The Lotus Hotel

If you get the room on the top floor you have access to a patio on the roof!
Hands down the best option for an affordable hotel in NYC, AND (hold your breath ladies and gents…) It DOESN’T look like a run down motel where Norman Bates might come after you in a shower that’s filthy and barely running.
Despite its superior location and cheap pricing, they keep their rooms CLEAN, modern and decent sized for NYC. One drawback is that I don’t think they have room service but it doesn’t matter cause YOU’RE IN NYC, why are you sitting inside your hotel room eating?
The bathroom is shared (I’m not sure if all rooms share the bathroom), but it has a bathtub/​shower with very impressive water pressure ;) and it’s big enough that you can comfortably lounge and don’t have to take a cramped shower in a 3’x3’ stall.
The selfish part of me wants to keep this a hidden gem. A secret place that only a few select people know of… but it’s too good to not tell others about. I just hope they don’t get too popular and raise prices/​drop in quality :(
Hope to stay here again soon!

I always stay at different hotels in NYC when I come for business… but that’s because I haven’t found one that I genuinely like for a decent price. It was cheaper to book through the hotel website than through Priceline, by the way.
It was definitely an interesting concept of a hotel/​apartment. The key gets you into the room and into your bedroom. The bathroom, kitchen, dining area, and loft are common areas. I roomed with a group of European girls on vacation so it wasn’t all half bad! Seriously though, it was pretty cool to hang out with a bunch of strangers.
The staff was friendly as can be and extremely helpful. The location was great and it’s only a few steps away from the Empire State Building, great shopping, and a 10 – 15 min walk to Times Square. Having my room facing 5^th Ave was a little loud, but it honestly wasn’t bad. Plus when you have the window A/​C units on, you can’t really hear anything. My only knock on this place is the normal check-​in is at 4pm. The guy at the front desk said I could probably check in around 2 but I ended up getting back around 5 bc I was just wandering the city after my meeting.
I actually debated giving this hotel such a good rating bc I want it to remain my little secret!

It’s an interesting idea: a small apartment building turned into a boutique hotel. Your key lets you into the suite (former apartment) and then into your room. The bathroom and (full) kitchen are shared, in my case with only another room. Both the common spaces and the room were very clean. After a previous hellish stay in a very loud Manhattan «hotel,» I was relieved to find out that the Lotus was very quiet, and I slept like a baby. The room was comfortable, with air conditioner and a flat-​screen TV.
The hotel also offers a complimentary breakfast, which is a very nice touch (I wish more American hotels did that). I only have two suggestions for management: offer wi-​fi (you can make extra money charging your guests for its use) and spend a couple extra bucks to offer real coffee with breakfast, instead of instant.
All in all, I’d highly recommend this to anyone looking for a clean, safe, quiet and economical place to stay in Manhattan. I’ll be back.

A reasonably priced hotel that is clean, safe and has a staff who attends to the details.
Shared bath was clean and included a bathroom scale. Pleasently surprisedd to find a keyed access shared dining area, well equiped with stove, microwave, and fridge. This area is surrounded by 3 secondary keyed rooms so you’d be sharing this space with 2 sets of strangers.. Phenomenal suite if traveling with large group. Adventerous but acceptable if traveling alone. Full sized ironing board and iron available in common room. Safe for your valuables in bedroom at a addition fee. Small flat screen TV and alarm clock by bed.
Breakfast by entrance is basic but decent. Yogurt, bagels, fruit, and OJ. Only complaint was the coffee was instant. Area clean and well stocked. Had area for 2 station Internet access with printer in good working order but requires a credit card for use.
Really like the fact the staff seemed to be engaged and care about doing their job well. (Still has New Yorkers aloofness but they clearly strove to do their best.) They screened people entering the building and clearly worked at keeping the place clean. Guests included many European travelers who don’t seem to have the hang ups of shared facilities of my own American friends. An outstanding choice for the budget minded traveler.

For the price, this hotel is fine. I felt secure, the front desk only lets guests in, and the corridor where you share the bathroom is locked. The bathroom is shared by 3 rooms which hold between 1 — 3 guests. I didn’t have to wait any more than 10 minutes in the AM for the bathroom. If you get a room in the front of the building it might be noisy (street noise) especially if it’s during the summer. I would bring ear plugs. Also bring flip flops for the bathroom. There is a kitchenette in each «pod» of rooms (frig, hot plate, sink). I would stay again.

Great location, nice & helpful staff. They let us check in an hour early! Hotel was clean as were the shared bathrooms. They even held onto our bags after we checked out so we could walk around NYC! I will definatley be returning!

A friend of mine and I stayed at this hotel for one night while we were visiting NYC. We split the bill 2 ways, so we only paid $ 40. a piece! I was very hesitant about it being so inexpensive, however my friend assured me it was a good place to stay. She was right! Staff was friendly, room was clean (except the floor was smudgy-hadn’t been mopped in awhile).The rest of the room was fine, comfortable, a safe to store valuables, one chair, a newer TV (offered cable) and a non-​working fireplace… made it cozy! The blinds on the windows were oak, so the room was darken by them, made sleeping till 8am easy. We couldn’t hear any of the «city» noise as our room faced the back of the building. One of the outlets in our room was uncovered and broken. There were 2 other rooms in the hall, along with a kitchenette-​we found a bottle opener there for a nite beer! The bathroom was really clean too… we were the only ones to use it that evening and morning., 4 chairs and a table, bookshelves where people had left some paperback books too. A small breakfast consisted of bagels, cereal and chocolate cookies. Instant coffee and tea bags along with hot water for beverages. Juices, milk and butter were in the fridge. When I used the bathroom in the lounge area it was clean, however when we came back in the afternoon it was a mess. We took the staff and it was immediately taken care of. I would definitely stay at The Lotus again.

So I needed a place to stay for a night while I was visiting NYC. I jumped on
and started browsing and came upon the Lotus. A room on fifth ave between 31^st and 33^rd for under $ 100? Too good to be true I thought. But to hell with it I’m only there for a night and I would be spending most of my time out in the city so who cares. I booked the room and a few days later arrived at my destination.
I arrived with my friends and we checked in. The man at the desk was very friendly and told us about a small breakfast served at 7am and gave us our key. We went up to inspect our room. I forgot to mention that the rooms are set up similar to a college dorm. You walk into the main common area that has a kitchen set up with full oven and full bathroom. Then your key allows you access to your own bedroom. The best part was that above the common area was a loft space with another bed! However the ceiling was so low we assumed it was made for those who are vertically challenged. But the space was really cool and very clean. On top of that there was no one in the room next to ours so we had the whole thing to ourselves!
We put down our bags and headed out into the city to grab a bite. When we returned our door was slightly ajar. We checked to make sure that nothing was missing, and it turned out that house keeping was cleaning and coming back to bring a few more things to the room. So after our fear subsided (with the aid of the man at the front desk going through the camera footage with me to relieve it) we went on our way!
The only gripe I had was that a window in our room seemed to have a small gap in it allowing the noise of the morning traffic to come in with ease. And of course there was a jack hammer not 25 feet from us come 9am! Otherwise I would definitely snag a room here for the price we paid!