The Real Deal Says - Our Values Don't Match
As many of you know I am very detailed when describing hotels since I fly about 150,000 miles a year and have done so for 20 years. I expect that i will get a good room with good service for a good price. In NYC I expect a smaller room with a higher price with better service. I wish I could give Royalton the same positives I have given other NYC places but the weirdness just throws you for a loop. I have included pictures - the first time in 80 reviews because I just don't get the reason they do things the way they do. It is as if they have chosen form over function at every turn. The hotel is in an OK part of town not good but OK. It is on a side street near Times Square which is tourist and the issues therein - central. When i arrived at the hotel there was a party going on. It was raining so I walked there with luggage. Instead of being greeted by the doorman taking my bags putting out an umbrella a young guy with a head set asked if I was staying at the hotel. No I walked up the 5 steps in the rain with luggage to see if they were serving brunch. I got to the first room - I had written please make it a quiet room and they sent me to the third floor which looks out over the veranda and is literally on the street. The second room was much higher and quieter. The hotel hall ways are set up like a 1950's cruise ship. Narrow corridors and all along the walls you have large rivets for no obvious reason. I upgraded to a luxury suite for more room and got a very large room that was totally uncomfortable. I documented this as I could not believe the choices they made. Take a look at the bed picture. It is a mattress on a plywood frame like in college. No box spring. Take a look at the closet door it is 16 inches wide two inches wider than my coat hanger. I don't know how two people could fit in this room. The only large mirror in the place is the one in the shower which is a thousand miniature disco mirrors. It was hard to see if your outfit was on right. Another picture is the one of the sink area. There was literally enough room for a toothbrush and a razor and shave cream. That was it. Everything else you put on the floor or the bathtub top. I have a picture of a chair with no back legs. Talk about useless. I personally live in a Bau Haus designed home so I understand form and structure since the Bau Haus gave up Eames and Gropius and other design people. But why have uncomfortable chairs and beds and lighting and mirrors. The doorway to the bedroom is so narrow that I could not walk into it without banging a shoulder every time and I am only 5'9". There was no top sheet on the bed just a comforter which makes it either too hot or until they fixed the A/C on the second night too cold since it ran full blast without stopping. When I asked for a sheet they said that is a special request? Really a top sheet is special at $400+ a night. At this price and with so many purposefully uncomfortable choices, the hotelier seems to have abandoned the customer experience to designers and hoped that the hippness would win out. It didn't and I am sorry for those who go here and are not prepared for this style choice.