Welcomed at the door by friendly member of staff as we arrived in our minibus - took our bags inside as we argued with the driver over proof of payment! Quick and friendly service at reception and escorted to our room. Room was "compact and bijou"

Not only was the hotel beautiful and very clean, but the staff was extremely serviceable. It didn't feel like NY. The room sizes are understandable as the building is very old. The elevators were small, but again you can only do so much with an oler building. I would stay at the Mela again in a heartbeat. The location was excellent. The decor was beautiful. The bed was very comfortable.

My husband (a frequent business traveler) and I arrived for a 4 night stay. Our first impression of the hotel was favorable, we found the décor pleasing. The lobby staff was friendly in a minimalist sort of way. On one occasion my husband was having trouble with email. Their staff responded quickly and they were able to resolve the problem.

We were really taken aback by the small elevators. Although I’m a friendly person, I don’t enjoy squeezing up against a perfect stranger in an elevator. On several occasions on a ride down to the lobby, the elevator stopped at other floors and other guests could not get on because four of us had taken up all the space. The narrow hallways surprised me as well. One thing I found to be unpleasant is that the housekeeping linen cart was left on the floor (just outside our room) overnight, creating an eyesore. The halls were small enough without the cart blocking passage.

The biggest surprise was the tiny room and bathroom. Although I liked the colors (earth tones and furniture style (sleek, modern), the room offered very little storage for clothing and the bathroom offered even less storage for toiletries. I took the online tour of the room and booked our reservations based on what I had seen. It appeared to be larger than it actually was.

A luggage rack would have been nice so that I didn’t have to crouch down to access my clothing from the suitcase (because there wasn’t enough space for both my husband’s and my clothing in the armoire. A full-size ironing board wouldn’t have taken up that much more room in the armoire, ironing was very awkward given the mini ironing board and the lack of surface space on which to place it.

Now we come to the bathroom. It was pleasant looking but not very practical. A counter could have been continued from the sink to extend over the toilet for storage of personal items. An additional storage rack could have been placed in a corner of the (doorless) shower stall to hold personal toiletries (again I had to place things on the floor of the shower and crouch to retrieve them, probably good exercise for someone my age, but not for those who are older and less flexible). The water pressure from the shower head was disappointing.

On Wednesday morning my husband had to be at a meeting in New Jersey. An hour before he had to leave, he went to take a shower, there was no hot water. He called down to enquire and was told there was a problem but the staff did not know how soon it would be repaired. Cold showers do not make happy guests! I delayed my day’s activities hoping to have hot water for my shower. No one called to advise of the repair. Our experience has been that if something like this happens to guests, they are discounted the cost of one night’s stay for the inconvenience. This was not the case. We were not offered a discount on our bill until my husband called down and requested one and even then, had to haggle.

There is no security bolt on the room door which I find disconcerting. On leaving the room I had to pull the door hard (slamming it) in order to close it. The bathroom door also didn’t close quietly which makes getting up in the middle of the night awkward when you don’t want to disturb your partner.

Finally, the lack of room service topped our less than happy experience. They offer only evening room service, prepared by the restaurant next door. Breakfast room service is key to business travelers. I got up early every morning and ran out to find a decent café that offered a take-out breakfast. Morning room service would have made us so much happier.

Although the room rates were cheaper than some hotels at which I’d enquired, their accommodations and services did not compare favorably. The hotel is newly opened and has been renovated from an old office/residential building. Being new, it has lots of details to work out, but we were not favorably impressed.