worst experience ever at a hotel
Lets start with the good things. Location, great. Steps from central park, columbus circle, time square, and the subway is five steps from the door. The concierge staff is really nice and helpful, so does Lina at the front desk, sweetest girl, always a smile on her face and willingness to help in anything we needed.
Now the bad. The rooms. If you don't request a room with a view of the street, prepare yourself to be put inside a box. We had to stick our heads out and look up to see if it was sunny or cloudy thanks to a HUGE wall outside. Bathroom tiles were holding on to the wall with the help of masking tape. Beds were awfully done. The walls were dirty.
We changed rooms. Lina at the front desk helped us with that, she is really nice and should teach a thing or two to the rest of the front desk staff. 17th floor. View of the street. It was an overall better room. Someone dropped the iron on the carpet, and the burn mark is still there, and the safe didn't work so we had to leave our passports and other valuables in a safe in the front desk which gave us a lot of problems. Everything that is said on the hall outside the room and the rooms next to ours was heard, and there were doors being loudly unlocked at 1 am. The cleaning lady never dusted, just made the beds and changed the towels. The morning we were leaving, I found two small cockroaches in the bathroom.
The staff is not only serious (which is understandable, i guess, the hotel has A LOT of movement) but most of them are rude and not polite at all. My mom and I always felt like we were borrowing their services instead of paying for them. My mom was yelled at and treated like a thief when she tried to take our passports out of the safe. After she wasn't ALLOWED to take our passports out, I went down to get them and found a big, green note on our safety box checking out card that asked not to give the box to an individual with the following characteristics, and a full description of my mom. I had never been treated like a thief in a hotel in my life! I understand they "do it so our things are really safe" but they should know who their guest are, we had already spoken several times with the same lady that didn't let my mom pick up her passport.
Also, if you by mistake leave something in your room after your check out, prepare yourself to never seeing it again. I left two very emotionally valuable things by mistake (it was 3 am the time i checked out). I called after I arrived home to check if they could ship them out for me or someone could pick them up, and after calling 3 different times, being told there was no lost and found department, and one call later being directed to the lost and found department, they said the cleaning lady never saw anything in the room. I've have had stuff returned from roadside hotels, I can't believe they couldn't do it in this hotel.
According to their website, they are a 3.5 star hotel, but they seem like a 2 star. I don't recommend it at all, there are better hotels in new york were you can get your money's worth.