Candlewood Suites Secaucus – Meadowlands

Clean, reasonably priced, easy to book online, easy to register on site, lots of parking, e night manager, fully loaded kitchen, large fridge, microwave, dishwasher, 4 burner stove, coffee maker, teapot, carpeted, DVS player, option to borrow other appliances and games. Bathroom is large and clean with nice products. Lots of outlets.,
Bedding is worn, bed sags in center, pillows too soft, curtains wrinkled, sheer curtains are dirty,
The most important thing for me is the quality of the bed and chairs. And the bed is not very good.
The desk chair is low but comfortable, not for a short person. The other sitting chair is not a recliner and is in need of an ottoman.
Happy for the mini market. They had a nice range of goods.

This review has nothing to do with the hotel itself. Rooms were clean, price was exceptionally reasonable, and the staff was incredibly sweet! My biggest issue with this hotel is the the guy who likes to call himself the general manager. First off, when we got to our room, we were called back from by the front desk, Krishna, and told we had to wait an additional thirty minutes to have the room vacuumed. (Way to go being professional) No biggie, I let it go. It was upon our departure that really had me convinced to never come back to this hotel. I booked this room through a website that gave me a discounted rate. Unfortunately, on the hotel’s behalf, they have no proof that I purchased my room through the website so I had to have the full rate charged to my credit card. When I asked the manager, Krishna, to try and resolve this issue he let out a huge sigh and said «one moment» with his finger pointed at me like «Hold on». As he is on the phone I can just tell by his body language he knows nothing about being a manager, just by the way he speaks to his staff totally turned me off. He seemed a bit flustered and decided to hand me the phone and say «Here you handle it» How unprofessional? Isn’t the customer supposed to be satisfied? Based on my experience, it’s not the hotel that’s the problem, it is clearly management. They wont ever have the privilege of doing business with me again.

I had the worst experience of my life in this hotel. I arrived there around 10:30 pm with my family, and we didn’t feel welcomed at the front desk. First of all after checking in our rooms we received a call from the front desk that they needed all of us at the desk after a long trip and tiredness which was very inconvenient. There were 5 of us, and 4 of us went to the desk. They did not greet us and the so-​called manager Krishna was very rude. He comes out of nowhere at the front desks and points both his fingers at us and asks who is paying who is paying? That is very rude and disrespectful.
The second thing is that their double beds were very small and hardly one person could fit on them. There were noises coming from an empty bathroom as if someone kept flashing the toilet all night and i didn’t get an hour of sleep. This hotel doesn’t even deserve one star.
I did call the 1800 customer relations and instead of giving an apology for the behavior of the manager, they accused me of causing disturbance in the lobby because i was upset by Krishna’s behavior towards i and my family. This is the last time i stayed in Candlewood. Goodluck all those who gave this hotel a 5 star.

We first had the hardest time looking for this one place we originally booked. The GPSs directions SUCKED and we used multiple ones. Once we found the place it was overbooked and they recommended another place. The other place was other overbooked and we was recommended to another place again. Candlewood Suites Extended Stay Hotel Secaucus saved us. The rooms
were very nice and clean, and spacious what else could you asked for. They also had a stove, fridge, washer, microwave, and an office area
The facilities were well maintained. The service up in the front were friendly and made everything go smoothly even after telling them about our little trouble. The rate we paid was very cheap. It had a laundry and gym area ALL IN ONE. They had a nice covered patio
up in the front with a few tables, chairs, and nice grills.
If you’re outside and take a whiff of fresh air, you’ll be smelling a lot more than fresh air. Right across was a junkyard or waste site I think haha. Really didn’t notice it in the evening but in the morning wow. It wasn’t really that bad.

