Clarion Hotel Empire Meadowlands Hotel

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. I didn’t stay there by choice — we were evacuated from the Crowne Plaza in Saddle Brook (which is a whole other story) and had to stay here for a night.
There is a parking deck that is hard to access, and seems to have no elevator. You have to schlep your bags up and down the stairs. And they then want you to return to the deck after checking in to place a parking tag in the window. Definitely surprised my car didn’t get broken into.
My room was the worst hotel room I’ve ever stayed in – and that’s saying a lot. There was no deadbolt on the door. The sink was moldy and gross. Wallpaper was cracked and peeling. There was only coffee for the in-​room coffeemaker, and no creamer or sugar. Plugs kept falling out of the wall outlets in the room and bathroom, which seems dangerous. The wifi was unusably slow. Everything about the hotel says «this place used to be nice back in 1985 and hasn’t been updated in the slightest since.»
Everyone else who says this hotel is the worst are right. It really is the worst.

I made a deposit 2 weeks before my check in date for a 1 bedroom room and upon checking in I was told that all the 1 bedroom rooms were in use… even though we reserved the room 2 weeks in advance. Once getting settled into my 2 bedroom hotel room, I noticed the windows were smeared and had splatted black paint all over. The carpet looked as if no one had vacuumed recently and the bed skirts were ripped and falling off. The bathroom was definitely the dirtiest hotel bathroom I have ever seen. The shower had what seemed to be mold in the bottom corner of the shower and the faucet was rusted as well as the hand railing. The ceiling was patched with old white cardboard secured by rusted nails into the ceiling. The room phone did not work, not even to call down to the front desk. Very disappointed in the hotel and will definitely not be returning.

Possibly the worst hotel? 1^st thing I noticed when I waked in was 2 greasy handprints above the bed… Floor was not vacuumed, as there was toe nail clippings on it, and a pair of dirty socks under the bed. Hair dryer broken. The windows had some kinda of tint on it which was falling off. Most of the hallways have duck tape holding down the carpet. And at 9−10pm they decided to «clean» the room next to us by slamming the door every 30 seconds. Avoid this hotel.

Jesus Christ! What a shit hole. It’s safe to say that they never clean this place. Also, don’t be fooled by the coffee shop. I asked the front desk if they had a Starbucks and they said yes. Turns out it’s a small mom n pop coffee shop with HUGE Starbucks signs that claim they serve Starbucks but they clearly serve industrial packs of some off brand. I saw the wrapper on the side of the machine.
It’s one of those places that leave you feeling like you just got raped by a big black guy in the ass with no lubricant. If you do book here after reading this, you must be a foreigner from a third world country.
By the way I only left one star because negative 100 stars was not available.

Horrible! Avoid. Customer service desk took :20 minutes to check us in because their fax machine is on the fritz and they didn’t receive our reservation booked through another provider. They acted like we didn’t have a room or wouldn’t get one. Then the room we checked into was clearly used already. Bag and garbage left out. Room was also 76degrees and is currently climbing. They were supposed to fix it but after waiting a hour and it getting later we told them not to come cause we were tired. No room change was offered. After we asked they said they’ll fix it. Horrible place.

This place is awful!
Dirty, wallpaper peeling off, very poor desk help and almost no wifi signal.
Go some place else!

Yeah, this place is pretty cool if you feel like dying.
A large 3 day event which drew around 2500 people from all over the world booked this hotel and its ballrooms for use back in early 2015. The night before, we were already hearing horror stories about the rooms. Pictures circulated from people after checking in who walked into their rooms to find out that the rotted ceiling had collapsed onto their beds.
I looked outside one of the windows and saw that the top level of the parking garage had also caved in.
Then the morning that the event was scheduled to take place the fire department got called, and after a quick tour of one of the ballrooms they declared it structurally unsound. Apparently the ceiling was in danger of collapsing, and they shut the whole event down. Too bad, people who flew in from Europe and Asia.
Thank you, Clarion Hotel for providing us a disastrous venue to hold our event. If the ceiling had collapsed on all 2500 of us and killed us all that would have been a real highlight. Thank you for also charging my friends for an extra night’s stay because they couldn’t check out in time. When 2500 people are trying to check out all at once because of something that’s your fault most hotels would accept the loss, but it was really smart of you guys to put money before the people. And especially before safety.
I also heard that someone in management got arrested for their negligence. LOL.
For those looking to stay here, make sure you wear a hard hat.

