Dream Downtown, New York

First off -- I'm very confused by this yahoo site for this hotel, the pictures are not of the Chelsea Inn. My boyfriend and I stayed at the Chelsea Inn for one night in August 2009. This cute little hotel has an amazing location for the price, it's close to Union Square with lots of shopping and food close by. It is definitely convenient, between Midtown and Downtown, especially for short visits when you don't want to waste lots of time getting from place to place. I had previously stayed on the Upper West side because it was cheaper, but the experience was much better this time. The Chelsea neighborhood felt very safe, even walking around at night. Totally worth the extra money. It was $117 total including tax. Our room was a double bed, semi-private bath. The bathroom was shared with only one other room, there is a little hallway with a locked door so that only the two designated rooms can use the bathroom. I never saw the other guests, actually I'm not sure if I ever saw or heard any other guests except when we were checking in. So it wasn't inconvenient at all to share. There was also a sink and mirror in our room. The room itself was fairly small, but cozy for two people (and the high ceilings made it feel bigger I think). Little fridge was a plus. It was blazing hot outside that week, and the working AC in the room was a maajor major blessing. Also, they do have wifi that worked decently but you have to specifically ask for the password at the desk. The room had more of a cozy, charming, (older) feel/look to it - don't expect things to be new and shiny, but everything was very clean. They will store your luggage for free the next day after you check out (a lot of places in the city will charge you). The free breakfast vouchers were a nice bonus, there is a little bakery on the ground floor of the building- you get a pastry, coffee/tea, and juice/fruit. No where to sit in the bakery but we sat in Union Square Park to eat. The only reason I took off points for service is that they claim to have 24 hour reception, but they seemed to be only sporadically at the desk. We had some trouble figuring out how to get in (they give you four keys and it can be confusing) and no one was there when we buzzed, luckily we were just being silly and it wasn't that hard to figure out but I was kind of annoyed that they didn't answer when we buzzed. Besides that, they were very friendly when checking in/out.