In my recent trip to New York City I stayed at the Hudson in 58th street, as the location fit my needs to the T. The experience, however, was not that pleasant even if the staff were really attentive: basically, that architect (renowned Philippe Starck) should have been fired as the place is absolutely not user-friendly even if it is designed to be chic.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not against good design (after all, I live in Finland, cradle of Alvar Aalto where the touch of the Nordic movement can be seen almost everywhere) but in my book good design has to be both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

On arrival (at midnight and completely jetlagged) I couldn’t find the hotel as there is no sign with its name at the entrance, only a “hole” with two lamps made to look like torches on its side.  Going inside there are no signs, so I had to guess that the check-in was to be performed in the big desk that looked more like a bar.  On reaching my room, I realised it was not small by NY standards but positively tiny as there was only space for the bed and my luggage didn’t even fit, and noisy to boot.  I asked for a change due to the airplane-grade noise coming from one of the machines outside and got to a less noisy location, where I realised that the sound insulation was terrible anyway and I could hear pretty much everything (and I mean everything) coming from my neighbouring rooms and walkways.

With that I fell asleep, but my surprises continued in the morning when I realised that my legs were too long to be able to sit in the loo (and I’m only 183 cm./6 ft. tall!). That was too much for me and I asked for an upgrade or a change of hotel.  Later that week I found out that the lobby bar is a favourite location with the hipsters of the city, which means there is a lot of noise every weekend before you escape to your room.  The hotel does have a couple of very nice bars, even if beers are 9 bucks a pop.

• + Location, staff, chic factor (for those who care)
• – Design user-friendliness, noise, room sizes
• Recommended for: teenagers and young adults.
• Not recommended for: business travellers, families
• Would I stay there again? Only for the right price as now I know what is the catch.