W Union Square

This is a great hotel - suspect it would be very hard to beat in NYC. The first thing is the location. We have been to NYC probably 40 plus times now and the location of the hotel is perfect. Opposite Union Square - which is a great central location in itself with its market and buzz - it is in walking distance of the best of NYC in our view. On one side, you can walk to 5th avenue, pass the Empire State building, Times Square, the usual tourist hot-spots. Turn in the other direction and you have West (and East) Village with its fabulous restaurants and neighbourhood feel. There is no better located hotel in our view. The staff are all warm and genuinely friendly. The room we had was great. Decent size, quiet for NYC, great view. Clean. Couldn't fault it. There are just two things they could do to make it even better. First, the Lounge and the Rooftop bar are a bit of a faff. They don't open two days a week and are closed between 12-4 every day, which is right when you want to escape NY heat and grab a cool drink. A Lounge in particularly should also be 'loungy' - i.e. you can chill there, get whatever drink you want etc, but there are a few too many 'rules' - its a bar at night and a cafe by day for example. If I want a glass of wine at 2pm I think the hotel should provide this (the restaurant on the ground floor does have a small bar but its not comfortable for a drink and the drinks there are not the greatest). Likewise, if I want some tea at 10pm after a meal, there should be somewhere I can do this. Secondly, there is no water in the room. When it's 34 degrees outside, really need water in the room that we can take with us. Overall though, these are quite minor and the hotel does the big stuff right. Good staff, great location, comfortable and clean. We're back again in 2 months!

Our corner room was small and the bathroom was particularly small. The way the shower door opened was very awkward. The lighting in the room was poor. There was no light over the coffee maker and about one-third of the room had no overhead light or lamp. The bed and pillows were softer than we like. Housekeeping was noisy in the mornings. There was a lot of slamming of doors, not just by housekeeping, but by guests. Most of the staff were very friendly and welcoming when we were coming and going through the lobby. We were appalled to find a big roach on the bathroom floor on our last night. We mentioned this when we checked out and the woman at the front desk shared our horror. She said she would report it to management and they would get in touch with us, but to date, no one has.

It's not the worst, but poor value price. • Poorly designed rooms. No outlets near the only available table. No light in the room's only closet, so you're packing and unpacking in the dark. • Oddly placed light switches. The one in the bathroom is under the towel hanger so it's not visible when you have a towel hanging. The switches are tiny buttons that are finnicky to use and hard to operate in dim light. • I bought an upgraded room for over $500+/night. Upon check in (well past 4 PM), they tell they only have one room in that category available right now, but it has a "minor" view obstruction, and whether that's okay. Minor view obstruction turned out to be a 6' brick wall. Lesson: don't trust hotel staff. • Upon check in they'll tell you that they've generously given you an allowance of $35/day to spend on hotel amenities. It turns out they're charging you a "destination fee" of $40/day which lets you buy $35/day of amenities. How magnanimous. • Internet is $14.95/day if you didn't book direct. $20/night hostels give it to you free. • I called them before I arrived to ask if they could precharge the destination fees they'd charge when I arrived because it would've saved me time in our expensing software. Quite oddly, a basic favor like this for someone paying $500+/night was anathema to the W, and they point back refused to help. • Elevators slow, small, and with frequent stops as everyone is waiting for one. The rooftop bar is nice if you can get in (we were initially refused a reservation despite it being completely empty for the next 90 minutes). The 2nd floor lounge and cafe are great.