My stay at the Moxy was a conglomeration of minor ...

My stay at the Moxy was a conglomeration of minor annoying design choices that add up to a death of a thousand cuts. The hotel follows a trend to provide smaller and smaller rooms with fewer and fewer amenities in trade for less expensive room rates and masking that with a high design feel and claiming to be modern.

The first thing you notice in the hotel room is the sink. Seems strange, but it's unavoidable since the bathroom sink is in the entrance hallway, so that the bathroom can be the just the width of the shower / toilet. Together, the entrance hallway and the bathroom are the width of the hotel room about 8.5 . The bedroom's also about 8.5 deep.

The room has no closets or drawers to put clothes in, as they are replaced with a Quaker inspired rail of pegs that runs the length of the room. There are only three hangers. A heavier coat hanger is provided but this hanger is not movable. Not all the pegs are usable, since some are used to hang the body length mirror, and to store the room s table and extra chair. More are unusable as they are over the space that the television occupies.

Additional storage is under the bed, but, of the four spaces provided, the largest is for a suitcase (move the night stand out of the way first), and the second space is the hotel room s single drawer which is occupied by the room safe. This leaves two cubbyholes, large enough each for a dress shirt.

The bed is pushed into a corner of the room, against the outside wall and its prison-like slit windows. There's less than a foot between the end of the bed and the TV, so standing there is not possible, and if you are a couple, the person sleeping next to the window must climb over their bedmate to get out. That same person is likely to roll over and be rudely awakened by the very cold, hard outside wall. The HVAC unit that sort of drowns out traffic coming through the poorly sound attenuated slit windows despite being on the fifth floor.

Other minor annoyances. No carpet, so be ready for cold floors. No iron for clothes. That's replaced by a handheld steamer, since an ironing board which takes up valuable peg space. No fridge or minibar. No privacy if you decide to take a shower (naturally, no bath in the tiny space) and your partner decides to use the toilet, as there is no shower curtain and will likely get sprayed as the shower faces the toilet. The designers were conscious of the small space because even the tiles are small to make the space seem bigger. No separate bath gel and shampoo -- that is combined into a single bottle. You also won t be able to really use the sink, which is shallower than a roasting pan, and has no stopper. No easy time using the desk, which is hung on the wall, as trying to set it up is a bit of an exercise in futility. No reading in bed if your partner turns off their light, as that is also the master light switch which turns off all the lights, rather than leaving the bedside lights individually controlled like in most hotels.

Nothing really stands up to scrutiny. The wall switches are installed haphazardly. The security peep hole in the door is installed crooked so it is always open. The art seems whimsical at first but turns out to be somewhat violent and scary with a woman bent over showing her bottom, and clouds of flatulence talking about drugs.

Check in and check out are self serve with a couple of folks there to assist. However, most seem to have trouble, and the line for help is long. The drinks in the bar are about $19 per drink after tax and tip, which seems pretty steep, especially for not top of the shelf alcohol.

Some nice things about the hotel room: Plentiful outlets, most with USB ports for device charging. The smart TV is equipped with Chromecast, and allows sign in to your favorite media streaming service.

None of the things are individually so terrible as to make a stay at the Moxy undesirable, but as a conglomeration, they add up to a feeling of hostility. If you are a hip person that values appearance over practical functionality, this is definitely the hotel for you.