Excellent staff pick this place up!
Stayed here for 6 nights on one of many trips to NYC over the years so have a great many hotels to compare this to. Initial impressions when we stepped out of our cab weren't good. No evidence of a bell boy and a host of people sitting outside the hotel in cheap looking aluminium chairs and tables. Completely exposed from the street and apart from a few plants little had been done to soften this apparent designated outside seating area. Check in was smooth, cookies given and despite being a loyal and recurrent Hilton Honours user no upgrade given or any other benefit. 
Room was beautifully styled but very small as many reviewers have already stated. Smallest i've ever had in NYC. Suitcases ended up piled up on top of one another on top of the wardrobe. 
The location is fantastic on the west side where we normally would stay and we have stayed in Chelsea previously so were familiar with the area. It is handy for everything. At either end of the street there are coffee shops for breakfast if you don't have hotel breakfast as part of your deal. 
Business Centre and Gym on basement floor. Both free for guests and great! 
Beds are so comfortable and we had great, sound sleeps. Room service were excellent and the rooms cleaned to perfection everyday although dirty towels got taken away but not replaced on two occasions and we had to call down to get them. That reminds me, there is a care line to call to sort out any problems or seek guidance on hotel related issues. I contacted the line relating to having laundry done. This is a wonderful service to have in any hotel as who wants clothes that you've been travelling in lying around. Rather than leave it in your room and have it collected and returned by room service like in every other hotel I've ever encountered. In this hotel, you have to take it down to reception and even once it is returned to the hotel you have to go and collect it. Luckily on my last night I remembered I had put laundry in - as it hadn't been returned to our room as I expected - so I had to go and collect it myself. I really would have expected laundry returns to have been brought up to guests rooms like in every other hotel or am I being petty? 
Cheltons' bar & grill is great for dinner and we ate there on our last night. Fantastic chef there on the night we ate. Great dinner had by both of us. Cheltons itself is lacking ambience & someone needs to go up to Hilton on Lexington to get some interior design ideas to template into Cheltons to bring the level of interior presentation up. 
We were introduced to Watermelon Martinis by Erica the utterly fantastic bartender, and replicated on another day by Sean. After having them on our 2nd night we featured a visit to Erica @ Cheltons and her Mixology into every night of our stay! Her lemon drop martinis were utterly gorgeous too! A friend was visiting us and we ordered her one as well which came out in a non - martini glass as the hotel only seems to have two of these glasses!! 
The strength of the staff at Doubletree Hilton @ Chelsea turned around our stay there! Where as my original idea would be that I'd never stay there again, the levels of service and outright friendliness lift this hotel from the doldrums! Special thanks to Erica, Izzy, Omar, Sean plus the guy who recommended "Cafeteria" as well! Plus Russian girl & girl wit exotic eye make up on reception! You all rocked! Thank you for making our summer NYC trip great!