This hotel doesn’t even earn one star! My family and i stayed here from Dec 27,2012 to Jan 2, 2012 and it was a bad expierence all the way around. The shuttle was not running because of the holidays, the towels in the room are so hard and nasty, if you need extra pillows or towels you have to go downstairs to get them yourself, our plumming was not working at all in the bathroom, There is a small convienence store in the lobby and everytime we would buy something they did not have change so we would have to come back to get our change! The staff in the front desk& house keepers are all nice EXCEPT for the main manager… He is so unprofessional and rude. We had a problem with our room due to the fact that he gave out our reservation to somebody else so my group of 5 and I had to stay in a 1 bedroom (with no rollaway beds available). Some of us had to stay on the floor until the 3^rd night because they had zero rollaway beds. The only good thing about this place is that yes it is about 5 minutes to Penn station which will get you into NYC and that the kitchens are fully equipped. The hotel rooms are nice overall, but the sofa beds are very uncomfortable. Our TV in the living room was hard to turn on and the iron was not working properly. Another interesting thing that I had never heard of before was that they do NOT clean your room daily, After the 8^th day they clean your room and put fresh bed sheets and towels in the room (unless you want to pay an extra charge) I am from California and have traveled a lot and have NEVER heard of this, maybe it is an east coast thing.

Good:
— Customer service, always smiling and ready to help
— Rooms, clean
— Provide free pick up and drop off in 5 mile radius, even took us to nearest grocery store and waited for us to shop
— They phone cabs for you to drop off and pick up from train station
— LOVE THEM
Bad:
— Cant think of any

Do not use this hotel. They kept charging my credit card on file instead of the patrons card, and then 2 weeks later they charged a 50.00 deposit for the same room for no reason and without my permission. Called and keep getting run around from managers. My card was on priority club members card for holding rooms only, yet they charged my card (even tho i didnt stay at hotel). Then lie and tell me the 50.00 charge was charged the same day as the patron checked out, even tho my credit card statement says 2 weeks later (the next day after i spoke to manager, he charged my card 50). I have sinced cancelled my credit card because of these unauthorized charges. WARNING DO NOT STORE CC ON PRIORITY CLUB CARD, ITS THE FIRST TO GET CHARGED IF ANYONES PAYMENT DOES NOT CLEAR. Ive been fighting this charge for a week now and nothing is fixed yet.

This was my 2^nd visit to this property. I gave a glowing review the first time around, however, this time, not so much. Now it wasn’t a BAD visit in any way, but it just wasn’t as GOOD as my last visit.
To start off, when we reached our room, we found food left in the refrigerator by the previous occupant. While not the end of the world, it did make me wonder how well this room had been cleaned. The kitchen floor did look like it could have used a mopping. Other than that, the room was clean. The other, bigger issue was not being able to sleep! The studios have a microwave inserted into the wall cabinetry and there’s a light that glows underneath it, onto the stove top area. When it’s time to sleep, there’s no way to turn this light off. It drove me bonkers! I’m a light sleeper who needs noise and quiet and this light made sleeping almost impossible. Also I couldn’t get the air unit to run on a continuous fan. I chose the low cool setting, but it would only work on the auto setting. I was cold, then hot. Could not get comfortable, so between the air and the light, I didn’t have a restful night at all.

Staff, good people very helpful. Area, industrial but very close to my place of business. Lots of shopping in the area and close to New York!

My husband and I have stayed at this hotel many times with very few issues. We like that the location is close to NYC. Rooms are a good price, have a kitchen and are clean. The free parking is great. There is nothing in walking distance but there are some good stores like Target close by that you can drive to. I think the staff is lovely and very helpful. We will continue to stay here.

My husband and I have stayed in this hotel for the second time now. The service is great, people are super friendly, the bathroom is clean and big. Every suite is a like a mini studio, with a mini stove, micro, full size fridge and dishwasher. The house keeping is just once a week (if you stay more than a week, if not they clean it for you before you arrive), but the hotel is cleaner than most of the hotels that have it daily. I really recommend this option to go to the city… pretty close to the train station (take a cab for 7 dollars). In 5 minutes on the train you’ll be in penn station.

Don’t be deceived by the low rating thanks to the other reviewer who gave this place only two-​stars. Frankly that review just didn’t make sense. After listing so many good things about the hotel (the amenities in the suite, the laundry services, the free wifi)… only two stars?! The bad things listed seemed to not really have anything to do with the actual quality of the hotel. The location? Yeah, it’s in Secaucus. You’re not really gonna do much better location-​wise. If you’re looking for pretty scenery, you probably shouldn’t be anywhere near this town. It was quiet. There’s not much else you can ask for in a place like Secaucus.
The point about room service also baffled me. If you know you’re going to an extended-​stay hotel, why would you expect anything different? It’s not like there was a case of false-​advertising here.
The information about the staff in the previous review was frankly inaccurate. As a matter of fact, the staff seemed to go out of their way to be super friendly every time we interacted with them. I can’t really say anything negative about this hotel.

