CWY

Greetings,

Having read through all 40 pages of this thread over the course of 24hrs, I am fairly certain that I am not making a redundant post; apologies, in advance, if I am (it's only my third one on the entire forum since my enrolment here)!

PRE CHECK-IN

In anticipation of my 27th birthday this 15th of February, I reserved a two-bedroom Towers Residential Apartment for a two-day stay sometime before Thanksgiving as a Blue Tier HH member with easy cancellation and a nightly rate of ~$866 using the US Soccer Federation Discount Code.

I decided to check up on the details of my reservation on the HH app sometime in mid-January to find that my reservation was reflecting an upgrade from a Residential Apartment to a Historic Suite. Completely over the moon about this news, I called the Towers Desk to confirm that this was not an error. A representative confirmed that the upgrade, was—indeed—accurate, but that the reservation itself could change constantly up until the day of check-in. With fingers crossed and breath held, I closed my eyes and hoped that it wouldn't.

Now paranoid about the status of my reservation, I began to check the HH app obsessively, until—eventually—it showed that my reservation had been downgraded to a Towers Luxury Guestroom, and my grand total of ~$2,000 for the two-day stay was now a mere $7.00.

Convinced that was entirely impossible (ie too good to be true), I decided that I would just patiently wait for the day of check-in on the 13th of February to show up and enquire about any questions or concerns that I might have with my reservation.

CHECK-IN

Arriving to the hotel around 17h30 after a brunch in Williamsburg, I checked in and was informed that I was in my original 2-bedroom Residential Apartment, after all. In addition, I was informed that I would enjoy two free bottles of water per day, free internet access, and access to the Astoria lounge. Oddly enough, I did not feel compelled to request the Historic Suite; I did not want to come off as snobby, particularly since I was paying a discounted rate.

SUITE 37H/H2

Excited, I took the lift up to my suite, 37H/H2, and opened the doors to be overcome with a bit of disappointment. While this was certainly the largest room I have ever stayed in at the Towers (1-bedroom 41F formerly held that title), I was—somehow—expecting something much larger due to the website photos.

The 37H entrance opened up to a foyer complete with powder room, kitchenette (with one jammed pocket door), and coat closet. Beyond a set of double doors was the parlour, complete with a large, wall-mounted flat screen TV, three-cushion sofa, three side chairs, love seat, work station, 6-person dining table, and numerous side tables. While smaller than I had hoped for, the room—as all others in the suite—offered a nice view of the Chrysler building through an abundance of windows.

Walking back towards the entrance, and turning right from the foyer is the corridor that leads to the bedding quarters (dressing boudoir with attached toilet and King-sized bedroom) for 37H. Nothing particularly fascinating here, but still nice. In regards to this particular area of the suite, my only gripe is that the shower stall was small; so small in fact that the water pressure was too powerful for such a small space—there was water everywhere by the time I was done showering. With that said, however, I'd prefer too much water to no water which was the situation on the morning of the 14th. With six guests staying with me—all of whom had never been to the W=A—it was quite embarrassing to find that they could not even brush their teeth until around noon and without any advanced notice of the inconvenience.

Anyway, back to the layout of the flat. Turning back down the corridor and walking in the opposite direction is a small hallway that leads to the smaller, connecting (I'm assuming Luxury Guest room) 37H2. Here we have a much smaller bathroom—with an equally small shower—and a King-sized bedroom. I did, however, prefer the colour scheme of this bedroom which was decorated in hues of blue, red, and gold compared to the general pale yellow/beige colour scheme of the main bedroom suite.

Overall, the size of the suite was not so bad. The parlour fit three rollaway beds with ease, and each bedroom fit a rollaway bed with room to still walk; I was really pleased with the overall experience.

TYPES OF PERKS

In addition to the complimentary water bottles, free wiFi (which did not connect, but it never does for me besides when in the lobby), and access to the Astoria Lougnge for daily breakfast and mid-afternoon snacks, the hotel had a complimentary fruit and cheese platter with red wine delivered to the room an hour or so after check-in. Additionally, I was granted two vouchers with tax and gratuity for two (4 people in total) for a full breakfast at the Bull & Bear Restaurant on the morning of checkout. Unfortunately for me, I was en route to work straight from the hotel, so the vouchers went to waste. Not sure if they were just a courtesy for being in a room of that size, staying over Valentine's Day weekend, or what have you because I am only a Blue Tier HH member, and no reference was made to my birthday which was that morning in any of the notifications or at checkout. Oh, well.

