boonkoh

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
I booked Superior King, got upgraded to Exec King. Upgrade showed within a few days in Upcoming Reservations.

Later on, a few days before the stay, I whacked on two weekend nights, but made the booking via Hotwire mystery hotel. I had called up the hotel before asking them to match the Hotwire rate (they refused) but I was offered a free upgrade to Exec King (from Superior Queen) since I had a 5 night stay after the 2 night Hotwire stay.

I thought that was very generous of them!

How are the rooms?
Exec King was great. Good size. Everything new. Got a 14th floor room, so no noise at all. Faced a brick wall. Wifi was really fast. One of the better business hotel experiences I've had definitely.

Niggles - no sockets on desk or below desk. Housekeeping was a bit erratic, forgot to replenish some toiletries some days. Only got Agraria toiletries. Complained about free bottled water, so ended up getting two bottles a day from the third day onwards. Coffee machine is the cheap Keurig kind.

The size of the Exec King would be considered standard in most other cities, but I guess in NYC it is pretty decent.

How is the exec. lounge?
Did not use. Nor was I offered paid lounge access when I checked in.

What was good and what was bad?
Location is pretty good, just a few blocks from Times Square, lots of subway lines around. Nice lobby.

Got the 2x free drinks voucher during check-in. It was that, some free points, or free water and fruits daily (but I ended up getting the free water anyways) so the free drinks voucher is worth it as the bar is pretty nice.

Breakfast was an exorbitant $50/head, so I didn't go for it. I wasn't offered a cheaper price either as an Ambassador or Platinum member either.

Free newspaper was only in the lobby (New York Times) and available to everyone anyways, not just Ambassadors.

Overall I don't think they go out of the way to please Ambassador members here.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points?
NA - cash stay.

Would you return?
Yes! I paid $250/night for Sunday to Friday, and with the free Ambassador upgrade I think I would have been hard pressed to find something similar in NY at the same room standard. But there are flaws here, and I suspect if you can go to $300/night, or willing to book Hotwire/Priceline or 3rd party sites, there are better options out there.