Patrick McNeely

Review of ink48 - A Kimpton Hotel

I'd like to title this "The Room from Hell". So t...

I'd like to title this "The Room from Hell". So the good, the room is light and bright in contrast to the poorly lite lobby and elevator which is designed like a dungeon. Make sure your phone is charged prior to entering the elevator because you will need your flashlight app to see the buttons. Seriously, oil rubbed bronze buttons on a dark black-brown background with less ambient light then a candle will give off. The hotel itself is located at the end of Hells Kitchen on 11th street which is a busy street with police constantly beeping their sirens. I stayed in room 1401, if you stay here and get that room invest in noise cancelling headphones. I accept some road noise visiting New York; however, the constant woop woop of the police with the occasional banging of big trucks does not create the expected atmosphere of the room given it's appearance. To add to the wonderful acoustics of this particular room, there appears to be some ductwork behind the wall by the door and if it starts raining a loud banging noise starts resonating through the room. The bathroom is decent sized for New York, except the shower. I was told by a coworker that was staying at the hotel that her shower was big.... mine was not, at about 30" squared and with a metal soap dish opposite of the shower head it makes it feel tiny. As far as the in room entertainment goes, they have a TV connected to satellite with a guide station that spent money on Mario Lopez but did not speed time to make the guide accurate, thankfully BBC was running an X-Files marathon so atleast i could rely on that. The satellite for their service must be the smallest satellite dish ever made, the day it rained the signal went out. It wasn't even a hard rain. With nothing to drown out the rapping from the ductwork I found myself retreating to the lobby. The lobby other then being dark is nice, there is a book of watches for you to look at near a piece of art that looks like a broken flat screen. I probably would have invested in longer lasting finishes for the seating, the pillows look like the beaten up sofas you see on craigslist, but they are comfortable so that is a plus. The attached restaurant called Print seem to be a bit on the high side, for the price I decided to go down town instead of risk it.
One more piece of advice, bring walking shoes of you plan on using the subway. The nearest station is 50th street which is a half mile walk away.

The one good thing about this hotel is the staff, very friendly. They earned the 2 stars for the hotel, otherwise it would have earned 0 stars.