Hotel, Motel -- Holiday Inn ...

Living in a hotel is a dream built on a feather top bed that is made to perfection by unseen members of housekeeping every day while you are out seeing to sites of the city ... unless you are relocating for a job ... I have been living in The Pod Hotel on 51st which is really cute and would be absolutely fantastic if I were able to charade about town all night and into the wee hours of the morning like my neighbors!

The Pod Hotel seems to be modeled after the trendy design of the Apple iPod. The rooms are completely white with vibrant accent colors on the bed that make it pop! Each room is equipped with a flat screen TV, an iPod alarm clock and a tiny desk. The room is no bigger than my bed room in the dorm I lived in while attending Columbia in Chicago.

The Pod Hotel offers a different type a room for any traveling need you might have! For the solo and frugal traveler, book a single room with a community bathroom. Big groups can rent room on a higher floor that can hold up to 9 people. There is also a great option for double travelers, they have bunk bed rooms and double bed rooms. I know most of you haven't made it past the community bathroom part -- it's not bad at all! As one of the more frugal residents I mean guests I can tell you first hand the community bathrooms are not the same as a community bathroom you will find in your state school dorm complete with Jimmy and Tina thinking they are being sneaky by saving water in the corner stall -- we know what they were doing. I have never once had to wait and a little known secret is, each floor has 3 bathrooms, 2 tiny ones and one that is like a spa bathroom with a rainfall shower head and it's fantastic!

On top of the youth friendly environment of the buildings interior, the hard to beat location and the perfectly affordable price tag, The Pod Hotel has a roof top deck with the most spectacular view of New York City but you have to stay there to see it!

While enjoying my two week stay at The Pod, I discovered this fantastic market that has a hot buffet of all of the most wonderful foods you could ever imagine, there is even a guy who will make you an egg sandwich on a fresh baked roll the only flaw this market has is the lack of fountain sodas but don't worry, there is a McDonald's next door and they have the best fountain soda in the world. If it were presented as an option, I could stay in The Pod Hotel forever, but the housekeepers are starting to ask when I am leaving ... Lucky for them, I found an apartment. Even though I have a home base now, I will miss the hotel where I spent my first nights in New York and my 25th Birthday which was made complete with a delicious delivered Birthday Dinner complete with chocolate cake, compliments of Mike Russell and GrubHub.com, what a team!

The View from the Roof Deck

The Room --I told you it was small!
The room from the other side.

Caution: Rooms do not come with a mini fridge -- travel during winter and use the window sill. The rooms that do not come equipped with a bathroom do however have a sink in them!