My wife and I booked via a conference agency, to stay for 8 days June-July 2012.
We visit New York approximately every 2 years for work, pleasure and to meet with family and friends.
We requested a refrigerator and a non-smoking room. We were not warned of the absence of what, in retrospect, we would expect as standard guest facilities.
At check-in, we were not given any information regarding the functioning of the hotel, there was no room guide, we were warned (by the bell-hop) not to move the contents of the in-house beverage cooler as removal of any item, even if replaced, would be automatically added to our account. We were told that a refrigerator had been supplied. This was placed in the middle the wall of the room.
We were not warned that our "Central Park" view room also had a full view of the skyscraper height crane immediately outside our window, which operated from 6.30am-3pm except Sunday. The rooms do not have adequate sound proofing to block the continuous noise from the crane motor. It is true we were offered a room on the other side after complaining about not being warned at check-in, but re-packing is no small task and my wife declined. There appears to be no customer relations response, as there was no contact made to see how we were faring. There was no mention of staff assistance with any proposed move. At least the crane did not work at night.
The room was adequate without being luxurious, the fittings reasonable, the bed and pillows comfortable cleaning service timely and good. The toiletries are average. The window blinds do not provide sufficient black-out and daylight intrudes even earlier than building activities.
Clothes storage space is sub-optimal for more than one person. The room safe is awkward to access if there are objects inside the closet. The TV is large, flat screen and HD but seems to offer only limited cable TV without an apparent menu of other entertainment available. Fortunately this is New York, so we were not dependent on the in-room entertainment system and its limitations.
The absolute absence of any added features e.g. in-room coffee making facility, news-paper delivery without cost, $10/person daily charge for gym use (I paid and attended the excellent spin classes on 3 occasions) , $15/person daily charge for pool use, $17.50 for internet use (ironically free to passers-by in the lobby who are not in other ways contributing to the costs of running the facility) , not to mention the absence of included breakfast of any sort, was disappointing when compared with our previous experience with Le Meridien properties. In our opinion, it marks the establishment as having a management which judges its clientele as exploitable. For example, additional services for laundry were, risibly, well above those of the local laundry about 100 metres away, the quote for a car to return to JFK 4 times higher than publically advertised car services or hailed taxicabs.
The experience has resulted in a decision never to use the property again and to caution friends and relatives visiting the area, to seek alternatives where some of the additional services such as internet are provided in the basic tariff.
As the hotel had already been paid for, via the conference agent (the conference rate being the same as is available on the web-site to any member of the public), there was really no redress for any of these issues. However, at check-out, I was presented with an account which included a $40 daily charge for the refrigerator, totalling $320 for an $80 item! I explained to the staff member that I had been told it would be $11 daily. She needed to leave the desk to see her manager to deal with this. Given our previously articulated dissatisfaction with the room noise and absence of additional services, this particular issue confirmed our assessment of the property and its management policies in relation to its clients and since the tariff is about the same as for many other properties in the area, a review of the cost-benefits of the current guest facility policies might be considered.
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