great location, very noisy room!
I took my 8 year old daughter on her winter break for her first visit to NYC. I booked this hotel in January through Expedia. I read the reviews on Trip Advisor and the majority came back positive and the negatives had to do with noise from outside so I thought can't be so bad especially if I get an upper floor. The hotel is beautiful, clean, and in a great location for what we wanted to do (American Gril, FAO Schwartz, Empire State Bldg., Central Park, Rockerfeller Center etc.). The bellmen, the doormen, the maids and the concierge were all fantastic, however, the front desk employees were rude, arrogant and not friendly! I had requested a room with a view of St. Patricks Cathedral and also as this was our first trip to the city I wanted to see the lights at night and so did my daughter, I even called a week before the trip to request again and was assured it was noted on my file. When I arrived, the lady at the front desk barely acknowledged me, did not even acknowledge my daughter, asked for my ID and credit card and handed me my keys. When I asked if I had a view to St Patricks, I was told no they were 101% full and this was my room facing a brick wall, but it was on the 20th floor so I figured okay we will make the best of it and we are high up so there shouldn't be any street noise...WRONG!!!! Again the room was big and clean and very nice, the beds were comfortable but the noise at night made it impossible to sleep, it sounded like a jackhammer outside our window ALL night. I complained to management in the morning, they said they couldn't move me as they were completely full and that they had no control over street construction noise, after the second night of no sleep and my daughter being awake from 4 am I went down to the front desk in the morning and had a MELTDOWN, miraculosly they found me a room on the 28th floor with a view of the city and finally on the 3rd and last night of our trip we were able to sleep without any construction noise. I am convinced that we were treated this way by the management (Tony and Mimi) and the front desk staff because I booked through Expedia, the other staff had no idea how I booked the trip and treated us wonderfully. Also, the empty platitudes from the GM on this site to people with similar experiences to mine are just that empty!