i dont know about the other Ws, but im actually not impressed at the W in time square. i was given like a corner room or spectacular room ug or something like that (im above floor 40)-appreciated, but the checkin experience was just horrendous. i had a z3h prepaid res. where you pay for first 2 nights and get the 3rd free. so it was 638 for three nights. got to the hotel at about 3:15 in the morning extremely tired as my iad to jfk flight was delayed about 5 hours (initially due to atc, then mechanical failure, then the captain couldnt fly because we couldnt get the plane off the ground in time so we had to wait for another captain). anyway, i get there, and they say-im sorry sir, your credit card was declined. i said, ok, it should work, try it now. she said, ok at 319 per night thats going to be 957 plus tax. when i showed her my confirmation, she argued with me about how i lost that deal because my card was declined (they never called me or notified me that my card was declined). she said that i could try to get it fixed tomorrow and asked me if i wanted to just set it up for the one night. so i did, went down earlier today to get it fixed. the guy had a lot of trouble doing it, had to call a manager, then said, ok we can do it for you. i gave him my card, he ran it, and said it was declined. i said it should work, and i proceeded to call amex. amex said they were trying to charge 1271 on the card. when i told the guy what the amex rep (who was still on the phone said), he said, yes, we take an authorization charge. i said, for double the amount? he then proceeded to tell me how my reservation was 319 for the first 2 nights and 160 for the third night. then after a lot more arguing, he was able to confirm that it should be 638 for the three nights, and asked if he could run the card again. he then said, sorry it was declined. meanwhile i asked the amex rep who was still on the phone, and he said they tried to authorize for 1271 again. now i was really angry (and so was the amex rep who was "wasting his time"). he finally got his manager out, who said that if i had 162 to give them in cash, they could run the card for 638 and use the 162 in cash for incidentals. i then asked, how bout just run the cc for 800. for some reason, they seemed stumped. said they couldnt do that, but when i explained to them how ridiculous that is, the rep finally did it. he said, ok i will run your card for 800. so i give him back my card, he runs it, says it was approved, gives it back to me and says, "i ran it for 850". i didnt even want to ask him why. anyone else have a bad experience like this? i definitely did not expect that from a category 6 hotel. especially because my only incidentals are the internet access for three days for 50 dollars. i do find that a little outrageous for internet access, but i digress.