bhrubin

Introduction I had business in New York with several of my client groups, and room rate and SPG affiliation made me choose the Sheraton Times Square for the first time. I had 3 different stays at the hotel in March and April 2017.This hotel is a monster. A massive convention style factory of a hotel. Check In Check in surprisingly didn't take too long for any of my 3 stays--though the first stay had problems. They took a little time to sort it quickly, and then that was that. Considering how big the hotel is, the SPG Platinum line really helps with check in and check out. Otherwise, I might have had to kill myself. Room My rooms were always...fine. Nothing too nice. Nothing too impressive at all. Nothing that made me think I was being upgraded at all by the hotel, either--despite being SPG Platinum 100 nights, and despite always booking 10-20+ rooms for each stay. Just a regular NYC hotel room...though perhaps a bit larger than average?The air con worked like a charm for all of my stays--surprisingly. It did turn off when I wasn't in the room, but the small room size did allow it to cool down to 67 F in no time. Shower pressure was adequate, but not impressive. The sales manager did leave me a wondeful welcome amenity: Service Service definitely was an issue here for me.First, there never was any water waiting for me in any of the 3 rooms. As SPG Plat, that should be a foregone conclusion: 2 bottles of water in every SPG Plat room. The sales manager had made sure that I had a welcome amenity...but there was no water? Really? On the other hand, the valets downstairs always were generous and just gave me water when I mentioned the oversight to them--all 3 times. They were great!Second, when things did go wrong, the hotel was piss-poor in responding. One of my client rooms was supposed to have 2 double beds for 2 persons...but had only a queen bed. It took over an hour to get that sorted...and the repeated calls and transfers between departments made me pretty furious.On the other hand, the valets were wonderful--as mentioned above. Once, I had forgotten or lost my umbrella...and a valet lent me one without asking for my name or room number. I was very surprised by that wonderful gesture. Staff were all friendly and definitely trying to please. But they often had such a nightmarish bureaucracy to handle that it wasn't always very pleasing to me. Dining I never dined at the hotel. But there is a Starbucks cafe in the lobby that was very popular! Location Although I despise being in the vicinity of Times Square, it is convenient for my business. The Sheraton is 5 blocks north of Times Square--so very convenient if you want to be that close. It's also just 6 blocks up to Central Park. So a very convenient Midtown location it is, assuming you want to be in Midtown! Overall The hotel isn't so bad...but it's just way too impersonal and massive for my tastes. I hated it, even though there was nothing wrong or problematic with my room. For the price point, it can be an excellent deal...but I am not sure that would lure me back again with my groups. Certainly, I would never choose to stay here individually!