Nice view from room but rude staff
This is the first time we stayed at the Strand Hotel. We had decided to stay here based on the reviews. We stayed in the Executive rooms, and overall, the room was nice and clean, the view was great (of Empire State Building), the beds were comfortable, but various areas were a let-down.
1) there is not enough room to store luggage and the wardrobe was tiny, 
2) shelve space in the bathroom was very limited and it was impossible not to turn the bathroom into a lake after each shower, 
3) rude staff - we found the reception staff (when we queried our inclusive breakfast room rate and at checkout) were rude and condesending. At checkout, the staff member grabbed my room card and then thrusted the bill in front of me and barked "just sign". When I queried the bill, which was wrong, he didn't appologise, just printed another and thrusted that in front of me. I travel a lot for business and I have never been greeted in this way, especially for a so-called 4 star hotel!
Another thing to bear in mind if you are planning on booking this hotel in the next few months, is that there is some major building works being carried out next door - ie a brand new building is being constructed. There is no mention of this anywhere and the construction noises start from around 6-7am and on a couple of occasions lasted beyond 11pm!
In future, I will stick with my usual NYC hotel and would not return here again.