Had a nice stay in October for my son's wedding - he made arrangements for his wedding party to stay at The Shay, so I used his wedding package rate and my WoH Concierge used a SUA to secure a suite so that my wife and I could get ready for the wedding.

Check-in is officially listed at 4PM (which is quite late), and we showed up at 2PM and of course was told that our suite was not ready! So we grabbed a bite at Etta (more on this later) and went to run an errand. I asked if anything could be done to speed up getting into the suite for this Globalist, and we were promised by the rather "amateurish" front desk girl that we would be texted when our suite was ready, and we got nothing up until 3PM. At 3:15PM, i returned to the front desk and started to ask questions, and luckily, the Guest Experience Manager sitting across the way noticed and intervened (she came up to me and asked if I was the Globalist that they were expecting) and I was finally able to get into my suite just before 3:30PM.

The rest of the stay was actually quite nice! They sent up the prosecco and an additional bottle of wine as apologies for the snafu at check in. The Globalist breakfast at Canopy Club on the top floor with the pool was VERY good, as I ordered anything that I wanted and all charges were waived! Housekeeping was efficient and unobtrusive. But on the last day, there was confusion as to whether or not the Globalist breakfast could be taken in our suite (I already knew that it could not be but wanted to press my luck anyway, LOL).

After they received my survey with the good and the bad, the same Guest Experience Manager who is also the Assistant Rooms Manager emailed me to apologize on behalf of the hotel - she acknowledged that the front desk girl could use additional training and that the Globalist breakfast should have been allowed to be taken in the suite. She requested that some points be deposited into my account as "compensation" for these issues. I was so pleasantly surprised with all these goodwill gestures which showed that they take things very seriously, especially for Globalists (she acknowledged my status more than once). I concluded that while the stay was not perfect, it was fine, especially since my son's wedding went well and everyone was in a good mood (BTW, he got the Presidential "party" suite and it was GIGANTIC, with a huge balcony for an outdoor party).

PARKING: the hotel only offers valet parking for $60 a night! Ugh!!! Since this was not an award stay, I would have to pay so I parked next door at the Ivy Station public transit parking lot for $18 per 24 hours - NO in & out so it you need your car, it will be another $18 to get out and get back in, but still better than the $60 valet parking with in & out privileges.

ETTA: went there for a late lunch, and the food was very good as was the service. But Etta is no longer affiliated with The Shay so you cannot charge your meal to the room.