Comfort Inn Bellerose Queens

This “motel” is actually a shelter. When my family and I arrived, the people at the door were extremely rude, blocking us and saying it was private property. They wouldn’t even let us stand inside to call a cab. The business practices are awful, and whatever government agency placed them there should review the operation.

For four days during Rolling Loud, I got a decent last-minute rate, and the stay wasn’t terrible. The room was dated, but looked like the pictures online. The staff were okay, somewhat friendly. I never got the blanket I requested, and they said they had no spare iron. The ice machine did work, and the room stayed cold. There’s food within walking distance, with Dollar Tree, CVS, and 7/11 right across the street. You get what you pay for.

At least the receptionists were nice and quick to respond, and room service did a decent job cleaning. The rest of the stay was rough. The automatic sliding door didn’t work and had to be moved by hand. There was no fridge or microwave in the room, the ice machine only hummed without producing ice, and the AC fans spun without bringing the room to its set temperature. The toilets clogged easily, shower steam triggered an alarm, and our key cards kept resetting, so we had to go downstairs for replacements. The WiFi worked but was slow. The curtains and carpets looked drab, the walls were dirty, and the pillows were lumpy, though that’s common in hotels. There’s no free breakfast or gym, which they said was due to Covid. The walls may be thin, because I could hear every smack and moan from the room two doors down. I’d give the hotel zero stars if not for the friendly front desk and decent cleaning.

We booked online for three people while taking our daughter to college, assuming a queen room meant two beds. Apparently not. There was only one bed, and they said just two rooms in the whole hotel had two beds. They wouldn’t refund our money, so the three of us squeezed onto the queen. We thought about having someone sleep on the floor, but reviews mentioned cockroaches there, so we stayed on the bed. The room was relatively clean, but there were no amenities like a microwave or mini-fridge. Breakfast was very basic, just sausage and an omelet with Cheese Whiz in the middle, served every day of our four-day stay. The front desk staff were friendly and tried to help. We asked for extra pillows and a blanket; first they said they’d bring them up, then later said the hotel had none left. Parking was scarce. On the plus side, there’s a bus outside that goes to the main Subway terminal, a grocery store across the road, a nearby 7-Eleven, and nice restaurants around.