YourStay Apartments Central Park

1 reader found this review helpful

Awful - don't stay here.
We arrived to the sound of people complaining about their rooms, never a great sign.
I had read the reviews, which were 50/50, thought as it was cheap with a good location, and we tried it, thankfully only for 2 nights of our holiday.
We spent a week in New York - great city, first 2 nights here. This place looks great (from the outside and the lobby area is okay), the location is good just off Broadway, BUT, and it's a big BUT.
The apartments are dingy, the beds are awful, small and you get that roll-together like I've never experienced anything quite like it, the mattress almost folds in on you. Feather duvets with no duvet cover, yuk, pillows just horrible. Tiles missing from the walls in the bathroom. Inadequate (greying) towels, no bath mat, for either in the bath or to stand on when you get out the shower. You would not take a bath in this place. Locks on the main door were broken.
No air conditioning and it was hot and stuffy in those small boxes they pass for apartments. The street it's on is busy, day and night, it's narrow and is often packed with cars - you know how the New Yorkers like to honk those horns - and vocalise to each other when they are annoyed - well with no air conditioning you need to open those windows, it's like trying to sleep in the street, and almost as clean. We were exhausted from sleep deprivation when we left this place.
The church next door seems to operate a soup kitchen, good if you are a down and out (it might feel like that), not so great if you don't like running a gauntlet of people queuing for food as you enter and exit the hotel at certain times.
Funny smell, stains on the furniture and rugs, - yes, this place really does have it all, and not in a good way. This really is a dump, I can not see how anyone could rate this even as okay. If you are just looking for somewhere clean to sleep with no frills this is NOT it, it's not clean and you won't sleep.
On the plus side the location is great, we spent 2 nights round the corner on Broadway, The Beacon Hotel (next to the theatre), bit more money - no palace, but well worth it.
We had 4 days in New York city and 4 days in The Hampton's with friends - recommend doing this, even for a night, breaks the noise of the city and makes the holiday seem longer, take The Jitney - luxury bus - takes about 2 hours from the Upper East Side (on Lexington), see .http://www.hamptonjitney.com/cgi-bin/nav.cgi?page=home.html for information and to book.
Everything is cheap at the moment because the dollar is so weak.
The New Yorkers will tell you "the lower the number, the cheaper the prices," so shop in Canal St, Soho or streets below 32nd for the really cheap stuff - I didn't do this, still saved LOADS of money.
Food is cheap and good, best Chinese food I've ever had, try Ollies Noodle Bar and Grill or Ruby Foos for the BEST sushi and wanton - both have several restaurants along Broadway, we went to Ollies near Times Square and Ruby's on the Upper East, near the Beacon Hotel. Fantastic Italian called Tuscan Square, just off 5th avenue, not too far from Times Square. As you would expect in America, service is great everywhere - except this apartment block.