No. 53 Inn

For a cheap price, it’s a good room. The check-in happens by phone, but it works okay. The room was clean, with hot water and good shower pressure. The bed is pretty hard, though it was okay for me. You can hear neighboring rooms through the windows, so it isn’t soundproof.

The room was clean, the fixtures were modern, and the price was good. The first floor was quiet for most of the night, but in the morning, the ka-bump ka-bump of people dragging luggage down the stairs woke my out-of-town guest and kept happening off and on until checkout. The only drawback is that there’s no elevator.

The remodeled rooms themselves are decent, but poor service and bad policies ruined the stay for me. The listing boasts “sound proof rooms,” which is hard to take seriously after the place was filled with a strong smelling insecticide and we had to open every available window. Management seemed clueless and ill equipped to handle both that and a key programming problem. The first night was quiet and the remodeled room was fine, apart from hauling luggage up to the 3rd floor with no elevator. On night #2, after a late, exhausting day, we just wanted to sleep and found that the system or staff had un-programmed our key. Normally I’d go to the front office, but there isn’t one. We had to use our costly calling plan from outside the locked room, only to learn there were no spare keys. Apparently only the maid service people had keys, and they were supposed to take 30 minutes to arrive. We waited and waited, called again, and were told the key was now in the “key box” on the 1st floor. No one had bothered to tell us. We went down and back up the 3 flights of sored stairs, and the key worked. On Day #3 we came back hoping to nap after losing sleep the night before, but the smell from pest control done earlier was strong enough to make us gag as we climbed the stairs. I doubt they use substances or quantities still legal in the US. I’ve never smelled insecticide this strong. It got worse as we climbed the 3 flights, presumably because it was a non ventilated area. The room stunk too. For most people it might just be an unpleasant odor, but I have allergic reactions and irritant effects from chemicals. If you have allergies, asthma, or respiratory issues, be VERY wary. They gave no notice or warning before filling the building with this stuff. They assured us the smell was temporary and would soon dissipate. I asked for a desk fan to put in the window and blow fresh air in, but they couldn’t provide one. We went out and stayed out as long as possible. Late that night, it still smelled strong enough to gag a horse. I blocked the air coming from the outside hall with one of the two towels, opened the windows, put the likely recirculate only ac unit on high fan, took several antihistamines, and tried to endure it. Early morning traffic noise and daylight coming in made it even harder to sleep. I called down again and asked for 3 towels to pin over the windows, hoping to block some of the light from the half that doesn’t open. They brought me 2, which was better than nothing, and I worked out how to attach them. Fed up and suffering, I’m writing this to warn people. If you’re staying only 1 night, check the room first, and if everything seems okay, your fine. For more than 1 night, beware. I k ow I’ll never risk staying here again.

The room wasn’t bad, but the service was awful. The entrance building was a bit simple and dirty, and I had to call them from there for 45min before I could check in. I called 20min before arriving to ask them to come welcome me with the room keys, but when I got there and called again, they said they wouldn’t come. They handle check-in by phone. First, I was told to push a button to open the door. I tried five times and it didn’t work. I got annoyed, then she gave me her friend on the phone, who told me there was a password. That worked. Why didn’t the idiot female friend say that in the first place? I asked them to call me back so I wouldn’t waste 15min of my phone credit on their check-in, but they never called. I had to call them again. Then they couldn’t find my booking, and I waited 45min for a room until my friend called to help. After an exhausting day, I’d just wanted a quick check-in, but these people aren’t customer friendly. There were other problems in the room: hot water was hard to get, the shower handle was broken and the tube fell several times, the towel had holes, and there was a cockroach. The photo shows the entry building where I had to call them during that 45min check-in. NEXT TIME I’ll find another address!