West End Studios

West End Studios is not quite what you may expect from looking at their website. The exterior and lobby are as shown, but watch out when you get past the lobby. That's when all the glamour ends.

The elevator was out of order, but when we came back three weeks later on the way back to Europe, it was back in service. In the rooms, the paint is obviously out of the leftovers bucket -- everything from lime green to dark gray.

The standard room is a double bed with a lumpy, soft mattress. The sheets are clean and not as worn out as the blankets. The pillows are a bit thin and a bit lumpy as well. Other rooms have bunk beds in them or on occasion, you might get a big room with two double beds and a bunk bed if it's available. The electricity in the rooms might be working, if you get the right room.

If it's working, the television is hooked up to the antenna on the roof via a cable that comes in through the window it doesn't get very good reception. In the first room we had, the cable to the TV was broken and half the electric plugs in the room did not work. We asked the front desk to have this fixed and went out for the day and came back to find nothing had been fixed.

The air conditioning unit is something out of the '80s and is very noisy. We got lucky and got another room, since they were not sold out during the time we were there. Rooms are cleaned daily and new towels and soap are on the beds every day. The hallways are narrow but kept clean. There is some wiring hanging out of boxes on some floors, but that is above your head.

There are two community bathrooms per floor per side of the building. They are not cleaned twice a day, as the housekeeping staff goes home in the afternoon. There is no mold, just old caulking. Use the showers at your own risk -- they have rapidly varying water temperature on some floors. Also you may get the privilege of seeing someone else's clump of hair on the floor of the shower. You also may find at least one bathroom out of service on your floor, as something may have gone wrong in there.

On our return trip, we found the first room to be way to small for four suitcases and hand baggage. So we asked for another and got a bigger room (the one described above). The second room had a bit of a problem with the lock on the door, but we managed to get it locked while we went out for the night. The light in room didn't work all that well either. The next morning when we were checking out the maintenance man came by and fixed the lock.

There are two pay phones on the ground floor near the lobby. There are storage lockers in the basement, but they are costly. There is a basement laundry and a lounge of sorts by the storage lockers. When it is working, the elevator is big enough to take four or five people with no luggage or two backpackers with packs. The desk does not accept credit cards, and only accepts cash for payment for the room. You have to have some sort of ID that says you are not from the area.

On the plus side, you are very close to the subway and numerous food and other shops on Broadway. A Bank of America ATM is located on Broadway as well, or you can use the one in the hostel on the ground floor. Be sure to check that your booking includes tax, as one of ours didn't, and it added a little bit of a surprise to our budget. You get what you pay for at this place, but it does need a lot of help to become more than a expensive, low-end flop house.

-- Avis exclusif de Hostelz.com