Hotel 50 Bowery NYC

We stayed here for seven nights 12/18-12/24/24. The good : in the middle of a lot going on, including some great dimsum restaurants. The staff is very nice, and the hotel is clean, moody, and comfortable with larger than normal rooms for NYC. The subway stations are about a 5 minute walk, so it is very convenient to go anywhere you wish. The daily access to complimentary newspapers, hot chocolate, coffee, etc. was WONDERFUL because we always sleep past breakfast. The water is given freely when you ask, and you can refill it yourself (NYC tap water is great). The decor is great: love the white sheets, the wall art, and the stone in the shower. The closet was nice but needs drawers. Toilet worked well, water pressure was fine in our shower, bed comfortable, minifridge is empty SO you can fil it with your leftovers and use the microwave on the 2nd floor at any hour - all great! We are Hyatt Explorist level, but were gifted a GOH certificate for our stay, giving us zero destination fees (saved us about $250 total), free daily breakfast (2 options: delivery from the restaurant next door or a continental buffet), free parking (we didn't need), and a suite upgrade, if available. The bad : I inquired about the suite upgrade and requested a city view via email before checking in and they proactively said there were no suites to put us in, but they "upgraded US" to a Manhattan Bridge View. I reminded them we did not want a view of the bridge, but we preferred a view of the city. I checked, and there was that upgrade available, which would have cost ~$30/nt more. It was a bit frustrating they didn't offer that to us after my first email and that I had to figure out if it was available (by trying to make a second reservation online) and then had to ask for it again. If we are on a Globalist level (via the award), why make us jump through extra hoops? That put a bad taste in my mouth before we arrived. When we checked in on the 18th, the front desk person gave us a room on the 17th floor with a city view, but the room smelled very strongly of smoke and mildew, so we immediately returned to get a new room we could breath in. She said they had one "with an even better view" on the 9th floor..Room 926. She thought this was better because it is a straight on view versus the room on the 17th floor, which was smaller and kind of cramped into a corner (see pics). Again, why try to give us a less desirable room when you are supposed to be treating us like a Globalist? Strange business practice. We stayed in Room 926. There are so many opportunities to take this from a 4 star room to a 5 star room.... There is literally nowhere to put your stuff. There is ONE small drawer above the minifridge that fit my underwear, socks, and bras. My husband had to keep everything in his suitcase. Each nightstand has the smallest two drawers I have ever seen in my life... fit some cords, my daily pills and cough drops in them (no clothes would fit at all). There is ONE hook in the bathroom, but there are two of us, so one person has to have their towel stay wet under the other..why not add another hook for $3?!? The bathroom vanity has zero drawers or storage space for your stuff. It's so frustrating as a girl. Why not add a shelf or two so two people can have their toiletries accessible? A week living out of my toiletry bag wasn't ideal. Same for in the shower... the "shelf" barely fits the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash bottles they provide, but zero room for anything you bring...hy not add another shelf or two so we don't have to put our stuff on the floor where strangers dirty feet were??I chose to take my stuff in and out of the shower stall because refuse to put my stuff on the gross floor. There was a lot of black mold on the stone walls, so I'm sure there was a lot more on the ground. They need to do better at scrubbing the tiles so there is no mold. Big TV, but very strange it is not a smart TV, so you can't log into your own Netflix or anything. The lighting is really bad for trying to do makeup. The mirror that is near the windows is a decorative mirror, not a functional one. The mirror that is functional is too far away from a light source to see well enough to do makeup. The bathroom mirror somewhat works, but it is still not ideal. Swap out the decorative mirror with a functional one near the windows, and there would be no issue. Overall, the stay was good for a weekend. It was not functional or comfy enough for a seven night stay in winter where you have a lot of stuff to unpack, though. Read less