The hype of this hotel is totally lost on me. Don't get me wrong, the hotel was nice and rather warm and pleasant for its size (though not particularly memorable) and fairly well-located. Perhaps I was wrong to assume that the service would be a cut above other chains or perhaps we were just a bit unlucky, but the little things did add up for us:
- it was raining so we asked the bellhop to hail us a cab for five (e.g. the Toyota vans, but a lot of Escapes and even Crown Victorias will do it, too). He simply said "no", without explanation. We then asked him to call one for us, he again said "no", then walked away. We just hailed it ourselves then. (To be fair, in the same situation the next day, the other bellhop was very nice and got us a cab for five in less than a minute)
- we chose the hotel partly because two people in our party were preparing for a marathon. The complimentary "running kit" advertised on their web site and on the night stand was eagerly awaited, but eventually none were available during our entire 4-day stay. This kit, among other things, consisted of such things like a wet towel upon arrival, stretch bands, a NYC running map, etc. Even if you run out of such things, at least they could have procured more or assembled part of the kit. Instead, they told us to try again tomorrow (until tomorrow became the day we checked out) For a hotel that labels itself "fitness", I don't find this acceptable.
- despite a specific request in the online reservation and calling ahead to confirm, the sofa bed was not made up and we eventually had to request that they prepare it after arriving at night.
- the shower changed temperatures from hot to cold and vice versa continuously, so you had to change the setting constantly to make sure not to freeze/burn. Very low water pressure also (OK, I'll sacrifice something for the 30th floor view)
- I had authorized another member of my party to check in before me, and when I called the hotel to see if he had arrived, they said no; he ended up waiting for me for two hours because he had in fact arrived already.
- Lastly, any hotel that still charges for wireless internet doesn't fully merit a five-star rating in my opinion. At least most chains (e.g. Westin) will give you free use of the business center internet or lobby internet when they charge for in-room access, but not even that at the Affinia Dumont. I don't understand how hotels can seem so committed to the customer's experience yet charge for something so basic. The result is we didn't use the Internet (a minor inconvenience) and the hotel didn't make any money from us, they only inconvenienced us a bit. Same deal for the $7 water bottles in the room.
Again, these are small things, but to be worthy of such high tripadvisor rankings/awards and rates around $500 (even in NYC), you have to do better than what we experienced at the Affinia Dumont. I can think of a few other hotels like the Sofitel and even the Tower level of the (Ramada) New Yorker where I've had better stays in the same/lower price category.
To end on a more positive note, my favorite parts were the view from the 30th floor (no complaints there, gorgeous Chrysler building views) and the generally helpful staff (e.g. when we wanted a vase on Mother's Day, it was brought to the room immediately). It was also nice that we had a mini-kitchen with a big fridge in the room.
I guess my two cents are that the Affinia is a pretty good choice for a city hotel, but there are a range of other options out there, too!
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