Air of neglect.....
We stayed at the Roger Smith in early October. The good aspects are the large room (we had a 'junior suite'), the comfortable, big bed, the central location of the hotel, and the free wi-if.
However, beyond the lobby, the hotel has an overall feeling of neglect hanging over it, and needs a thorough clean - the carpet in our room was filthy. Although the junior suite had a microwave and fridge (based in a cupboard) there were no plates, cutlery etc, so don't quite see the point. The very small bathroom needed up-dating - the shower was over the bath, with a rather yucky shower curtain.
Another disturbing aspect was the 'grade pending' notice on the front window - the hotel kitchen had received a pretty damning hygiene report from NYC inspectors (being nosy I looked on their website) in April. If I was running a hotel, I would not care to have that advertised to all and sundry... and I think gives an indication of the overall attitude. Not sure what happens if you have booked breakfast with your room, which we hadn't.
We enjoyed our holiday in New York, but would not stay again at this hotel.