West Side YMCA

It was rough af, but memorable and I feel like the most genuine New York experience one could ask for. The YMCA director gave me a chance with my Expired Driver’s License that air BnB wouldn’t give me and for that I will remain eternally grateful. Here’s my experience: I was on the 9th floor, room 945, which was more vintage than the 10th floor. Point 1: accommodations Here's what came with my room: a bed with bed frame and mattress, soft sheets and warm blanket. a pillow made of plastic. a personal window AC unit a personal tv connected to local access or maybe an old style cable plan. quite staticy. nostalgic. a closet with room bank but idk how to use it a chest of drawers a lamp with charging docks for phones a chair (with loud feet) a small trash can a window an overhead light there was a poster on the wall from maybe the 70s or 80s listing the cost to rent the room at about half what it goes for on various booking sites. but at no point did this room feel like a hotel. it felt like a rec center or school first and primarily. it felt like taking a nap in a classroom in highschool. there were around 70 rooms per floor. i was pleased to see there were guests on my floor who were ladies and not just men. even families traveling together, speaking languages I had never heard before. Point 2: cleanliness I was mentally prepared for a public shower. I'm overweight and had to get dressed outside of the shower stall, which had nowhere to put my foot up. the communal bathroom was muddy and full of paper wads on the floor by saturday morning. I wasn't too bothered, having prepared a set of water socks / slippers for the bathroom. I wondered why no one had mopped since I got in on friday, but these conditions were no worse than the bathrooms at camp sites or the showers at public pools. One sink dribbled and wouldn’t turn off, another sprayed too hard and turned itself off after like 4 minutes of running. The splashing probably contributed to the muddiness on the floor. There was nowhere to use as a shelf for clothing, so you had to just bring a bag to hold your towel and fresh clothes, ect. but we're coming back around to the 90s references: remember in pokemon red version where the sea captain throws up in the trash can? Someone had barfed. Not in the trash, not on the floor, not in the toilet as any civilized adult knows to do: but in the sink, causing it to clog. They added water on top to complete the image. next morning, I reported the vomit sink problem to the guest desk and the man in charge was surprised. Not because someone chose to use the sink as a toilet, but because the issue had already been reported at 1am the previous night, and now 10 hours had passed with no resolution. Apparently, there is no female handyman who can fix a clog and men are never ever allowed in the women’s bathrooms? Point 3: other stuff The women’s restroom had a key pad on it. But most women found it as more of an inconvenience than a safety precaution. My room at 945 didn’t shut all the way unless you pulled it closed, as well. After 3 hotels the previous week, where the doors were heavy and shut themselves, this was a learning curve. the thing that kept waking me up the most was hearing people scoot their chairs around. I had to use my ear plugs all night every night i was there. But other than the vomit left to soak in the sink for 10 hours, the place was no dirtier than my parents house where I live. The walls were also no thicker than my walls at home. I was disrupted from my sleep no more often than I am disrupted at home. My bed was no softer than what i have at home. Point 4 food: not even a microwave. just unfilled vending machines. I guess the building is super old and the owners presume anyone staying there is going to go out to Manhattan and have the best day of their life the next day and forget all about how spartan the YMCA was. And I guess they’re right. Thanks, West Side YMCA!

Perfect location. The rooms are clean, enough towels are provided. From an environmental viewpoint it is weird to have the heating on and the windows don't fully shut, in the next renovation cycle you may add that to the list.

Many many people in One floor to use a bathroom only with three toilets but one blocked, three showers one is blocked another one no hot water, only one shower is available for using…

My room is not cleaned when I finished my check out, and I have to clean it by myself.

So so place to stay… but if your looking for a cheap and over night stay this is the place to be

Were it not for the access to the pool, sauna and steam room, I would say the rates are high given the size of t he room and other amenities, but having access to t hose facilities made it worthwhile. Would have been good to have had access to a computer without having to pay $10. I have no problem with the communal bathrooms and found all facilities to be very clean and felt secure in this setting.

All was neat and clean. Service persons were friendly and knowledgeable. It was, overall, great value and I was satisfied.

Pretty good for the price, great location, special thanks yo the lady in reception for going out of her way to help me.

Was not expecting much for the bathroom and showers but hope there was a locker so we can put our card and not care about them while showering.