Frustrating and Upsetting
I will cut through the bull and just start with the positives. You are within walking distance of important places, like Rockefeller Center (about a 10 minute walk), Times Square (only a few blocks from Rockefeller), and Grand Central (5 minutes away). Third Avenue is wonderful for people who like to sit with with a few good drinks, and it is right there off your block. They do have some wonderful people that work inside the hotel, and unfortunately for them, the bad ones stick out and caused me a lot of frustration. A lot of business travelers were staying here, and there were plenty of tourists (mainly friends or couples, though I did see a few families enter and exit). We stayed in a junior suite (there were 3 of us), and had two bathrooms. Most of the rooms in this hotel have 2 bathrooms and it is definitely something that is helpful and nice.
Now for the bad - and why I gave them only a 1 rating - I will start by saying this hotel is among many in the same area of the city. It is known as "hotel district" due to the relatively quick walks you have to major tourist attractions and businesses within the city. You really can't go wrong with any of the places that you stay in midtown, and your walk could be extended 5-10 minutes at most staying at a different place. This was my first - and last - visit to this hotel. 
The check-in process started a fiasco. This place thrives on tourist travelers, and I think they either (a) take advantage of them or (b) think we are dumb. I have been to the city MULTIPLE times (I come many times a year to visit) and always stay at a hotel in midtown. It is one of my favorite areas to stay. I have never had an issue with check-in or had someone not discuss what I was getting. 
I understand check-in isn't until 3 p.m. (and they will hold you to their 3 p.m. check-in). I have always arrived in NYC at 11:30 a.m. when I visit due to the flight I take. When we arrived, I went to the counter to check-in. They didn't get my id, they took my name, and pushed a few buttons...after about a minute of quiet the woman who was doing check-in gets the keycard sleeve and says "Check-in isn't until 3 p.m. bring this back with you then and we'll get you into your room." I advise her that I was given a free upgrade (since I booked online through their website, I assume they will give you a certificate for a free upgrade). She completely ignored me and goes, "Yeah, you're upgraded." So, I then ask what kind of room I have and what floor it will be located on. She advises me again that check-in is at 3 and shoos me away. At this point I have 6 pieces of large luggage with my party. I can only assume I go to the bell-hop to have them hold my luggage (I do believe the woman told me to take the sleeve for the hotel keys to bellhop, so she could have been helpful there, I don't remember). 
I have had multiple hotels hold my luggage while I wait for my room to be ready. NEVER have I been charged to have them hold luggage during my check-in process (check-out is a different story most of the time). It is only $2 dollars a bag (plus tip, then you add in tipping the bellman that takes the luggage to the room, then to get the luggage out of the room, paying the $2 bag fee again and tipping twice again...you can look at $50 easy between tips and bag fees), but by this point the 3 hours they needed to hold my luggage, and the fact they already have my money, I was realizing this hotel was going to continue to frustrate me. 
There are some extremely nice bellmen and staff, so don't get me wrong, I am not attacking the employees with this (okay, maybe the woman that was assisting me during check-in ), they are just doing their job, what they are told to do. But, in my defense, it is not like I didn't come prepared either. I called the hotel 3 days prior to my stay (like I normally do) and asked the reservationist how booked the hotel was and if it would be possible for early check-in or check-out. Even then the woman on the phone beat around the question and wouldn't give me a straight answer. I guess if I would have caused a scene I could have won whatever fight I wanted to take. 
Now, fast forward. We returned to the hotel at about 2:30 p.m. after walking around for a short time to get familiar with what is close-by (as I mentioned before, for down-home local places with cold drinks for a good price, walk up 3rd avenue about 4 or so blocks and you will hit a bunch of Irish pubs and good, long-term food joints for reasonably priced food). We sat in one of the hotel bars where the bartenders were amazingly nice. I was explaining check-in to them and even they were a little weary on the treatment we were receiving so far. 
At 3 p.m., I went back to the front desk to continue the check-in process and had a man assist me (who really was wonderful and listened attentively). I gave him the sleeve for the room card that was given to me earlier and advised him that I wanted to use the upgrade that was given to me earlier and didn't know if the woman had taken care of it. He then tells me that the room that they had for us was not the upgraded room. He then explains that if I wanted to wait until 4 p.m. then they would have the upgraded room ready. At this point I figured that I would ask about a later check-out of 1 p.m. as opposed to 12 p.m. He kind of chuckled at the request, and said that we will have to see. I figured that was a fair request since check-in is at 3 p.m., I explained to him again that I did advise the previous woman that was assisting me with check-in should have got the correct room ready in a nice, questionable manner. He basically ignored my point. So, needless to say, I didn't get my late-check out and it was never mentioned again after that. I will say, the guy was a lot nicer than the woman at reception about the situation. I did agree to wait until 4 p.m. and went back to the hotel bar and drank (please, go have a drink there and tip those bartenders well. They really are nice people and extremely helpful. They remembered us every time we walked past and made a point to tell us hi and check on how the hotel treatment was). 