This hotel is okey! Looks nicer from the outside them the inside I’d stay here again if I get it for under 100! To me it’s not worth it if it’s over 100.
Room service not so good! Hard to get a hold of them! Lots of noises in the morning !!

The worst hotel ever. Terrible service. Bathroom was dirty. Customer service terrible. They do not clean your room everyday. The worst hotel ever. And I travel a lot.

Okay first off im currently in this hotel now and i will not recommend this place to any one now ive been here for a week ill go by the first problem i had i was in one room and it had a bed bug in my bed wen i first woke up and then i noticed it was blood on the sheets my third issue is the vending machine on the bottom floor took my money i am very upset caz they didnt reemburse my money back from the machine and the lady at the front desk says the best thing she can tell me is to call the number on the machine like what the fuck whois gonna wait for a fuckin dollar i have spent alredy like 1500 dollars to stay here already n thats the best thing u can do for me like come one this is u guys responsibilty to make sure my stay here is at its best the other day they tried to charge me for a plastic fork like wtf ima eat wit my hands its nothing around here or anyrhing now thats jus plain rude i will never stay here again everything is so expensive its pathetic highway robbery at its finest i really hope yall get it together caz that shit is not cool. one more thing no parking and taxi drivers here are the worst guy tried to over charge me and i fix that real quick by all means dont go here. please

I had s lot of issues with this hotel as a whole. First the Parking situation where I had to follow a taxi service to a location 2 miles down the road to park and have him shuttle us back. This should have been clearly communicated somewhere ahead of time.
The room itself was relatively clean, but it had a lot of issues. The window curtains did not fully come together so there was no way to stop all the light from coming in. There is a flood light that was on all night long keeping my room lit.
The next major issue is the sound. I could hear cars from the roads passing by constantly and I could hear people in hallways or even on other floors. At some point my wife heard knocking and thought t was house keeping at our door. Not only were they not at are door they weren’t on our floor yet.
When house keeping did end up on our floor they knocked from door do door and I could hear every single time and every word they said. The odd thing is that they were in each room for less then a minute before they moved on. Not sure what they could possibly do in that time that would constitute cleaning. They finally come to my door and knock and I yell out not yet to them and I know they should be able to hear me based on me hearing them clear as day down the hall, but she still proceeds to open the door until I yell it again.
It was a cheap hotel, and now I know why.

I went up for one night for the Sunday night football game Giants vs niners. Getting to and from the stadium was a breeze. Great hotel will absolutely stay again. It was clean and quiet. I had a problem with my thermostat and they fixed it immediately.
My biggest negative was that they’re doing upgrades on their parking garage, so if you can’t find a spot next to hotel you need to get a cab to take you to the parking lot and back, the hotel pays the fee. I parked in a spot that said «hotel parking only» an extremely rude security guard came out and shined a strobe light in my eyes. When I tried to tell him the sign in front of my car said «hotel parking only» all he continuely said was «you can’t park there» at least 10 times. As I got into my car to leave and backup he continued to shine the strobe light on me, making it hard to see. Even as I was driving away he continued to point his strobe light at me. Very unprofessional and dangerous. But I do not hold that against the hotel.

Currently, parking is a nightmare. You have to park on a satellite parking lot about 2 miles away. It was 12:30 at night when we returned from our outing, and as we waited on the dark parking lot, there was seemingly no one else around. When the can came to get us, they crammed the other guests, who were hiding in their cars, in a van taxi. They wanted me to sit in the third row with two men –I’m six feet and had on a short cocktail dress. I said no way!
What a nightmare, if you have places to go in a hurry. Plan your trips because getting to your vehicle is not easy.

