drove away to stay in CT instead due to the poor service and lack of presentation on the website. At night, it is not safe as there were people who stayed in the hostel smoking marijuana outside. They were very loud as well.. almost like standing outside a night club. In the inside, during the day, is very loud, the music is blaring in the cafe area. The whole place is not vacation material. It is more 'party' material. Dont expect to have a quiet time during your stay. Staff is friendly for sure but under staff and not professional. When I booked, I was asked to call back in 30 minutes a couple times. When my reservation was wrong, I was asked to call back in 30 minutes several times. After I paid and left the hostel, I was charged for a night that I didnt stay. I would say, be really careful with this hostel and check out your credit card statement even after your vacation. Also, I had to call numerous times to settle the charges that I didnt authorize. Personally, take my advise and just dispute the charge through your credit card, it will be easier than going through them. Another tips for travelers: I sat in the lobby for a while and I must say that they charge different prices on different day and on different group. The website said that you can get discount if you booked online but you can never book online because it is full. If you call the hostel, they will tell you that you can get discount if you book online-- but since it does not work, they will give you a rate that is whatever they charge that day. When I called for my refund money, the staff told me that this kind of stuff happened all the times (that people being charged extra on their credit card). This is a sign on SCAM. You dont always happen to charge people on their credit card. They intended to investigate whether I was lying about canceling my reservation while I was not even in NYC yet. It is ridiculous, does not worth the time, and the frustrations (after vacation even). But you want a closer place to subway, not planning to sleep, worried about your belonging (unless if you pay extra for luggage storage) and eating cereal waiting in long line, walking up the stairs with your languages or being send to a different building with your big suitcases -- since they have two buildings for the hostels -- frustrated after your vacation due to extra charge (no telling if you are traveling overseas and lazy to dispute the extra charge), this is a place for you. — June , TN (2010-10-27) Good hostel, nothing less nothing more My stay at this hostel was pretty nice. The rooms were ok, the beds were ok, and the bathrooms were ok too. But the staff can be a bit more polite, our roommates camera got stolen in the hostel and they didn't want to show them the cct. Probably one of the staff members stole it himself, so please take good care of your stuff! My flipflops (Reef's) and some of our towels got stolen too. But after all, It's a normal hostel where you can meet people easily especially in the summer i think. The breakfast sucks but it's way too early anyway. — Nienke , Netherlands (2008-06-30) Well, I at least had a good time Just came back from NYC about a week ago. Saw a lot of bad reviews about this hostel and honestly, it aint as bad as all that. I actually really liked it.
Sure, it's not perfect -- no kitchen (NYC can be expensive to eat in, but theres actually a lot of cheap eats up the street, so don't worry esp if you have the power of the pound or euro), I did wake up with spider or bug bites once when I slept in a different bed, rooms and beds can be pretty cramped and the heating can be too low or too high. But really, it's a hostel and not a hotel.
Laid back atmosphere, fun to hang out and drink in, staff were very friendly and well drink with you, meet lots of cool new folk all the time. In other words, a very sociable place which is what I look for the most in a hostel (as opposed to just facilities). Good location -- right across from central park and a couple of streets down from the subway, walk a little further up that street and plenty of fairly cheap places to eat. Crime wise the area honestly isn't too bad (even though its technically in Harlem). Maybe watch your back a little, but honestly it's not taking your life into your own hands. And of course, compared to a lot of other places in NYC this place is cheap. I recommend this place. Oh and NYC itself is the bomb. Go there. — Gavin , US (2008-03-22) I had the best week of my life Here is the real deal on Jazz On The Park -- it is the best hostel in New York.
