Some final comments on on 9 night stay in a suite at the end of April. We asked for a received a "studio" suite with a walk-in closet facing the street. In a smaller suite of this size (53 m2), we prefer not to have a door separating the two rooms to allow easier movement. Suite was very comfortable, although personally we would prefer to have a small dining table rather than the large sofa and oversized upholstered chair. Walk-in closet was a bit cramped and would be a lot easier to use if they just removed the door, which swings inward. Surprising little drawer space.
Housekeeping was excellent. Left a note asking for extra hand towels because we found the bath towels too large and heavy for us, and always had a good supply.
We too were VERY impressed with Chu's service in the lounge in the morning; a real pro, serving everyone's needs with no fuss, always had time for a few words without ever taking his eyes off the rest of the room to see if anyone needed anything.
The variety of offerings at breakfast was adequate, but incredibly boring for a longer stay. Food was more than 90% the same each day: the same fried eggs, scrambled eggs, and bacon for hot items, the only things that changed very slightly were the pastries and some cereal variations. For us this was fine because we are light eaters, so we had fried eggs twice, scrambled eggs once, and alternated between smoked salmon and cold cuts or just pastries on the other days. But if someone wanted a full breakfast each day, it would get very monotonous even after just a few days. Surprised that they did not even alternate the bacon with sausage, or even better, offer both; or offer hard and/or soft boiled eggs.
After the disastrously overcrowded first weekend in the evening lounge, it quieted down quite a bit, and although I still thought the food/wine offerings substandard, at least it was a very pleasant atmosphere. However, once again the lack of imagination in the food offerings was staggering: the main offering was ALWAYS smoked salmon, plain smoked one day and peppered smoked salmon the next. Other than that, some slight variety in the small crudites that were offered. Sometimes they passed out some small hot canapes, but sometimes they did not.
In spite of some obvious areas for improvement. We very much enjoyed our stay. Although not large, the suite was quite comfortable, with a very nice bed that seemed to be a full-size king rather than the short version that many hotels use, and it had an excellent mattress. Even though I used up 2 Dia suite upgrade certs for the 9 nights, I considered this a very good use of the certs. The location of the hotel is excellent, street noise if minimal, and shopping and transportation are very close. Highly recommend as long as the rate does not shoot up too high due to high occupancy or a special event.