The good stuff:
Suite — our room was very nice. There was a full sized fridge, a microwave, a stove top with 2 burners, and a sink. There was only a place setting for one, which is odd since this place can fit up to 4 people, but it wasn’t a big deal to us since we didn’t cook in our room (may be bothersome for others, though). The bathroom was very nice and roomy with granite countertops and a spacious shower. The bed was very comfortable, and there was a big desk/​dining table that served its purpose.
Free wifi/​Computer Room — i LOVE having an iPod touch; saves us from having to lug around a huge laptop, especially since we only needed it for checking directions (and Unilocal reviews, of course!). Thanks to the free wifi in the hotel, which was pretty quick, we were able to make good use of our itouch. There is also a computer room downstairs near the front desk with 2 computers on it. It was helpful to have that access in case we needed to print something, but just beware of computer hogs!
Free laundry facilities — I LOVED this amenity! On our last night before we left, I took advantage of the free washer and dryer so that I wouldn’t have to do laundry when we got back home. It’s located inside the workout room, and there are 3 full size washers (one was broken) and 4 stacked dryers. There were no chairs so I had to sit on on the exercise bicycle because I didn’t want to leave our laundry there unattended.
Food Pantry: When booking the hotel, I thought it was neat that they had a room filled with all kinds of snacks and frozen foods available for you to purchase in case you wanted a midnight snack or something (and the prices are reasonable; just like what you’d find at a liquor store. However, I can see that because of the location, this pantry is actually necessary (more on that later).
And now the bad and/​or not so good:
Location: don’t be fooled by the pictures of the hotel. Yes, it is still pretty new so the hotel is still nice, but it is in a very industrial part of town. There was a Ford dealership right next door that didn’t sell regular Ford cars but more like work trucks and big rigs. There were various buildings and factories surrounding the area, too, and it wasn’t nice to look at at all. However, it is pretty quiet at night, even though it is very close to the highway.
Shuttle Service: Candlewood Suites does not have a Shuttle Service, they have a contract with JJ Cab Company. This is a bit misleading, because you figure you should be able to just go downstairs and request the cab and it will be right there, but you have to wait for the cab to come get you. They offer free shuttle service to Secaucus Junction (which is about 5 minutes away) during the week between 6 – 9 AM and 5 – 8 PM. You can also use their service after those hours (up until 1 AM) and on the weekends for $ 7 per taxi, and it doesn’t matter how many people are in the cab, so we ended up splitting the fare a few times. The cab drivers from JJ Cab Company are all pretty nice, and there is a hilarious lady named Laura (their only female driver) who was so awesome. I even left my purse in her car and they sent her back to bring it to me. I had to pay $ 7 again for her to bring it to me, but she was kind enough to ignore her boss’ request to bring it to me AFTER she picked up her next group since she knew we were going into the city.
Room Service: this is an extended-​stay type of hotel, so you only maid service once a week. Since we stayed there for 5 days, we didn’t get the service with our room, which I actually prefer. However, if you need new towels, you are supposed to bring your used towels downstairs and exchange them at the front desk. I saw someone do hand their dirty towels to the girl behind the front desk and she took them without hesitation and then handed the girl fresh towels. Someone else did the same thing immediately after and she handed her some new towels as well. I was so grossed out at the thought of all the cross-​contamination of bodily fluids between all 3 people involved. Yeah, yeah, maybe I’m overreacting, but in this day and age of the Swine Flu and other yuckiness, there’s gotta be a better way to handle these things!
Staff — the staff here seems really unfriendly and, i hate to say it, kinda stupid! When we arrived, one girl checked our reservation and tried to charge me $ 250 MORE than what we were quoted. She then printed out the calendar to show how much we were being charged a night and I showed her the SAME printout showing the SAME prices, and asked how it could be $ 250 more. She did a little investigating, and said the computer somehow changed the nightly prices as if we didn’t have a registration and just decided to stay. If we didn’t have that printout we would’ve been screwed. They just seemed like they didn’t communicate well with each other and that no one knew what was going on. We won’t be back because of that.