Our Perfectly Reasonable One Star Chinatown Hotel
8 Aug 2023 by Amby
I was pleased to have booked such a cheap hotel in a central location, and didn’t actually read the reviews (I booked this before I stayed at the awful Urban Boutique Hotel in Vienna so hadn’t learned my lesson yet).
When I looked on Google and saw many negative reviews for this “one star hotel” I did start to get a little concerned. However, these concerns were unfounded.
It’s true the U.S. Pacific Hotel is bare-bones, with a shared bathroom, no amenities, and hardly any space in the room itself, but it was clean, safe, cheap, and in a fantastic location to explore the rest of New York City.
Price
We stayed for five nights for $637, which works out to about $127 a night, although it seems as though weeknights are cheaper than weekends. This is about as good of a price as you can get in Manhattan, although if you pay $150-$200 your options are a lot nicer
Security and Rules
Check in was no problem, and you can see right away that the proprietors are running a tight ship. They have a huge monitor where they can watch the various hallways of the four-story hotel, and you have to hold up your key as you pass by their desk when entering the building so they know you’re a guest.
It’s a bit overbearing but at their price point I could see how they could attract sketchy people so I appreciated the emphasis on safety.
There’s also rules against bringing guests up and playing music, which turned out to be good because the walls are thin. Plus you have no reason to bring a guest up because there is literally nothing to do at the hotel or in your room.
The Room
The room features a bed, a desk (with no chair), and a small waste bin. You can also pay a bit more for a window (which we did).
The window doesn’t open so after a few days it was getting a little stuffy in there. Our bed was never made by the hotel staff after the first night. The mattress was like cardboard but we slept okay.
I didn’t see any bugs or dirt.
One night our neighbors were talking late in normal tones and it was like they were in the room with me. Nothing that some noise cancelling headphones can’t fix!
The hotel also had free WiFi and it worked great.
The Bathroom and Building
En-suite rooms are available but we opted for the shared bathroom. There were four bathrooms with showers on our floor, and they were mostly clean.
The showers worked perfectly and had no issues with temperature or pressure. They did create large puddles in the bathroom though. Just shower early before everyone else.
At times we thought it would’ve been nice to relax in a social lobby or nicer room in between our city excursions, but there’s really a lot to do in the city and places to grab a drink or relax nearby, so it wasn’t so bad.
Our room was on the third floor and there are no elevators. Free exercise!
Location
The location was the selling point of this hotel: in the middle of Chinatown, just a few blocks away from a couple different subway stations. Little Italy is right around the corner, and the 9/11 memorial is in easy walking distance.
It is simple and safe to navigate anywhere by foot or subway, and we were surrounded by a lot of great options for food and entertainment.
Conclusion:
U.S. Pacific Hotel, and the similar hotels in Chinatown, would be difficult to beat in terms of price and location. Our stay in Chicago before we came to NYC was expensive, and I was happy give my wallet a break for a few days. But after five nights at U.S. Pacific we were also happy to leave.
A very solid 3 snacks!
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