I just spent two nights here and loved the hotel. Overall the staff was very friendly and attentive, plus the hotel was beautiful. The only issue I had was when I ordered room service one morning and an hour later it still hadn't arrived. I called and the woman I spoke to accused me of giving them the wrong room number when I placed the order. My room was 922 (I remember stating it clearly, twice) and she accused me of saying it was 972 (a room number that doesn't even exist there). That was a pretty rude accusation, considering that she was the one who messed up when she wrote the numbers down (922 might look like 972, but it sure doesn't sound like 972 when said out loud). They did sent me my breakfast up about 15 minutes after my phone call, but it messed up my morning and I was almost late for a meeting because of that. And the breakfast... which consisted of eggs, potatoes, toast, coffee and juice... was $57.00. They didn't offer any credits, but I was too annoyed to ask so that's really my fault.

Aside from the room service mix up, my stay was very nice. When you walk into the main entrance, you have to walk down stairs to get to the lobby, but there was always someone around to help with my bag. The doorman was always available and helpful when I needed a taxi, and the front desk had no problem giving me a slightly late checkout of 12:30 instead of noon, which was nice.

Since there is no concierge lounge, they give breakfast coupons for gold members. The coupons are only good for continental breakfast (coffee, tea, juice, fruit and a choice of pastry). Decent, but not as nice as the Algonquin (another Autograph hotel in NYC) which also offers a coupon for a free glass of wine to gold members (or at least they did last year, I haven't stayed at the Algonquin in a few months). The Algonquin also allowed me to upgrade to a full breakfast and they'd deduct the cost of the continental breakfast value from the bill, but the Carlton didn't allow that. Also, I was a little disappointed in the breakfast menu at the Carlton. It was pretty basic, nothing too interesting. It's still new to the Marriott chain, so maybe they'll add more to the menu later on.

I stayed in a "deluxe queen" room, which was very nice. Lots of space, very pretty and recently updated. Larger and nicer than the deluxe queens at the Algonquin, but the Algonquin is closer to Times Square and better suited for those who want to see shows and experience midtown. I actually like the location of the Carlton better because it's quieter, but still near plenty of shopping, restaurants, etc., so better suited for those of us who regularly travel to NYC and want to skip the touristy stuff.