My boyfriend and I booked this hotel for Monday, September 15th ($300 for the night), and arrived on to this 'building site' early in the morning. It's quite close to Central Park (this hotels only apparent positive) so we took a wander around there and we checked in later on in the afternoon. We had to drag our bags up three flights of stairs as there was no lift (a kind builder helped us!) and the carpets were FILTHY with tiny, claustrophobic hallways. Our room was absolutely appalling - tiny, dirty, a hard bed with an uncomfortable plastic cover on the mattress, a shabby desk and chair with a tiny bathroom. The towels looked very suspect. The room was dark and looked onto an alleyway with an archaic air conditioning unit.
We tried to stay out of the room for as long as possible for the day. When we came back, exhausted from our day of sightseeing, there was a fire alarm going off in one of the rooms down the hallway. We visited Reception twice and called them from our room, as did other disgruntled guests we met in the hall. We received a frosty and impatient response that the Maintenance guy would 'look into it' - it took him two hours to do so.
After very little sleep, we ran out of this hotel at 8.30am. I made a complaint at Reception but didn't get any satisfaction as they said this hotel was advertised as being under construction and we should have duly received a discount for where we stayed from Expedia - none of this was relayed to me at my time of booking. Who would knowlingly book into a building site? We were eventually given the number for Expedia's Sales Support in the US - after two unsuccessful and stressful 10 minute phone calls, they couldn't even locate us on their system?? I will definitely be following this up with them.
I think the positive reviews are for the more updated other side of the hotel (they even have a lift!), but avoid the older side at all costs - particularly if it's going to cost you 300 bills a night.
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