Broadway Hotel & Hostel

The Broadway Hotel & Hostel is a contemporary, mid-rise hostel conveniently located on the Upper West Side (two short blocks from the One-Hundred-Third Street Station and five short blocks from the Ninety-Sixth Street Station). Central Park is within walking distance, as are a variety of top-rated (yet inexpensive) restaurants. The hostel's dark modern Asian-themed décor contributes to its low-key, uptown atmosphere.

The Broadway offers private rooms with double beds as well as traditional four-bunk hostel rooms. A substantial discount is offered for rooms booked online. At the time of this review, the only acceptable forms of payment are cash, traveler's check, or money order. The guest room pros slightly outweigh the cons. The rooms have contemporary Asian-style furniture (dressers, nightstands, bedside lamps, and bed frames) and modern paint finishes. They have crisp white linens, lots of pillows, warm blankets, and soft duvets. Each room has a radiator, a ceiling fan (but no air conditioning), and a keyed lock with deadbolt (but no chain). Private rooms have small televisions (without remotes), but the reception is terrible.

The rooms have horizontal metal blinds (some with missing links), but no draperies. And although there is plenty of drawer storage in each room, there are no closets, no shelves, no hanging hooks, no towel bars, and no toilet paper holders. There is also no lockable storage in the rooms. School-style communal wall lockers are provided on each floor (you must provide your own padlock).

The Broadway Hotel & Hostel's website is rather misleading. It is billed as a "newly renovated New York City hostel," but the owners really should disclose that they are still in the midst of a major renovation. Some floors haven't been touched at all, and although those floors may not house guests, it is impossible to ignore the sounds and smells of full-blown construction (especially when you have to walk through them to get to the upper guest floors). The website further advertises "attractive amenities" such as "Ecco natural bath products" and a "hair dryer" in every room. In reality, rooms come with two miniature bars of generic, plastic-like soap and a ceiling fan (but no hair dryer).

The Broadway Hotel & Hostel's worst sin is its deplorable plumbing. Toilets leak from the cisterns and the water pipes knock like jackhammers every time a sink is turned on. It is unclear whether or not the staff actually responds to complaints. We complained about our leaking toilet cistern and the staff member on duty listened with great compassion (and even took detailed notes). But after two days of waiting, it was never fixed (even housekeeping staff ignored the substantial puddle on the bathroom floor). While we were checking out, we overheard people complaining about the communal bathrooms on two separate floors.

The Broadway Hotel & Hostel's ground floor common rooms are so luxurious they almost make you forget all the problems upstairs. Hit movies are played simultaneously on three large flat screen televisions which seem to float on the bare brick walls. The theater-quality surround sound system makes every seat a great seat -- especially the wide soft leatherette chairs and sofas. A large, dark wood bookshelf offers a variety of books for the studious. A pool table and kitchen area (with large refrigerator, two microwaves, and café-style seating) make for a busy, but cozy common space. There are no stovetops or ovens, but there are plenty of local restaurants offering exceptionally good cheap eats. The common area vending machines offer snacks and sodas for those who don't want to venture outside.

There are eight computers available for prepaid internet access, some with USB ports and VoIP handsets. The computers are densely packed into a dark notch of the main common area. When movies are playing, the powerfully loud sound system can make VoIP conversations difficult (and also challenge your concentration). The computers can be a bit flaky (rebooting without warning), but if you notify the reception desk they will compensate you for your lost time. The common areas -- including the internet area -- don't open until 8 a.m. each morning.

The Broadway Hotel & Hostel has a single elevator, but it is small and very slow. It is faster to use the stairs, although beware that the hostel has nine floors -- and the luggage storage area is on the fourth floor.
There are pay phones mounted in the stairway of every floor, and prepaid calling cards are available for purchase from a machine in the ground floor common area.

There is a communal bathroom on every floor (with a single shower and single toilet in each room). Miniature bar soaps and liquid soap are provided. As mentioned before, the private rooms have bar soap only (no shampoo). The bath towels, hand towels, and bathmats are replaced daily by housekeeping (who also make the beds and clean the bathrooms daily).

It is hard not to like the Broadway Hotel & Hostel, despite its serious shortcomings. The staff at the hostel is genuinely friendly and always available (although their authority and responsiveness is debatable). A full-time security guard and locked luggage storage rooms (complete with numbered luggage tags) provide a tremendous sense of safety in an often unpredictable city. The common areas are simply sumptuous and worthy of praise, but they cannot completely redeem a falsely advertised hostel with bad plumbing.