Had to make a quick trip to NYC on a Biz trip. Booked the Barclay due to the great rate negotiated by my company, a major NY financial institution. I have stayed here before, without incident and liked the location, close to many hedge funds and corp offices.
I hated this stay at the Barclay. It seems the hotel's yield managers have chosen to fill the hotel with low prices and cut the number of staff to save costs. The result is a fully booked hotel and a shortage of staff, so front desk and bell staff can be hard to come by. Service suffers. Had so much trouble trying to find a cab to get to downtown meetings, while the doorman was attending to many other customers. It was a disaster.
A few other digs - my room was totally un-functioning when I arrived. The TV and Internet was not operational. It took a couple of visits from the hotel maintenance man to get things up and running. Also, there is no wireless in the room, just wireline. Luckily I had the dongle for my Air Mac, no problem. One infuriating issue was the the hotel charged me twice for internet access - once for my Air Mac and once for my company PC. I disputed the charge and a very impolite manager accused me of raising my voice (I did feel angry at being ripped off) and steadfastly refused to reverse one of the double charges.
In the end, since I had an early am flight to the west coast, I just checked out and spent my last night in NY at the Holiday Inn near JFK. At less than half the price and just as clean, polite and considerate staff, I finally felt comfortable.
There are a few hotels near the Barclay - Waldorf, Marriot, etc. I will stay next time in one of those hotels and avoid the Barclay.
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