I was nosing around on the villagevoice.com website this AM and discovered an article about a hotel scandal - the city of New York is housing some of the homeless HIV+ population in a few hotel proprties that are converted former SRO's. The specific property mentioned in the article is the Malibu hotel (I think it is also known as Malibu Studios). I have seen this property mentioned here a few times when people were inquiring about budget priced hotels. The articlae indicates that the owners used a tactic of advertising to the European market and have had a slew of complaints regarding problems on the premises. It's worth a read and underscores the fact that it's so imoprtant to research in advance as much as possible when planning a trip.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0248/gray2.php

Owen, thanks for the "heads-up". I for one am filing this info with my NYC material so I will be sure to avoid this property in the future. As you stated, many of us are looking for budget hotels and this could come up as a possibility - thanks for helping other travelers steer clear of a potentially dangerous situation.

The Malibu is at 1o3rd and Broadway. That the city was reverting to sheltering homeless in hotels was reported in the NY Times some weeks back. 'The Malibu was not mentioned in that article but a hotel that has been asked about on this board was listerd in the Times artcle. It was the Aladdin On either W,44th or W.45th just off 8th Ave..

Anytime information can be shared to help someone avoid a bad situation it is appreciated. Owen, this type of info is especially helpful for folks who are not familar with the city and may see an ad on a website and think this property is "ok". Thank you for a beneficial posting.

Hi Owen,

Thank god you keep up on everything New York.

You are a wealth of information about he big apple.

gp

Thanks for info!