So, moving on, at 4 p.m. we were able to get up to the room on the 25th floor. The room is average, as mentioned before, the two bathrooms are a wonderful asset. The thermostat did not work, so it would get extremely muggy in the room. The room had one queen bed and a couch that turned into a sofa. Stick with the two double-beds room if you have more than 2 people staying with you. The sofa bed was extremely worn and springy. The fridge and additional tv are also a nice asset, but it's not like you can use them (which I explain below). The room smelled of something. It wasn't so bad that it made the room unbearable, though. The actual bed in the room is a sleep number bed, so that was nice (though, I took the couch due to the fact I felt that the trip was off to a bad start because of the check-in process). 
I had a family member come over to where I was staying to visit as she lives close by the city. We stayed down in the hotel bar for awhile and decided to go for a trip up to Rockefeller (by this time it was dark). We were outside getting our game-plan in order. One of those silly bike taxis was going past and she yells over to the bellhop to get the peddle taxi (she has lived right outside the city for years and decided she wanted to take one of those for the first time). The bellhop was talking to another co-worker and chose to ignore us (at least that's what we think, we could be wrong, because this bell hop was nice throughout the remainder of the trip), so we went running over to the taxi guy and the bellhop was questioning our theory. He was telling us how expensive it was, yadda yadda yadda. Yes, it was relatively expensive considering Rockefeller is a short walk away ($15), but it really was a fun little ride. 
When I arrived back at the hotel, I called housekeeping to make my couch bed up. They didn't leave any pillows or blankets so you can make it up yourself, so you have to call housekeeping to do this. This is the point where I just got frustrated with the hotel (as a whole) for the remainder of the trip. I called and it took housekeeping over 45 minutes to come up to the room to make the couch. The housekeeper was again extremely nice and friendly. Assuming she was busy, I told her that she can leave the blankets and pillows and I could make the bed up myself, but she insisted on doing her job correctly. Kudos to her. Once the bed is pulled out, you can't get into the fridge or desk unless you put the first half up. There is absolutely no room left in the junior suite for ANYTHING but sleeping; and I mean this literally because housekeeping, at not one point put that couch back into a couch. Let me also add that I had also left housekeeping several notes on the bed asking them to put back to a couch so we can relax and I would call back for them to switch to a bed later in the evening. So now, there is no place to sit and relax, which we wanted to do. Granted, we could all pile onto the bed or sit on the bed where the couch is and had to fight to get into the fridge, but it became a bigger hassle. Then, to start topping things off, I had a $6 charge on the check-out bill, for which I can only assume was to have housekeeping come up and make the bed up for me (so essentially they are getting more money from me that was unnecessary). I never questioned the $6 dollar room charge, and honestly, I figured if I complained to someone we would start to get even worse service than what we were getting at this point. 
The icing on the cake was at 9:30 a.m. on the day we checked out. Housekeeping was banging on the door to let them in. Why you ask? Because they had to clean the room for the next set of guests. At this point, even though I'm checking out, and even though you already had my money, I am STILL your guest. Treat me like one. They then ask when I'm checking out. 12 p.m., like I've explained a million times at this point. It was then I figured that my dreams of a 1 p.m. check-out would be smashed. So, the housekeeping banging on the door at 9:30 a.m.for their next guest was the icing on my cake (I wonder if they let the next person staying in that room an early check-in since they were so adamant to bother me the way they did). 
I did not let the poor customer service, rude and arrogant non-sense and complete stupidity in this hotel ruin my trip. NYC is a wonderful city with plenty of hotels and restaurants. I normally find a hotel and stay there again at least once a year during one of my trips, no matter what the cost. I stayed at this place because I did receive an awesome deal and it fit into the budgets of everyone staying with us (you get what you pay for, I guess). I will NEVER stay at this place again. I felt like I was being looked down at by many of the employees, and the fact I never had use out of the suite, I learned I would have been better off in the double bed room. At least everyone could of relaxed and enjoyed the little time you do spend in the room when visiting. All I can say is, if you choose to stay here, be prepared. Plan your flight accordingly, have cash, and maybe question everything so the employees can start being upfront and honest with answering the questions. My frustration would have been averted and the score would have been a lot better if someone would teach the employees how to answer questions and prepare their guests for their stay, especially when the guest (me) feels I did everything possible to prepare for my stay here.