First, a week before we stayed at the Empire I had done a web search to research the cool things about the area around the hotel and the hotel itself. As I was reading I came upon a great deal that was 130.00 less than I paid through the hotel website. I called the hotel to discuss this and suggested I cancel my reservation with them and rebook through this other internet site. The lady I spoke to on the phone was very nice and said no need, she would adjust it. Very nice and I thanked her. Weeeellllll, when I arrived they charged me the original price and when I explained, the lady at the front desk looked me straight in the eye and said, "prove it". I had no proof on me because the lady on the phone had assured me it was no problem at all. She said I could be lying and unless I had proof the price was as is. I didn't want to get in an argument so left but it really bothered me. I was dumbfounded. I have never been talked to like that before in NYC. People are usually so nice.I finally did go back and when the same lady saw me she didn't even say anything and just pointed for me to talk to another guy. I did and explained again and he changed the price within 2 minutes. The whole thing was embarrassing and time consuming. I have stayed in NYC 6-8 times a year for the last 6 years and every other hotel has been really nice. The way the front desk talked to me really took me off guard.
Then we get to our tiny drab room. I am use to NY boutique hotels and don't expect a big room so was OK, but the heater was broken(I was relieved to see others mention this) and I know our room was 90 degrees. This was in January 2012. It snowed that night and it felt like it was a sweltering hot summer night. I couldn't find a thermostat so decided to deal with it when we got back from dinner. At 11:00 my husband and daughter went to Sleep No More and I went to relax in the room. It was soooo hot. I called the front desk and they told me to open the heater and turn it down from the inside and if that didn't work to find the extension cord under the unit and unplug it. Well the knob on the inside of the heater didn't work at all so I had to unplug it which sparked and believe it or not it still was putting out a tiny bit of heat. I called to see if I could get a fan and after 1/2 hour a maintenance man showed up looking embarrassed with a tiny plastic fan that was duct taped together. So I put the fan on the bedside table and slept on top of the bed(no top sheet on the bed...yuck). When my husband got in at 3am his first words were, "whoa it is hot in here!".
Also, if you plan on going to the rooftop bar check ahead of time. There was a private party the night we were there and we couldn't go up. The lobby bar was nice, though. I asked to go up the next morning to take a picture of the sign and was told it didn't open until 5pm no exceptions.
The lobby is nice and the location is beautiful but the rooms and service make me never want to go back. It is a hotel I am glad to forget. There are many other better hotels. For the price I like the Ace. No wonder Tablet Hotels doesn't feature them. I was sent a survey on my stay and explained this whole thing and never even heard back. Management probably doesn't really care unless there are good comments.
The reason we went to this hotel in the first place is a young film producer we know had worked on a film there and thought it was nice. Obviously he didn't spend the night.
hotel reviews