Size certainly isn't everything...
OK people lets get a grip on this place. Firstly, I agree the location can't be faulted. Close to Central Park and a short stroll to Times Square and a metro station at the end of the street. I also agree that the rooms are big for NYC standards and I will also go on to add that the beds are pretty comfy. This is where my praise stops however and I don't know where to begin. Upon arrival check was very quick. Nearly as quickly as it took for me and my brother to enter our room before turning round and going back downstairs. The room we had been given had only one bed in it. I had booked a room with 2 double beds and not only had I booked that room I emailed the hotel a week prior to our arrival to confirm that our room had 2 double beds and I had received a reply confirming this. When we went back down to the reception to inform the lady who checked us in she looked confused bur proceeded to find us a room with 2 beds. The other member of staff at the desk said to her as she was checking "We don't have many rooms with 2 doubles available tonight" in a manner that was suggesting to her not to bother. Luckily for us she persevered and eventually found us a room. As with the first room that we were allocated the room we were impressed by the size. However the overall tattyness soon became apparent. The carpet in the rooms and the hallways is so worn its threadbare in a lot of places and I think that it may be the original carpet that was laid when the building was built. The rooms themselves are uncomfortably warm during both day at night and the only way to cool them down is with the incredibly loud air conditioning system. Not good when you are trying to sleep. If you like to get a proper nights sleep this is NOT the hotel for you. I would srongly suggest that no one stay here during the height of Summer as I can only imagine its unbearable. We stayed there for 4 nights in October and didn't get a proper nights sleep on any of those nights due to this problem. Due to the fact that it is an old apartment building the aircon unit is an external one which also means that when there is heavy rain it hammers against the unit outside making trying to sleep even more difficult. The fridge in the kitchenette did not work and had stagnant water in the bottom and teetered unevenly on uncarpeted concrete. The sink in the bathroom took an eternity to drain and the shower taps had to be turned about 8 times before any water came out. Upon leaving we had arranged with the very helpful bellman for a car to pick us up and we had left our bags in the storage room at the hotel. The bellman was busy at the time our car turned up and for some reason the same member of staff who had commented about the lack of rooms with double beds on our arrival seemed to feel that it was beneath him to get the bags for us and made us wait for the bellman to return some 5-10 mins later by which point the NYPD had moved our car along causing a further 15 minute delay as the car had to go round the block in the 5.30pm traffic. From what I saw from our stay the bellmen are treated by certain members of the front desk as lower class citizens and are spoken to with utter contempt in front of customers for no apparent reason and as if it is normal behaviour within the hotel. I have stayed at a number of different hotels across Manhattan during my many trips to the city ranging from the Ritz Carlton in Battery Park to a stand alone 2* hotel in Korea Town and the Salisbury is by far and away the most disappointing hotel I have stayed in this great city.