helvetic

Introduction 1. The Club: it’s jam-packed for breakfast and happy hour, with no seats, screaming families, and more people than a subway car at rush hour. The food sucks. The drinks at happy hour are $6 minimum for a beer (which they charge sales tax on!), and up from there.2. Elite treatment: as a Globalist stay, there are little real benefits. The hotel refused to let us have breakfast in the room or at a restaurant… so we just gave up on breakfast for the last 3 nights of our stay. (The Club was a net negative experience).3. Fails at basic services: things like water in the room, like providing printing facilities, like providing free luggage storage or mailing services. Computers and printers in the club are broken.4. Horribly slow wifi: was almost impossible to get work done; had work calls drop on me, etc.5. Food & Beverage, bad and overpriced.6. Way too big: feels like a giant convention hall. Not a relaxing place to come home to at all. Walking into the lobby at night, you’re not greeted; you’re accosted by a security guard demanding you prove you’re staying here.7. Nickel & Diming: everything here costs money. Basic things that every other hotel I typically stay at does for free… like printing ($0.50c per page), like mailing, like receiving a package, like storing your bags for the afternoon. Oh… and the club’s overpriced Budweiser. Also, told me they’d be charging me for water when I asked about it the first night.Things I liked:- Location—right above Grand Central.- Room was large enough (thought the bathroom was uncomfortably small)- Recovery—they made an good effort to rectify the situation when things went wrong.Eventually, I did get some water for free—they bought 10 bottles as a way of apologizing, which was much appreciated. Room The room was large and comfortable. I believe I received a small upgrade. There was a couch and table area on the one end, a small semi-walk-in closet, and a large King bed. Unfortunately, my biggest complaint with the room is the rather tiny bathroom—it was especially uncomfortable when it came time to shower. I would constantly bump into the sides. Also, the water pressure was weak and it would often take 5min+ for the water temperature to stabilize. Overall I would not stay here again if there were better options for the prince and quality. The Grand Hyatt is priced like a 5-star hotel, but feels like a 4-star conference hotel. The Andaz nearby is much much much much better value; with similar prices but a boutique feel, with friendly staff and good policies. In the future, the GH will be at the bootom of the list, only to be booked if it were much cheaper than the alternatives. Location Ultimately, this GH is all about the location, being right on top of Grand Central Terminal.