If you are an artist or a lover of art, this is the hotel for you. It makes you feel like you are in 1950s Expressionist New York. It is cheap, and kind of grungy, which is what I loved about it. Caters to the starving artist. I ran up the stairs to see each floor for the artwork.

I go to the city once a month on business and used to grab a train home the same day but decided to investigate The Gershwin to see if it felt safe and clean enough to stay there. Yes, on both counts!

It's Spartan, sure, but do I really need to pay $250 a night to have a coffee maker in my room? Esp. when the Birch Cafe opens at 7 in the lobby for a cappuccino!

I feel as if I'm traveling abroad somewhere; in fact, there are many foreigners staying here. And there are very good restaurants nearby.

Gershwin Hotel is located in a nice neighbourhood with good restaurants and coffee shops just around the corner.

Staff is friendly and helpful.

We stayed in the Essential Room No 343. It contains all what is needed for a city trip and is spotlessly clean.
Bed is a bit small (1.4m) and there is also not much space in the (unheated) bathroom. The only annoyance in the room was the heating. When deactivated, the room is very could and when the heating works, the air in the room gets very hot and dry.

We would recommend the hotel to any traveler, who does not expect any extravagance and attaches importance to central location.

I arrived at noon on a Friday in mid December, so I expected the hotels in the city to be busy with X-mas shoppers and early checkin not likely. So when I could not get my room until 3 PM, I wanted to leave all my bags. However, the porter said they could not accept a laptop bag "for security reasons", but for a 5 dollar fee they could sort something out. The weird thing is that I did not hear another porter ask about latops when two girls checked in their bags two days later, so maybe not a consistent policy?

I stayed in room 340, which had rather draughty windows. The radiator in the room made it OK in there, but the bathroom had no heating. The walls are also rather thin, but I guess it is a personal preference whether very audible noises from next door are a good thing or a bad thing (good for them, though!).

The main things that lowered my rating, however, were lack of customer service. When my card got de-magnetized and I could not get into my room, the receptionist asked "Did you go shopping? Because if you did, that would explain it." as if that is a strange thing to do in NYC in December. And which other hotels in a big city have this type of card? Instead of just saying that their cards get easily de-magnitized and apologizing for the effort, he felt the need to make me feel bad for an obviously poor card solution. And even after I was very clearly informed of the 11 AM checkout time with it clearly underlined in my contract, I still had housekeeping try to get into my room, marked "Do Not Disturb", at 9AM, and then a call at 10AM to inform me about the 11 AM checkout time.

But yes, the hotel looks cool on the outside as well as in the lobby, it is right around the corner from the Flatiron building and near a subway station. For people on a tight budget, I am sure the lounge makes a difference to have a place to hang out and drink your own booze. And I went to the cafe next door several times.

A crazy workweek in Boston may not have been the best start of my weekend in NYC, but I am still left with a feeling that I can get a better deal next time I am in the Big Apple.