Hotel Shocard New York

I was charged $1800 for a room I never used, even though I tried to cancel days ahead because of a family emergency. After roughly a dozen phone calls back and forth between booking.com and the hotel, the whole thing was still unresolved to my satisfaction. The managers accepted the cancellation for one of my two rooms but charged me for the other, claiming booking.com had not contacted them about both. That doesn't make sense to me: booking.com sent both reservation numbers with the request, and confirmed them with me. I raised both rooms every time I spoke to booking.com and the hotel's guest services. If I had cancelled on the day, I could understand a charge, but this was days in advance. Offering a refund for one room while claiming the other was never mentioned felt like a lie. The manager I spoke with was unhelpful, impolite, and seemed not to care about the mix-up between the hotel and booking.com. I work in hospitality and have been a manager for 15 years. Charging a family in the middle of a holiday emergency for what I see as their mistakes and booking.com's mistakes, while treating us so unkindly, felt heartless. It's no surprise to me that the hotel has a 3.8 rating and a number of recent bad reviews. Don't expect good customer service.

We paid for our room through Booking.com, but when we arrived at the Shocard to check in on Black Friday, we were told the system was down and couldn't be used. We went away for an hour and came back, having had to cancel dinner reservations. The system was still unavailable, and they still wouldn't let us check in. It was almost 5:00pm, and we needed somewhere to shower and change before a 7:00p play, so I found other accommodation. I understand this is a small hotel rather than a large chain like Hilton, and it may not have the same customer service. Its systems also seemed unreliable. I'd recommend booking somewhere else.

The hotel's a dependable choice for a comfortable, convenient city stay. We had comfortable rooms, friendly and helpful service, and found it easy to get out and explore.

Alonzo made us feel very welcome and was genuinely friendly. The location alone makes the price worthwhile. The rooms could use a little updating, and the shower took over ten minutes to get even remotely hot.