The Jane Hotel, right below the Meatpacking district, couldn't be better located. And chiefly that's what it has going for it. It's near the beautiful Highline, fabulous British and American bistro eats, plenty of ever- changing nightclubs, mega celebrity chef type restaurants, and oodles of shopping. It also benefits from having a Cafe Gitane serving up breakfast (and their full menu) right downstairs. All that aside though, this former SRO still has challenges. Most rooms (starting at $99) share a bathroom down the hall, the deluxe rooms (at $300) aren't very deluxe (staggering highway noise despite tiny windows, and we found a bobby pin in our not- too- clean bathroom and a shower slipper tucked into the bedside table - eek - alongside the $1 books scooped up from the Strand), the elevator broke right upon our arrival, and it was tough to get basic things such as filtered water or extra shampoo. The atmosphere reminds us of the kind of experience that an immigrant just come through Ellis Island might have endured as one was just about to start life in a questionable turn of the century sweatshop. That the place was deserted and they refused to let us change rooms made us wonder if we were being Punk'd or in a Wes Anderson movie. That said, not all the issues of a historic building exist, while the air is very hot inside the rooms, the water pressure in the hotel can't be beat, and what it lacks for in luxury, it delivers in character. Upon checkout, the porter asked if we needed a cab. When we replied yes, he said "they're yellow and down the street."

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