I stayed at the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel last Sunday at a "pre-opening special" rate of $104.25+ taxes. I booked through hilton.com and indicated in the note section: "Hilton HHonors Gold member; Early check-in at 9am, if possible. Thanks!"

I ended up checking in at about 12:40pm, and went to the left-hand side of the reception area that has a "Hilton HHonors Check-in" sign. A staff member with the title "Manager on Duty" on his business card greeted me. He said there is one room available then, and it's a suite. He noted that I'm a Gold member and would like to give me an upgrade. "Would you like smoking or non-smoking?" he asked. And I thought there's only one room available. <shrug> Anyway, as he was preparing the paperwork, I asked him, "Are you giving me a suite because this is the only room available now, or because I'm a Gold member?" He answered, "both". He then went on to write me up a breakfast voucher and gave me a Doubletree cookie. Since I already had plans for breakfast, I asked him if he would give me extra HHonors points in lieu of breakfast, his answer was 'no'. Overall, the check-in process was pleasant.

The room he assigned me was on the 19th floor, one floor below the PH floor. I wouldn't call it a suite since, by my definition, a suite must have some kind of separation between the bed and the rest of the room. This is basically a rather large room, complete with a sofa, an armchair, a working desk, a 27-inch LCD television, and a lot of space, but there is no wall or separation between the furniture. The teevee features RCN cable channels; no hotel channels. The bathroom is a bit small, while the desk chair has a rather "cheap" feel.

I did end up using the breakfast voucher, since I didn't eat too much food for dinner the previous night. (A broadway show that ended at 6pm and another one that started at 7pm didn't leave me much time for food. Hey, it was my theatre run, NOT mattress run!) There were the standard scrambled egg, sausage, bacon, french toast, fruit, pre-packaged yoghurt, cereal, etc. They also had smoked salmon.

All in all, I would say I had a very enjoyable stay. At $104.25+taxes, it was probably a steal. My only complain is that the 'E' train wasn't running over the weekend. I'll probably move back to the Times Square area for my next (pre-Tony) theatre run in May.