Element New York Times Square West

Very nice, comfortable place.

Liked: Clean.
Disliked: Elevators.

Great location for the price will stay here again on our next visit. Room was clean and staff was very helpful.

Liked: Bed was very comfortable.
Disliked: None.

Liked: Staff very helpful and polite. Will stay again next visit to NYC.

Good

Exceptional

Best location and great breakfast

Liked: The location is in the heart of Time Square. Breakfast is superb with excellent service from John E (Filipino). They also have a laundry room and gym. Complimentary water lemon is available in the lobby.
Disliked: One of the elevators is under maintenance. You have to wait for the long queue most especially if you have luggage with you.

Great stay at Element.

Liked: Compact, clean, ideally located, good facilities, nice breakfast and evening snacks.
Disliked: At this time, one lift is not available, so more often than not, the middle floor occupants are forced to take stairs to go down, particularly at peak hours.

probably will not stay at...

Liked: room reasonable, location excellent
Disliked: staff could be more supportive. long wait for elevator, no phone in room, no phone on the floor for emergency. I hope the management is aware that you put your guests in Danger not having phones for emergency situations

Barely value for money

Liked: Room: Clean enough (cleaned every other day, as promised). The beds were comfortable, although somewhat narrow for doubles. There is a fridge/freezer, (filter) coffee maker, a safe, and a closet. The view from the room was nice, in the sense that, in any New York building, above 30th floor you have open views.Breakfast: just adequate at best, in terms of quality and options. Eggs, sausages etc were freshly baked, any type of bread was from storage bags.Location: very close to Times Square, so in a super busy and touristic area. The sidewalks around the area are mostly crowded 10 AM to midnight.The hotel has a very nice rooftop, but no one visits it (you can see photos of it being empty in the attachments) because it is very difficult, both to reach it and to get back (read on, about the elevator).
Disliked: Elevator: Get ready for the most ridiculous experience of your life. There are over 40 floors in this hotel to be served by three elevators (with a capacity of 12 each). Let's ignore the fact that they decided to perform "modernization" on one of them during the simultaneous Catholic and Orthodox Easter Holiday. The hotel is so utterly packed with people that you might have to wait over 10-15 minutes on the floor to get a ride (happened to us well more than once). For extra fun, there is an elevator operator during (supposedly) peak hours (which, according to the hotel, are in the morning, but you can get stuck there anytime). So, this person has access to a button that turns the elevator to IS (independent service) so that it doesn't respond to button calls (obviously used when it's full)! Because the elevator was very often full, people would press both directions and enter regardless of where the elevator was going (rightly so, to make sure they'll get in!). Just imagine being for 10 minutes on floor 30 and frantically pushing a button that repeatedly goes off while the elevator passes your floor without stopping. This is a mess, and I am sure there are ways around it: if not technical, then by booking fewer rooms.Breakfast: carton plates, plastic cutlery, only filter coffee in cups, in a room where at the same time 80-100 people are moving about and having breakfast. There were free bottles of water (not cold) available. When they were out, you had to drink water with lemon. There was a guy with a large open garbage bin walking between the tables (yes, while you were having breakfast) to collect garbage from the tables that had finished.Room: the furniture and facilities are overused and "tired"Staff: very basic service and even fewer smiles. They don't seem to understand that you are on vacation. Many of them (excluding reception staff) had difficulty speaking English properly.

pleasant overall

Liked: check in check out breakfast happy hour clean rooms
Disliked: elevator under maintenance led to some extended waits

Exceptional

Liked: The breakfast roomk staff, John E., is very helpful. He packed our breakfast very early in the morning, as we have to reach airport as early as 630am!!Really appreciate. Thank you, John.

Absolutely never again

Liked: Absolutely awful experience at what’s supposed to be a 4-star hotel—in reality, it doesn’t deserve even 1 star.The elevator was out of service for the entire stay, which meant constant delays and inconvenience, especially when carrying luggage or going to and from the laundry. Speaking of laundry—what a nightmare. It took almost a week for the machines to even work. When I asked the receptionist how to use them, they failed to mention I’d need a special coin (cash only, of course—no card accepted). After going up and down to get cash (thanks again to the broken elevator), I finally got the coin, only for the machine to take my money and not work at all. No help was offered, and I wasted a ridiculous amount of time for absolutely nothing.The staff were extremely rude and dismissive throughout the stay. There was no hospitality, no professionalism, and definitely no customer service. My room wasn’t cleaned properly—trash wasn’t emptied, the bed wasn’t made, and basic amenities weren’t refreshed. To top it all off, there was a constant noise of running water in the room at night that made it impossible to sleep.This stay was completely unacceptable, and I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. I’ve requested a partial refund because the level of service was simply disgraceful. Avoid this hotel if you value your time, sleep, and sanity.
Disliked: Location