The location is excellent, right next to Central Park (you step out the hostel, turn right, cross the street, and you're in central park). And the subway is just around the corner. You know you can get a seven-day unlimited metrocard for $24? (12 quid!) See how far £12 gets you on the London underground. The staff are the nicest, friendliest people in the world! If there is a problem with anything the guys at the front desk will move mountains for you. And all the staff take care of the guests, give them directions, new york tips, take them out, show them a good time. Every night there is something cool to do -- pub crawl, poker (I won $35!), on Sundays they have an iPod party where you can play your music. Man, when I stayed there they had a Playstation 3 behind the café bar that the guests could use. A playstation 3! They really go the extra distance for the guests -- one girl from Chicago was in tears when she left, she didn't want to go. And I saw one of the guys on the staff help a girl take her luggage across town on the subway. Considering they don't get paid (just free board) that is something else. Ok, so the rooms can feel a little cramped when they're full, and the building is a bit battered and bruised (there was something weird going on with the heating -- extreme hot and cold!) but what do you expect? It's a hostel! If you want privacy, comfortable bed, bathroom to yourself -- don't stay here, get a hotel. If you want to party, have fun, see cool stuff in new york, make loads of friends from all over the world, get laid, and have the best time of your life, stay at Jazz On The Park. It's the best. — Dean Watson , England (2007-11-22) Weak at best -- very poor. Essentially this weak hostel confirmed my decision to return home after the best two months of my life. I stayed in this hostel at the start of my trip in june 2007 and my opinion initially was it was poor but I met some great people so the condition and location didn't bother me. however when i returned in august 2007 my blinkers were removed and i saw this hostel for what it was. First of all they had overbooked and i had to stay in the basement. I was then not guaranteed a bed for the next few days even though I had clear evidence I should have a room. This brings me onto the staff. The way I see working in a hostel is that it shouldnt be treated like a job. In almost all the other hostels I stayed in the staff were so much fun. The idiots in this hostel seem to be very distant and cliquey and not really enjoying what they do. May I suggest a new career. The condition, considering the abundance of staff, possibly the reason i couldnt get a bed, was atrocious. The toilets were disgusting, the rooms were equally disgusting, and the kitchen was similar. i would recommend this hostel if you had no other choice although it isn't that cheap. — Ross Fill , England (2007-08-15) Alright place Breakfast is a bagel, a piece of fruit, and tea or coffee (free). There is no kitchen, but the cafe staff will heat up food in the microwave for you or provide boiling water. Security seemed ok. You needed to swipe a card to get into the rooms area, and then to get into your room. This place wasn't super clean, but it was ok. — Ro , Australia (2007-06-16) Jazz on the park is a drug dealing den, it's pathetic and disgusting. Chances are decent that you'll get roomed with some crackhead. If that's ok with you, bring locks for your bags and password up that charging cellphone. Yes, I've stayed there, the crackheads were lighting up in the lobby bathroom. Hey, I checked into a room to see my bed covered with altered metrocards and some crackhead looking dude going through stuff. This is a hot place if you like illegal activity and trusting your stuff to crackheads. This place should be shut down. — pw0ned (2007-01-13) My friend and I stayed at Jazz on the Park for five nights in Feb. 2004. I don't know if its changed much since we went but I do know we had a great time and would totally go back! We were both twenty-one-year-old, single females at the time and felt completely safe. The staff was awesome and the facilities were clean we had no problem feeling like we could use the showers and washrooms. We were in a room with two males we didn't know and had no problems, if you don't want to meet new people and have new experiences I don't really think you should be staying in a Hostel in the first place. The breakfast was alright -- just a bagel -- and the rooms were small and you never knew if it would be hot or cold in there but really for the price I don't know what people expect. We did get hit on a lot by the staff seeing as they were mainly male but like I said we were single, twenty-one-year-old females that's to be expected. We also felt completely safe walking around and we road the subways and walked back to the hostel at all hours. All in all it was a great experience that we both completely cherish and we got to meet amazing people from all over the world. I do suggest if you are not young probably not the place to stay. — Kerri from Canada (2007-01-10) I went on a mission to New York City in June 2006 with my church youth group, and we stayed at Jazz on the Park. Before leaving for NYC, I looked at the website my youth pastor gave us, and all the rooms looked decent. However, when we got there, I sat a table and cried, the place was so disgusting. I don't know where the pictures on their website were taken at, but they were not taken here! Our church was supposed to have the whole third floor reserved, but they messed it up. Instead, the girls were on the third floor with fifty strange men, and the guys were on the fifth floor by themselves. The rooms were half the size of my college dorm room (which is pretty small), and my sheets were filthy. Halfway through the week, we come back to our rooms to find that someone had been in our room! Towels were thrown everywhere and I had a big muddy footprint in the middle of my bed, which I had to sleep on for the rest of the week. I felt disgusting the whole week. I would rather sleep on the subway stairs than sleep in this disgusting excuse for a hostel! — April (2007-01-10) We booked a room here for three of us for four nights on the net. We (Myself, wife, and twenty-year-old daughter) arrived from Washington D.C. to find our booked room (four beds) consisted of a broom cupboard sized room with two sets of double bunks. It was so small we could not fit our luggage in the room with us! Additionally, we were to share it with a fourth person (sex unknown). We quickly decided to check straight back out again and look for a nice hotel to treat ourselves. Apart from the room, the place appears to be undergoing some repairs or renovations and their pictures are not all that representative of the place. Take note that this place has five floors and no elevators. On a positive