The good:
My room was quite clean and comfortable and had some furnishing updates. But there are some signs of wear and tear in the bathroom that let you know this hotel has seen better days (but not a deal breaker, by any means).
Also, if you are going into the city, there is a bus line conveniently located about 2 minutes walk from the hotel and is only $ 3 per person, and only takes about 30 minutes to get to midtown Manhattan.
The bad:
This is part of the Choice Hotels chain, which I’ve been a member of for many years. All of these hotels offer a free continental breakfast… except for this one. If you want breakfast it will cost you 11.99 (similar to a Hilton or similar business traveller hotel). Well, shame on you Clarion Empire Meadowlands! You are taking advantage of all these tourists in the worst way! Travelers, don’t be fooled!
The Ugly:
The parking situation. They have only 37 parking spaces for a 13 floor hotel! They used to have an overflow garage, but it’s being repaired, so if you can’t get a spot they will taxi you (you may have to wait 10 minutes) to a lot about 5 minutes away (for free), but what a damn hassle! Perhaps this was not the fault, because I’m not sure who owns the garage, but it was in awful shape last time I stayed here.
I would have given this

Your standard 3-​star hotel: good price, okay cleanliness, and very accessible (one city bus) to New York City and other attractions in New Jersey. We had a great east-​facing view so we could easily see the entire New York City skyline.
The room was about US$ 110 per night. The breakfast buffet was US$ 13 per person, which, yes, is a bit pricy for the cereal, coffee, eggs, sausage, potatoes, and other small items that they offer. Their parking garage is closed for renovations right now, but they still offer free on-​site parking. If you can’t get one of those spots you can park off-​site and they offer a free shuttle service back to the hotel. We knew this before arriving at the hotel, so it wasn’t a surprise. There is a 24-​hour corner store one block away, in case you want to buy some alcohol or need some late-​night snacks.
There are a few things they could do better:
— The room service kitchen is only open for lunch and supper (not breakfast)
— The room service kitchen closes at 11:30pm
— There is a booth that looks like a Starbucks (with Starbucks graphics and coffee everywhere) but it’s actually a satellite of the breakfast buffet. They won’t offer anything off a Starbucks menu. Service here was very slow and expensive, and they too weren’t open for late night snacks.
However, these are minor areas for improvement; in all, a good hotel for a reasonable price.

In general, a nice hotel, a nice room, an ok stay. The only issue is the hotel has very little parking for its size.
If your lucky enough to get a spot, great. If not, you have to park in an overflow lot and be shuttled to and from your car via a taxi. It’s a free service but waiting for the taxi is pain.
I would also recommend the having breakfast outside the hotel. The breakfast buffet is a little pricy for the quality.

