Surprise: great service but disappointing value
We had the total reverse experience of Patty N who qualified the Mansfield as great value but disappointing service. Staff was very welcoming and supportive, helped us change rooms when we found traces of smoke in our room, and were very courteous during our stay. The rooms were not as advertised - in our case we had rooms that were rundown and looked like they desperately needed another refurbishment. The shades would not close properly and we slept in glaring lights of office rooms of the opposite building. There was a lot of noise from what was probably a heater or air flow mechanism from another building as well. Everything looked rundown and the shaving mirror in the bathroom was kaput. We thought the hotel was more or less like this - the other reviews show that at least some rooms are still up to standards. A more personal problem is that we did not really like the lights in the rooms and in the hotel in general - it seems to be a design issue to make reading more difficult and to turn pushing the buttons in the elevator into a guessing game. But symbolic for our stay: this was the case in one elevator, whereas the other had sufficient lightning! I would recommend checking your room before accepting it and looking at the shades in particular, as well as the general state of the room. Noise is always available in generous quantities in New York, so that should probably not be a deciding factor. 
Location is great - very central, just a short walk from Grand Central and from Time Square. 
Again, compliments to the staff - I witnessed a medical emergency of a guest and how staff went out of their way to help - so either the previous review did wonders or the disappointing experience was due to other factors...