We stayed here for 6 nights recently and found that the location of the hotel was quite good for touring New York City. However, the rooms were very dated and looked, frankly, a bit worn out. The ensuite bathroom in particular looked in need of attention. The shower curtain smelled a bit, the bath was very shallow and in general it looked like it lacked care and attention. I was surprised that free shower gel wasn't provided as this seems to be a fairly standard offering nowadays.
The food in the hotel was ok. I was surprised to find that breakfast wasn't the usual Holiday Inn buffet, but just a menu-based affair - actually this worked out better for us, because they offered nice big bowls of fresh fruit and you just paid for what you ate - so if you don't feel like very much, you don't have to pay for the whole buffet. We went for dinner there one evening and it was nice. The menu isn't bad. The bar is small but pleasant and they serve a range of bar snacks like chicken wings, sandwiches etc and this can be handy if you happen to be around the hotel at lunchtime.
TIP: Don't miss Kennedy's Irish bar just across the road and down a block. They have a lovely restaurant, great food, huge portions and there's a very nice ambience.
Staff in the Holiday Inn were friendly on the whole, but some were quite cold. The concierge was very helpful with tour bookings and booking us a stretch limo back to the airport - it was a nice touch ... he asked if we had children and when I said yes, he said he'd make sure we got a stretch limo. We were very excited!!
I found that there was little or no sound-proofing between rooms and the noise of tvs blaring could be heard through the night - this would normally drive me mad, but NYC wore me out so generally I was able to sleep through it. When we were there there seemed to be quite a few school groups staying in the hotel and that might have been the cause of the excess volume of the TVs!
All in all, I'd recommend the hotel for its location and price, but would call it (relatively) cheap and cheerful rather than luxurious and pleasant!
hotel reviews