note, it was well populated with nice people and the staff were both friendly and understanding of our disapointment. They happily refunded our money whe we left. I suggest you be careful and check it out before committing to stay here. he surrounding area left a bit to be desired as well and may be a bit suspect at night (maybe I am doing it a disservice by saying that but it was the feeling we got in daylight). — Brian (2006-08-16) I suppose I lucked out with my experience. I had just spent a night in a single room at another hostel downtown, where I had stayed in a single room (around one hundred dollars) due to a mistake when reserving a space in a four-bed room. So, after spending a night feeling very Allen Ginsberg hearing the ambience of Moloch around me (that Huge Big City sound, a hum of sorts) I walked over to the Jazz on the Park (I had called the night before and found that there were vacancies there). I thought it was great. The front staff were fairly cool, the place has a great feel to it, very friendly and young. It's three blocks from a subway stop, and the area felt perfectly safe to me. Of course, I walked by myself all around Greenwich Village and Soho one night and felt like I had been there for years. I didn't use the showers, I decided that part I could go without for two days. The beds are upholstered with a plasticky vinyl that rather sucks when the fitted sheets scoot off in the night, but this is all I remember not liking about the rooms. You can't expect luxury, but the value is great and the feel is right-on. People from all over the world stay there, and I know that is true of most hostels, but all I can say is that it felt really good, and things were clean where I expected them to be, and I left with a perfectly rosy feeling about the place. I feel sorry for others who might have stayed when things were a bit shoddier than when I was there, but I cannot recommend the place enough. Well done. — Matt from Indiana (2006-08-02) My eighteen-year-old daughter and twenty-one-year-old son and friend stayed at this Hostel in June '06. I read some of the comments after they left and was quite anxious about their safety. I was relieved to hear the negative comments are exaggerated. They stayed in the "overflow" building, I guess -- the main one was full -- they arrived in the daytime, didn't find it creepy. The staff was ok, some were nice, one was kind of off-hand. I think the Hostel has some kind of deal whereby if you stay work for them, you get a free week's stay there so some of the staff probably has minimal training. There were no bed-bugs or cockroaches (visible). The washrooms were ok. One morning the girls had to go upstairs (they were on the second floor) to another washroom because the toilet had overflowed. They planned not to shower for two days, but the showers were fine, so they did use them. The breakfast wasn't too bad. They were on a strict budget and were happy for the bagels. The coffee was lousy, but hey, this is the U.S. There was a key problem, the cards become de-magnitized or something and to re-key them, they had to walk the couple blocks to the main building -- a nuisance.
Their dorm room was crowded -- I saw the pix -- four bunk-beds quite close together. However, they met some really interesting people -- some British guys, a guy from Hong Kong and some Aussies, I believe.
They liked the location -- close to Central Park -- they walked over and saw a Shakespeare in the Park performance -- and the area did not seem too bad even at night, though they were in before midnight both nights. They haven't "hosteled" much so can't compare, but it certainly wasn't too bad. — Setting the Record Straight- from (near) Toronto, Canada (2006-06-29) I had a pleasant four-night stay here late last May. I was booked at their satellite location on 105th Street, just a block away from the main location. I stayed in an eight-person dormitory; the cheapest option (you can save $8 from your total bill by showing a student ID at check in). My room had little ventilation, and a number of flies (on the first day, at least). The wooden floor was very dusty and coming apart in places. My bunk bed was sturdy but required some special maneuvering to climb to the top bunk. Each day around noon a cleaning lady comes in to change the sheets and tidy up. Be careful with the stairs (at either location) because they are very steep and have a slight overhang. If you have long legs like me and usually skip every other step, don't, at least not when it's late or when carrying beer. There are four or five Internet terminals at the back of the cafe / lounge area at the main location. The access rate of $1 per 10 minutes is expensive. Broadband connection speed is claimed but it is more like dial-up so be prepared to keep feeding the machine dollars, or to keep your surfing time minimal. I didn't find anywhere else nearby offering Internet access but you're probably best off visiting a local library (FREE Internet). I usually don't expect hostels to include breakfast in the price so this was a nice change. Everyday it's the same small variety of food -- coffee or tea, bagel, and fresh fruit. Breakfast is served daily from 7 to 10 AM. If you get there past 10 AM be prepared to pay. I didn't interact with the staff much but they seemed friendly enough. The cafe / lounge and rooftop areas close at midnight, no exceptions -- find another bar to go to or go to Central Park to drink. I think the location of the hostel is great. I like uptown Manhattan, specifically the Upper West side, because it's quieter and more relaxed and you're still not too far away from downtown. And true to the hostel's name you are very close to Central Park (about one block east). — George (2006-06-18) Women beware! This place is dirty, disgusting and nothing like the pictures. I went there recently and was told I had to sleep in a room with other men. Then I was sexually harassed and learned that the same guy that was harassing me was sleeping in the same room as me. He is known by the staff at the reception desk and they purposely put him in the same room as me. After this was conveyed to me, I demanded my deposit back and left there in a hurry. It is smelly and the rooms are dark and grungy looking. — disgusted from Massachusetts (2006-05-12) I stayed here in June 05
The location is great, and there are a few decent pubs close by.
The hostel itself is dirty, smelly and REALLY old. But it has all the facilities you need and the common area is ok for meeting people.
The reception staff are complete idiots, but that didn't bother me. I was used to that.
The good thing is that there are pub crawls organised every now and then which is great for solo travellers to meet others.
I have stayed in some real shitholes in my time, but this was not the worst.
I would stay here again. — Dave D (2006-01-09)