Ratings are deceiving
I don't want to make this a total bash-fest because there are some positives about the hotel. First, the location is excellent. We were within walking distance of pretty much everything we were doing in NYC. Central Park was a few blocks north, Times Square was about 10 blocks south. Theaters were about 6-8 blocks away. And for the most part the service we received from the front desk staff was decent. I wouldn't say they were overly pleasant, but they weren't rude and accommodated our requests. 
So, with that out of the way let's get to what was disappointing...
1. Rooms were in rough shape... I say rooms because we were a group of 6 (4 adults and 2 kids) and had 2 rooms. Actually, we had 3 rooms due to us having to move out of our first. The first room was really bad. One of the beds was broken. When I finally laid down on it to go to bed I felt like I was sleeping on the side of a hill. I thought it might have just been from a lot of single people sleeping in the middle, but my wife said her side was fine. Upon further inspection, my side was indeed slanted up. I felt like I was going to roll over on top of my wife the entire night. 
When I went to iron my shirt for the play we were seeing, the ironing board wouldn't even stand up. The legs were bent so bad that I had to lean it up against the wall to have any surface to iron on.
The nozzle of the hair dryer was missing and motor was exposed...not really the safest thing in the world.
Then the room would never cool down. We had the unit on the coolest setting and the fan on high and even after being out of the room for hours, it was so stuffy and warm in the room. Our kids had to sleep in their underwear with no sheets...and it was only in the 40s at night. 
There were a bunch of other things such as gum all over the carpet, the dust ruffles on both beds hanging off, wall paper peeling in multiple spots, only 2 bath towels, no coffee maker, a phone that didn't work, etc. that just screamed no quality control.
2. Speaking of quality control...There just was none. The fact that we had 3 different rooms (all 3 were same room type...2 double beds) and there was no consistency between the 3 made my wife (who does corporate sales for a resort hotel) mad. For example, only one had a coffee maker, one had trash can in both bedroom and bathroom, one only had one in the bath and the other only had one in the bedroom area. There was only one room that had the little book that talks about the hotel's amenities, etc. Only one of our rooms was fully stocked with towels. 
3. Caring about issues...I guess this goes both ways. In one sense, the front desk staff was accommodating in that they were willing to move us from our first room when we went down to complain about it. On the other hand, they were almost robotic in their handling of the situation which screamed to me that they do this a lot...red flag. On my first trip to the desk to complain and ask about moving, the gentleman didn't even look up at me. His head was focused on his computer the whole time. He asked questions as he typed but never once looked at me. Finally, after telling me we could store our bags (for $3.75 per item...more on this later) and come back after 4pm to move to a new room, I finally asked him if he wanted to know WHY we wanted to move. Not once did even want to know what the issues were in the room. When I asked to be moved, he immediately went into his robotic script on the procedure. After asking if he wanted to know why I was requesting a move, he scrambled to find paper and pen and "jotted" down what I was saying. It must have been in short hand because I was unable to read anything he wrote down on the half sheet of paper he pulled from under some book. Lord knows if this ever made it to the maintenance department.
4. Bag storage...OK, maybe this is normal in NYC and I just need to suck it up, but I was floored to find out that it was going to cost me $3.75 per item to store our bags before check-in or after check-out. And when I say item, I mean item. A suit case is one item, an umbrella is one item, a hat is one item. We have a suitcase that can stack a carry-on on top...when I asked if we could count that as one, they guy simple pointed to a sign on the was and said "$3.75 per item". To be fair, that was the only person that I could say was actually rude at the hotel. ANYWAY...I have been to many hotels in many other cities...Las Vegas, Boston, Baltimore, etc and have never been asked to pay $3.75 to check a bag when I was either going to check-in, or check-out. Heck, my son and I have stayed in NYC for Yankee games before and I don't remember ever being asked to pay to check a bag. Sure, I would tip the bellman, but never pay for the actual checking. 
In conclusion, I will just say that I was extremely disappointed in this experience. I have been to NYC every year for the past 10 years for one reason or another and always try to stay at a different place. This is the first time I was every disappointed in a stay. I always say that I just need a room and a shower, that my trip is all about what I am doing outside of the hotel, not what is going on inside. Well, I have been lucky for 9 years because I can finally say that the hotel DOES matter. I had a great time on my trip with my family, but will never again underestimate the importance of where I stay. This hotel definitely took away from our overall experience. I will pay the extra money the next time. The savings were definitely not worth it.