Great location, Fabulous lobby, okay rooms
In town for a conference and booked through Hotwire. Got a fabulous rate of $135 for a small, double bed room. Lots of good points to this hotel. Staff was friendly, lobby/entrance well appointed and location is exceptionally convenient. But lots of bad points too. Elevators were dead slow and stopped at floors where no people were there. The room itself was tiny, tiny, tiny. I was glad my colleague had to cancel at the last minute as it was way too small for two people. I liked the in-room fridge and the bathroom had all the necessities. Overall, the room and bath were a little grubby but acceptable. My main problem was that someone nearby was smoking (10 floors away from the nearest smoking floor) and it was venting INTO my bathroom. After a couple of days, I finally convinced someone to duct tape a piece of cardboard over the bathroom vent and that seemed to solve the problem. Breakfast had a great fruit salad and selection of okay pastries and bagels. There is no in-room coffee supplies and coffee is not available in the lobby until 7am weekdays and 7:30 weekdays. This was frustrating when I had to be at 8am meetings (no time to eat). I don't see why coffee can't be put out in the lobby at 6 or 6:30 when staff was clearly walking around with cups of coffee themselves. I also found the signs 'begging' for tips at breakfast rather offensive. Either pay your staff appropriately or do not have a maitre'd and server for a self-serve buffet. Why should I tip to be seated and to receive a bill that says "0.00"? Seems totally unnecessary. Overall, this was good value for NYC. Don't know if I would have paid the listed rates, but for the Hotwire rate, I was willing to put up with the inconveniences.