Motto by Hilton New York City Times Square

Overall, I had a good experience here. I usually stay at another NYC Hilton family hotel, but the prices were out of reach. As it was, I’d argue, I paid too much here also, but I guess the time of year had a lot to do with it. Positive note, I arrived to the hotel at noontime and my room was ready. No early check-in fee (very much appreciated). The front desk agent was very nice, also. The room was as advertised! Tiny! Being a solo traveler with one small bag, it worked. The room was spotless and modern! One of my favorite parts of the hotel is that you are assigned an elevator based upon room location and what the other elevators are doing. No waiting forever just to stop at every floor and have a crowded elevator! This was awesome. The $30 a day resort fee was bogus. Essentially, I paid for two cans of water a day. I didn’t use the other amenities. With that said, I did like the more environmentally friendly packaging of the water. One of the downfalls was that I was charged a couple hundred dollars in the days leading up to my stay and then more towards checkout. The two amounts exceeded my bill. When I inquired about the charges before leaving, the agent finally told me after a few minutes that the charges will adjust in a few days. This could have been said earlier and saved me a hassle. The other downfall, is I was looking at rates in the city on the app. I had until 11:59 pm to cancel this reservation. When looking at the app around 8 pm, it said I couldn’t cancel as the deadline had passed and I’d have to call the hotel. Luckily, I didn’t find a lower rate here or elsewhere, and it really is an app issue more than anything, but it’s not a good look. In general, I would definitely stay here again.

You get what you pay for. I needed a basic/functional place to stay the night, and the rate was very low (as is usual on Sundays in NYC) so I figured to give the Motto a try. Hilton Gold but first time in a Motto. Can't speak for the whole brand, but, this one sucks. I arrived to the hotel lugging a TON of stuff – 5 bags, 1 person – there's a "doorman" of sorts standing by the front door, but he just watched me struggle, did not even hold the door open. They have luggage carts outside the hotel so this is obviously very DIY which is fine but the carts are low quality with ornery wheels and it was impossible to steer, even going just a short distance inside the relatively small property. The outside doors are also not handicapped accessible, there is no handicapped auto-open button which is also incredibly useful when pushing around a large cart of 5 bags. I don't understand why they don't have this because the building is new construction. It looks like they cheaped out so bad on ADA they placed a doorbell on the far left side door and that's that. Awful. Like how expensive is it to have a motorized door FFS. So I get checked in...I was not assigned any room at all, despite being Gold, because they tried to run my credit card in the daytime before I arrived and it was an old number on the rez. So, I got a basic room on a lower floor. Fine, but, the room's AC was vibrating and making a huge ruckus. I called, engineer came, he got it to stop rattling when he held his hand on some part....and it rattled again the instant he let go. They moved me down to the same room on a lower floor, which I thought was better because the AC wasn't making any terrible noises, but now I realize - the AC also doesn't work. At all. It is boiling hot in this room at 11:17pm. I've had the thing set on 66 for hours and I don't know how we're going to get to sleep, and with all our stuff spread out everywhere and already in pajamas, this is all seeming like a lost cause. FYI - the room pictures are not exactly accurate. Look very carefully through the deck of "Queen" room photos on the Hilton site. The first pics show a bed that is running perpendicular to the window, meaning you can see out the windows from bed, and there is a little desk surface against the wall under the TV, opposite the bed. But my room is not configured that way - instead, the bed is facing the front door, your back is to the window if you are in bed, there is no desk area, instead there's a tiny nightstand platform on the side of the bed, and that's the only option for setting your laptop someplace. They do show this kind of layout LATER in the Queen room slideshow. like the 4th pic. Very misleading. This difference in queen layouts is a significant difference in comfort and usability. I complained a few times to the front desk person about these details and she was pretty neutral about it all. Her vibe/body language was not "sorry about that" it was more like "what do you expect, this place is what it is." She's not wrong exactly? (Particularly irritating was when I had the front desk woman on the phone and I'm trying to convey a message to her from the engineer - I'm asking the engineer, "are you going to be able to fix this or not?" - and the front desk person lost patience and announced that she was going to hang up. After I got an answer from him like 5 seconds later, of course I called again, and she left me on hold dealing with other things first. Sigh.) There's a $30 resort fee which is ludicrous but whatever. Water and cream wafers and $10 off the restaurant. You can also get a gym pass for Crunch which they do not just hand out freely - you have to sit there while they pull out a notebook and manually log your confirmation number and make you sign for it. WTAF. Are we in prison? But knowing what this is - I will not stay again. If you find a dirt cheap rate - like under 150 - and it's one night in town - ok fine. More than that, go elsewhere. Not comfortable. The whole thing is kind of an indignity if you are grown adult who travels often.

Location is prime. The staff is friendly, but busy, resulting in some queuing during check in and out. Rooms are tiny but clean and nice. The monster in the room is the air conditioner. It is super noisy, and cannot be turned off. And it is super dirty too... The Hotel actually provides you with to set of ear plugs... Restaurant is OK, but service is a bit slow and unstructured.

We had an incredible experience in this hotel. We are especially thankful with the excellent service of Joel R. He was very kind and welcoming. We really appreciate his friendliness and professionalism. The hotel was very clean and comfortable. Thank you again Joel R! :)