Good, but not great.
I recently stayed at The Empire Hotel with one of my friends for a girls weekend in New York. I won't lie primarily chose this hotel because of it's connection with Gossip Girl and I think that some of the other younger guests did too!
Upon arrival to the hotel, I was pleasantly surprised, after reading the reviews on here I did expect something else. Yes, in the public areas the lighting was moody and the decor dark - but intentionally so. It felt plush and luxurious. So far, so good.
We had a bit of a hiccup with the check in - the hotel had mixed our booking up and had us arriving on the day of our departure! We had the confirmation email with the correct dates, so after a few minutes it was all sorted out. The guy sorting our check in was efficient, friendly and helpful.
Our room was on the 11th floor (room 1133) and after seeing some comments on here I was concerned that it would be noisy with the rooftop bar being above us. Not so - we slept well every single night, the only disturbance was some a few rowdy guests one night... but that's not the hotel's fault.
At first glance our room was lovely, of course it was small but it's Manhattan so I expected nothing less. However, it did seem that a few corners had been cut which really let the room down. The AC unit was one of the oldest units I had ever seen - it appeared to be damaged, rusting and dirty. It worked, but we were unable to change the temperature.
The ceiling also needed a bit of patching up as there was some damage directly above my bed. However, the bed was comfy and the shower great.
We tried out both the lobby bar and the rooftop one, with very different results. We absolutely loved the Gossip Girl themed cocktails in the lobby bar - they were huge and to be honest, the drinks prices compared to the restaurants that we ate at so we didn't mind. The service was great in the lobby bar too.
At the Rooftop however, we found the staff to be rude and a little pretentious. Although there was no one else waiting to be served, we were left waiting over 10 minutes to order a drink. Not great service.
Overall, I felt that the hotel was good, but could be improved - those finishing touches really count in my opinion, as does great service. It's well located for sightseeing and shopping but slightly overpriced for what you get. I would definitely go back and have a cocktail in the lobby bar, but would give the Rooftop a miss.