Non-approved charges - TWICE - from this property!
At the start of the trip things seemed fine. We checked in an hour or two early, and the front desk person told us that she could put us in a room in a slightly higher floor that was a little larger than the one we reserved, for no charge. We thought - why not! When we woke up the last morning of our stay, we saw that the bill in fact did have a higher per-night charge than the one I had booked the room under. It took about 30 mins downstairs with the front desk person to get the charge reversed, as he needed to get his manager.
Unfortunately that was not where the story ends. Upon receiving my credit card statement, I saw that in addition to the charge for the hotel room, there was an additional ~$90 charge (on the day of our check-out on March 4th). Since I or my finace didn't use any of the hotel services other than the room, we knew that this was not a charge we made. I went online, and followed the procedure outlined by the hotel - emailing their accounting department. Supposedly emails are answered within 48 hours - it has been 7 weeks and I am still waiting. I did follow-up with them a week or so after I sent the original email, and had to leave a voicemail since no one ever answers the phone in their accounting department, informing them that I would be disputing the charge with my credit card company. After disputing the charge, the documentation that was provided to the credit card company (that they just sent me) is only from the intermediary processor of the charge and on it NO WHERE is my signature or any documentation of what was received for this charge. This documentation apparently is sufficient for the credit card company, and they instructed me to contact the merchant to continue to dispute the charge. Since the merchant has not answered any of my inquiries by phone or email, please consider this the 3rd format in which I am contacting you.
Unless you want to deal with a company that does not keep its promises (e.g. charging you more per night for a complementary upgrade) and on top of it then making unauthorized charges on your credit card and not stepping up to the plate to deal with their errors I would not want even my worst enemy to stay at or be a patron of the Empire Hotel. 
Good location, close to subway, Columbus Circle, etc. Oh, and although the rooms are modern in look, they are quite tiny. And who designs a shower so that the water leaks out to the main area of the bathroom?