Not a perfect experience, but good enough; bottom line is that compared to stays at the Plaza or the St. Regis, this is the best bang for my buck when looking for a hotel with suites of exceptional size, even if the rooms could use some TLC.

I am definitely going to try and shoot for an upgrade next time I go which will probably be the 4th of July or NYE; I think I have earned it.

PedroNY

Just to follow up on our stay here. As a Diamond, they upgraded us a couple of categories up, it was a spacious room. I booked a base room for I think $160/night (sale in November). The room was great, everything was fine, great big TV -- nice to see they finally upgraded some rooms with newer LED tvs.

As always, we check in around 3:00PM, when Diamond Check-in is open. We chatted with Mary, she was very helpful, as always. With this property, I always call a day before our check-in to prime up the Diamond Check-in folks, they really do try to make the stay special. She gave us total of 6 vouchers for drinks, so we can go "bar hopping" at the WA-NYC. We did just that, we had a drink at all 3 of their bars.

The whole night was great, we were treated well, we got an upgrade, extra drink vouchers, as you only are suppose to get 2. Another good stay. Honestly, we enjoy this property. No complaints. Set your expectations to what it is suppose to be, this is not Conrad Tokyo.

Cheers,

PedroNY

smmrfld

Now that's funny! Let's see...one previous stay at this property and HH Blue. Hope springs eternal, I guess.

CWY

I have stayed at the hotel plenty of times over the last seven years, and have received complimentary upgrades just as often, just not as an HH member.

My comment on believing that I have earned the right to outright request an upgrade next time around stems more from the fact that it was incredibly disappointing to pay what I did for a room that was without running water for nearly four hours with no advanced notice and no recognition of the inconvenience at checkout.

I must correct a point made in my previous post, however, as I did receive a complimentary upgrade from a two bedroom residential apartment to a Presidential Style suite with connecting room; I simply did not find it to be a major upgrade based upon the descriptions on the website, but I could be wrong.

smmrfld

So what exactly did the FD manager say when you brought it up at checkout? I'm assuming you discussed it, since you somehow know that the hotel had advance notice of the impending issue yet chose to not notify its guests.

CWY

I don't recall exactly what I was told in regards to this issue, so I hope that a paraphrasing will suffice for you.

When I woke up to the realisation that the water in my suite was not running on the morning of the 14th, I promptly called the front desk to enquire as to whether or not it was an isolated issue and if it could be rectified in a timely manner or not. At this point, the front desk representative confirmed that the Towers portion of the hotel was experiencing "scheduled maitenance" and that they hoped to have water up and running by 12 p.m, which it was. When I enquired as to why there had been no prior notification, I was informed that all rooms should have received a voice message in regards to this issue. I did not.

Unfortunately, I did not have the time to re-address this issue at checkout as I was in a rush to make it to work on time, but I was certain to detail the experience in the survey sent to me following my departure.

I hardly think it is out-of-line to think that a recompense of some sort is a fitting way to say "We're sorry for the inconvenience," especially considering that I have stayed—and will stay—time and time again.

BrlDsguise

And you paid $7.00 for two nights?

CWY

The $7.00 was a glitch on the HH iPhone app; I paid ~$2,300.00—including minibar and rollaway bed charges—for the entire stay.

Gold39

I was also at the Towers last Saturday. They told me the water was out because the pipes were frozen....seems reasonable given how monumentally cold it was, I can't say I'll be expecting any compensation.

smmrfld

Agree. Nor birthday greetings.

CWY

To each their own.

CWY

You're just a bundle of sunshine, aren't you, smmrfld?

I wasn't expecting any birthday greetings; my point was that—being only an HH Blue member—I was uncertain as to why I received the welcome tray, dining vouchers, etc as I've never received anything of the sort before and could only assume that it was related to staying at the hotel for my birthday. As there was no mention of it, however, I am just confused is all.

If you spent less time taking everything I say so personally, smmrfld, perhaps my posts would not offend you as much as they seem to be. ^

smmrfld

You give yourself too much credit. I neither take your anecdotes personally nor take offense to your actions. Life is much too short.

gkbiiii

Are the large 300+ foot King Luxury Rooms, the best buy? They are $100 less than a One Bedroom Suite, but look large in the pictures. What are your thoughts: also are the Towers worth it?

Also, is the $100 credit hotel package worth it, with double points earnings?

gkbiiii

Also, are the suites worth the extra $$ compared to the basic rooms/towers?