It’s been a long time since I have experienced such horrible guest service in a business to the point I feel I should warn others.
There were a string of very unfortunate events that happened at the Clarion during our stay that on their own would not have been «that» bad, but the way the staff treated my business partners and myself was completely out of line and unacceptable.
First, the parking garage is down for repairs which would have been fine if they had they warned us prior to booking our rooms. We had to park 5 – 8 min away and take a shuttle from the car to the hotel everyday.
Once we were checked in and got into the room we noticed the room had not been properly cleaned and the beds looked like they had been made by 5 year olds. The pillows were stacked on chairs. There was no coffee or tea with the coffee pot. On our way out we asked them if they could clean the room and leave some coffee, the woman behind the counter rolled her eyes and reluctantly said she could send someone up later.
When we returned to our room later that day everything appeared to be much cleaner and in order except there was still no coffee and now no wash clothes. So we went and got coffee ourselves from downstairs only to discover the coffee pot didn’t work properly. Later that night we could not get the tv work and the staff completely blew us off, again.
THEN later that night while I was lying in bed a BUG crawled on me. Being from Florida I am not scared of bugs so I decided to kill it (after snapping a pic) and go to bed. However, the next day I discovered it was a bed bug that had crawled on me (see photo). I have bites all over my arms and legs. I realize getting bed bugs is a risk we take as business travelers so I wasn’t that agitated, I just wanted to switch rooms. After working a 12 hour day, we to come back to our room and switch to a new room. The young woman at the desk that night was the only good part of the entire staff and quickly set us up in a nearby room. She also gave us enough free breakfast coupons for the rest of our stay. However, her kindness was overshadowed by how very dusty the new room was and the fact that the heat was stuck to the «on» position permanently so we were sweating in our sleep even with the window open. And again, no wash cloths.
In the morning we decided to give the breakfast a try which turned out to be a mistake. The food was horrible and the guy who took are coupons gave us the third degree as to how we got them. Him and the manger on duty had a lengthy discussion in front of me about how the night shift girl was «giving away the hotel» because she gave us breakfast coupons.
The next morning I decided to get a drink from the $ 2.00 vending machine on my way out, but it was not properly working and took my money. I asked a differently young woman behind the counter if she could reimburse me or tell me how I could get reimbursed. Without even looking at me, she said I’ll be right back. She disappeared for about 6 minutes. I was about to walk away when she came back around and slammed a $ 2.00 roll of nickels on the counter for me without saying a word.
I am so thankful tonight is my last night. I called down to the front desk to ask if they have a shuttle service or a taxi company they recommend but before I could even finish my sentence the woman who answered the phone cut me off and very rudely told me that is not a service they offer to people around here.
I absolutely do not recommend this hotel based on their current rude and obnoxious staff. It is no ones fault there were bed bugs and I wanted nothing else but to move to another room.l. The way I was treated by management was unacceptable and I will NEVER stay in this hotel again nor will I recommend it to anyone.

Was here for a VG Conference, a bunch of stuff happened.
I was here for the Apex-​Series, a massive gaming conference with around 2K people. it turned out that the garage had collapsed a week ago. The Fire Marshall came on Friday and told us that the place was not able to be used due to safety issues, i.e. the roof could have fallen down, on top of that many people.
Thank you to Twitch/​otherwise for getting us a new venue.
They refused to give refunds for people who stayed there on Thursday night as well.
In terms of the actual rooms, quite dirty for the price and very old looking. Ceiling of the bathroom was a nice dismal yellow. Internet was the slowest I have ever seen at a hotel.
In terms of the actual place? I’d give it a 1.4 or so, but with this incident, down to a .8.

This is a complete sh! t hole. The management turns off the air conditioning and tells you they are working on fixing it. They shut down one elevator during the week. There are flies all over the lobby and bar area. Breakfast costs $ 14 and I’ve had better at and extended stay.
The worst part is that you are about 15 minutes from New York City, which is great. You can actually see NYC from your room. A place where so many people lost their lives on ⁹⁄₁₁. Yet this hotel is flying a destroyed American flag! Complete disrespect.
Never stay here. Pay the extra $ 30 a night and stay somewhere else!

Probably one of the worst hotels I’ve stayed at in the United States. Was here for an internal medicine board review course and stayed for the duration of the course (one week).
Had a double bed twin room on the tenth floor. Room itself was an adequate size and appropriately clean but nothing to write home about. Air conditioning didn’t work the first night but was fixed the next day. Bathrooms were adequate but dated.
Reception area when you enter the hotel smells damp and rancid. Carpet was all wet due to rain??? They were working on drying it out with dryers all around but still quite annoying.
Multiple groups of tourists coming every day in buses and occupying the main entrance. Probably popular with travel companies due to the relatively cheap prices. Multiple people smoking near the entrance.
Reception staff clueless at times about questions asked. Saw one guy pissed with them as he was given keys to a room someone else was already occupying.
Two rather slow elevators.
Small café serving Starbucks. Credit card machine wasn’t working. Cash only.
Their restaurant was advertising the «best» steak in NY. A group of people from the review course had the steak and ended up with food poisoning. One was hospitalized for an evening. I chose not to try the delicacy.
Free parking was a plus for them.
Free but painfully slow wifi.
2 stars since the bare necessities were present and functional. But that’s just about all this place has to offer.
Will not stay here again.