HOPE Forums

I stayed there once (at Hope Number Six) and it was fine.  The carpet and furniture was old, the room was a little small and the bathroom plumbing was from the 1930's, but everything worked fine and the price was great.  By US standards this place is a little on the worn side, however it is very comparable to the hotels you will find in any European capital.  And for the conference, you can't beat the location.

I've stayed at the Hotel Pennsylvania 2x now (and I'll be staying there again this year) and I have to agree with the above posters. They put it better than I could. It's a clean, private, a bit small, a bit old, reasonably comfortable place to stay, but it's not the Hilton. If all you care about is a decent place to put your stuff, crash when you're tired, and take a shower once a day, it's just fine. (I've stayed in far worse.)

lilbowser wrote:

I have been reading some rather bad reviews of the Hotel Penn, and I was wondering if its really as bad as a lot of the review say it is?

Some of them are just due to people only bothering to post online if they have something negative, but the hotel has also improved quite a bit from its low point. They've redone carpet, furniture, paint, etc in a large portion of the rooms fixing one of the major complaints in the process. The other thing they got bad press for was bed bugs, but it appears they got the hint and went extermination crazy after that.

Openfly is a grump.

Here's a tip: get there early, check in as soon as you can, and if you don't like your room go back and ask for one that has a view of 7th Avenue.

telemonster wrote:

The rooms are dumpy, but the common area downstairs is nice. The ex-sports authority space is totally cool. It's very expensive for a shower and a bed to crash in (you spend very very little time in the room I hope). The people are so-so... They sort of screwed up and wrote me a key for a room that was occupied and I walked in on someone. That was kind of freaky.

Working at a hotel myself, it gets pretty busy sometimes - if you are working with multiple people and they forget to block the room off in the system, it really fucks up some shit. I have done the same thing before at like 3AM in the morning, I quickly realised it and booted full speed to the room - I caught the person just as they where about to swipe the card and scared the shit out of them. HAH, i couldn't even speak to them when I got there I was so winded.

Anyway, my point being..in a busy establishment that is bound to happen. However, I agree its a pretty expensive stay for a shower and bed.

@lexicon

Exactly..  I wish I didn't wait so I could take advantage of the sweet rate at the Penn.  Plus I could do more outfit changes!

bernieS wrote:

i also had the pleasure of being issued a keycard at [six] to an occupied room on the 6th floor.  when i opened the door and dragged my bags in, i noticed two young women writhing under the covers of the bed.  they poked their heads out and were as surprised as i was.  i apologized and backed out, and got a new room keycard (this was mentioned on Off The Hook 2 years ago.)

and yes, i got teased a lot for not trying to crash the party...

-bernieS

I think we can all take the implicit lesson here... have a camera going while you first open your door.

We stayed in a suite during Hope 6. It wasn't that bad. If you take into account that 1. the hotel is really quite old and 2. that everything in NYC that isn't brand new is covered in a thin film of dust and grime and 3. That everything in NYC that is brand new is covered in a slightly thinner film of dust and grime.

Seriously. It's hard to find many places in NYC with a clean bathroom. Also, the hotel rooms at the Hotel Penn put many NYC apartments to shame not only in terms of square footage, but also in terms of upkeep. There are also more prestigious hotels that are way the dirtier and cost like four times as much. There are quite a few places where you could easily spend more than $500 a night.

The Hotel Penn may be a dump, but if so, it's a really really nice dump.

I agree that: 1) it beats walking or having to take a cab to your actual hotel, 2) for the time that I am actually IN the room it is fine (I am, after all, paying to attend the conference which is not being held in my room , 3) as to the comment about the plumbing being from the 1930's, as long as the bathroom is reasonably clean (which it has always been) and the water in the shower is forceful enough and warm enough to take a shower, I'm fine with that.

My only complaint is that the bed could have been softer.  But, again, for the amount of time each day I spend in the room (roughly 4 hrs, max), it's ok.  Having attended the conference this year with my wife, she of course had a couple more complaints.  But I expected that...heheh.

3LAN wrote:

Are they taking reservations yet for the 2010  HOPE?

Not sure. They should be aware that HOPE will be happening. I would call and ask. Then post back I have to make reservations too.

Ya normally the hotel offers a discount rate for those attending HOPE.

I just called Hotel Penn and there's no conference rate set up yet.