New, small, slow -but a good value
This is a newish Hampton Inn a block from Madison Square Garden, two blocks from Macy's Flagship store and three blocks from the Empire State Building. As it is NYC, expect small bedrooms and small bathrooms (our king room had only a shower- double doubles had a tub/shower combo). So small that they don't offer cots, there literally isn't any room for one. The hotel has less than 150 rooms over 19 floors, seems like 8 rooms per floor. Nevertheless, there are only 2 elevators to service guests and staff-- expect long waits for elevators. Thankfully, we were on the 6th floor and used the stairs to go downstairs to the lobby (not possible to go up from the lobby as the stairwell dumps you outside the building). The hotel was packed when we were there- the small lobby, breakfast room, everywhere. There are two subway stations about a 5 minute walk in different directions. Staff was courteous, especially the guy who checked us in, Matthew. Although Herald Sq. and the ESB are close the hotel doesn't have views of them that I could discern. Unlike other hotels in NYC, the HI-MSG is on a quiet street. Another plus is the mammoth Cafe R deli directly across the street and Jack's 99cent store. You could do worse than the HI-MSG. We looked for a long time to find an decent midtownish Manhattan hotel under $250 a night- the HI-MSG fit the bill.