Stayed at the Doubletree Suites for three nights last week, and wanted to provide my impressions. I picked the hotel based on flyertalk comments from various threads, recommending it as a good place to stay with the family. I was a bit disappointed with the stay overall, and wished I had chosen a different option, even at a higher cost in space and dollars.
The hotel was extremely crowded, and there were always very long lines at the reception desk-- it took me about 20 minutes to check in when I first arrived, and I saw lines at all hours of the day and night. Most of the time they had no more than 2 people working the desk, and there was no elite check-in. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived (around 3pm) so we wanted to store our bags, only to encounter a similar problem with the bellhop desk, which had a very long line and one person working. Later, when we were checking out and wanted to store our bags, the bellhop had completely disappeared and I had to contact a manager and then wait about 15 minutes for him to show...
The room was exactly as I expected-- a very large 2 room suite, in good condition. I think many of the positive recommendations on flyertalk are based on the room size when travelling with a family, and I can't disagree. If you want/need the space, this is as good as you'll get in the city for a reasonable cost. We had a sideways view to the billboards of times square, which was nice.
My biggest disappointment was the breakfast (always a key part of the travel experience for my kids). I probably had my expectations set too high, but was hoping for something like the usual Doubletree/Hilton breakfasts I get when travelling elsewhere, given the list price of $30 for adults and $15 for kids. The actual breakfast was similar to the standard Hampton Inn offerings (plus made to order eggs, waffles, and pancakes), but with the bread products of much lower quality than HI. My pastry loving children took one bite of the "croissants" and refused to eat any more. They also found the waffles and pancakes inedible. The coffee was also quite awful. As such, I found that I had to take the family to a coffee shop or bakery each morning after the hotel breakfast, since they didn't find much they actually were willing to eat. Again, had this been a Hampton Inn, I would have considered it slightly under par, but it was a long way from the breakfasts I've had at Garden Inns and Doubletrees elsewhere in the US.
The location was pretty good as a tourist, as you're in the middle of the Times Square madness, and an easy walk to many of the usual sights. I found the Doubletree concierges to be mixed-- one gave us reasonable directions to where we were going, and another provided us with completely inaccurate information regarding some attraction timings.
A warning if you're planning to use hotel parking-- the garage is across the street, about half a block before you reach the hotel. Most of the time we were there, the local streets were jammed solid; had we gone to the hotel to unload our bags and then tried to park our car, it would have taken an extra 20-30 minutes to drive around the block again. Fortunately we called while stuck in traffic and they told us we could garage the car before checking in. Parking is handled by paying at the hotel desk before going to retrieve your car; if you check out earlier than you want the car (as we did), you need to go back and wait in line yet again to get to the desk in order to pay. I spent a lot of time in that line...
To summarize, if you value the space, this hotel is likely a good value. Not caring as much about the space, I found the service and breakfast to be quite lacking and will choose elsewhere the next time I find myself in NYC.