BEDBUG NIGHTMARE: This Flophouse May Be The Worst Place To Stay In Manhattan
vigilant hotel
vigilant hotel

Robert Johnson / Business Insider

Don't go in here.

A park bench may be a better option than staying at the $40/night V igilant Hotel in Chelsea.

I walked through the crimson doors of the century-old New York City flophouse and rented a room to see if stories of bedbugs and other horrors were true.

After a colleague chasing the same story was kicked out of the hotel for taking pictures, I did my best to blend in, wearing dirtied clothes from the Salvation Army and carrying only an iPhone camera in my pocket. I hadn't shaved in a week.

Checking in

vigilant
vigilant

Gus Lubin / Business Insider

A resident walks up the stairs.

Behind the first door is a second door, with paper signs stating the rules of the hotel: NO DOUBLES, NO COUPLES, MEN ONLY, etc. Another sign warns of 24-hour closed circuit surveillance.

Behind this door is a warm stench of body odor and a narrow two-floor stairway. On the second floor, there's a big room with a bunch of covered cubicles in the middle.

I followed a sign to the end of a hall, where behind a metal grate I saw a shirtless man with a big belly, white chest hair, and a collar of white shoulder hair.

"Is it $40 for a room?" I asked.

"It's 120 for the week," the manager said.

"I just need a room for the night."

The manager took my ID and $40 for the night plus a $5 key deposit. He didn't ask what I was doing there. Either my disguise had fooled him or this just wasn't the type of place where you ask questions.

As he took my money, he warned me I was in for a long night.

bug spray vigilant
bug spray vigilant

Gus Lubin / Business Insider

"BUGS" spray.

"You know there's no ceiling? You'll hear people next to you. You won't be able to sleep."

He told me where to find the bathroom and the shower. I could smoke in the room, but I had better use the ashtray. There was a deli downstairs and I could come and go as I pleased, but I should keep the door to my room locked.

Finally he mentioned the bedbugs. He came out of the door with a big spray bottle with "BUGS" written on the side in marker. "Spray it if you see a bug. You can spray it on yourself, your clothes, your bed." He sprayed it on his hands to demonstrate.

Room 108 is an 8x8x4-foot box topped by a grid of wooden slats.

The bed is a foam mattress wrapped in plastic on a wooden ledge, covered by an old but washed floral sheet. A wooden plank serves as a shelf. There is a light that makes a loud hum and an outlet on the wall.

The smell was not too bad and there was no immediate evidence of bugs.

vigilant
vigilant

Gus Lubin / Business Insider

When I went upstairs and stopped to take a picture out an open window, I heard the owner shouting my name. I looked down and saw that his office had a window overlooking the stairs. He said: "The shower is right there and otherwise there's no reason to be prowling around upstairs. People come here to sleep, and you've got a nice room down there and no reason to go upstairs unless you're looking to burglar something."