sggolf

Bumping. Looking for any updates...

HGH

We stayed there in October. Staff was great. Didn't use the restaurant or lounge. Hotel room was upgraded to higher floor, and was very quiet. The beds were uncomfortable and the sleeper unusable. A manager and decorator shared an elevator with us and said the hotel was getting a re-do. For us, the space and location worked for this trip (taking teens to see the sights), but don't plan to return. We already have the Garden Inn Times Square booked for our next Broadway trip.

sxpsxpsxp

I've actually stayed here 3 or 4 times in recent months and am coming back in two weeks. I've grown to like it. It is certainly not fancy, by any means, but it is clean, comfortable, ridiculously roomy by NYC standards and quiet, at least if you stay on the higher floors. I found that if I closed the bedroom and bathroom doors, I didn't get any hallway noise either. The last time I was there I had breakfast at the restaurant. It was a fairly standard breakfast buffet and they had an omelette station.

I don't have a problem with the beds. The pillows are awful, although not any worse than at most other hotels.

United16

I stayed here for just a night about a week ago and wasn't overly impressed. The front desk manager and the one rep are not very welcoming (day staff) or friendly; however everybody else was quite pleasant. Upon check in I was upgraded, but then told that was a mistake and ended up with a lower room than originally booked (ended up being comped points), the sink for the wet bar was clogged and didn't drain and the curtain rod on the bedroom was broken. Diamond breakfast was good, fully buffet (standard breakfast food with pastries, eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes, along with an omelette station that also serves waffles, pancakes, and French toast) for two of us and only had to pay for the two kids, which was about $16 each, I believe.

I would say it's your best bet if traveling with your family, but might look elsewhere if just you or +1

jamesteroh

Completed a weekend stay here and got a great deal. Only $179 a night, however I found out that not all the rooms are two room suites. I checked in and found out I had booked a studio harbor view room. Seeing every other time Ive stayed there I had a two room suite and it's called Doubletree suites I mistakenly thought every room was a suite (I normally stay here on rewards stays so I'm surprised they don't give out a habor studio instead). Room wasn't any bigger than most regular NYC rooms I"ve stayed in but there was a dorm fridge and microwave. Room as also very noisy, I could hear my next door neighbors and could hear everything through the heating duct and had to put my suitcase next to it (luckily in the studios it's on the floor) to sleep. I asked to be moved and was told they were full but after breakfast the next morning they moved me to a nice corner suite on the 40th floor

The breakfast is still a full buffet for two but now they use vouchers for each day and the date is on each voucher so it's impossible to stack vouchers now and skip breakfast one day and have four the next day.

They no longer have room service. You can buy stuff from a couple of the restaurants in the hotel and take them to your room but they have to be paper/plastic, you can no longer take up real dishes/glass to your room if you want to eat in your room.

My biggest complaint was the really long lines. They need more than one person at night and two at the daytime working. It took me almost a 20 minute wait to check in. There was only one guy working. They need to have digital room keys to save time and just leave the breakfast vouchers in the room. And/or have a dedicated diamond line like Hyatt does or tell the people at check in they can only check them in and to see a bell man for directions, etc. (I had at least 3 people asking about getting to the airport in the check in line, etc). Yesterday morning there was no hot water and I called down and was told there was an emergency shutoff in the area by the city and they hoped to have it up soon (I don't understand how they could have col water and no hot water and what the city has to do with hot water). I went down for breakfast and overheard some people saying they were giving breakfast vouchers and $50 credits for the inconvenience. I was going to ask for a credit since I had to leave early to go to the airport to shower and miss my work out but tried the hot water and it was working fine.

Wifi was a code for diamonds and very fast. I streamed with no problem.

IntFF

We stayed a few times. You cannot get any closer to Times Square. Just above the place to but show tickets at 1/2 price.

cjd

Was considering an Award stay here in September. The points for a standard room are 95000 honors points per night. Thought the current maximum was 90000 points as per the old rates or am I wrong on that?

farnorthtrader

Yes, you are mistaken, the old category 10 was 80,000 to 95,000. This has really never been a good deal for points redemptions. A year and a half ago, I booked it for $134/night all in instead of 80,000 points. I have only ever used the citi certs for this hotel, never points.

cjd

Okay, thanks for that. Sadly even the Advance Purchase Rate is about $400 inc taxes on the dates in September we are considering. All New York hotels seem to be expensive in September.

farnorthtrader

Yes, advance rates are often very high, however, they will very likely come down (a lot) as you get closer to the dates. Book something refundable now and keep an eye on it. The $134 rate I got for an October stay was booked the day before check in. I cancelled the Conrad (which can be a good deal on points) and booked this one because of the rate.

pinniped

Question about the "Urban Destination Fee" at this hotel. I'll set aside the discussion about how this entire concept is a fraudulent joke that should be outright banned - we have other threads about resort fees in general. My question is more practical.

It says that the fee includes $25 daily food/bev credit in the hotel. I'm Diamond so I don't need it to cover breakfast. My question is: if I stay 3 nights, does it just cancel out $75 worth of incidentals at the end of the stay? Or is it a $25 credit against three separate charges?

I'll be staying there with a couple colleagues. We could easily end up having a few cocktails there one night and consuming the $75 per room. But if it's doled out daily, it's less likely that I'd use it all. Even though I can expense the stay, it then becomes annoying enough that I'll probably just stay elsewhere.

Eujeanie

Well I'll be...I booked months ago for June, and I KNOW this was not mentioned - but it's on my reservation now!

Besides your questions, Pinniped, I'd like to know why I'm not grandfathered in at no fee, especially since I'm on an all points reservation, which usually waives resort fees.

MASTERNC

That is news to me. I was on an all points reservation back in December and was not charged any fee whatsoever.

Westcoaster

Hopefully you saved a copy of your original reservation and email confirmation. Seems like you have two choices: Call the hotel directly, mention that you noticed that a fee was added after you made your reservation and ask them to make a note to have your original booking honored without the new fee. I've done that before when a resort fee was increased or added on after my booking.

Or you can wait until arrival and argue it out then.

pinniped

Has anybody actually *paid* the fee at the DT TS? I'm interested in how it is applied to the bill and how incidental charges are affected. (Specifically, whether a 3-night stay pays $75 and receives a $75 credit against one single bar tab, or whether it's $25 per day and has to be consumes across each day.)