I am extremely lucky to have family that works in the hospitality industry. This provides me with discounted rooms at some of the best hotels in the world. This past summer I needed to get down to Brooklyn, NY to visit a school and decided to stay for 3 days and enjoy NYC.
For a summer in college I lived in the Murray Hill area on 29th and 3rd. I loved all the bars and restaurants on 3rd Ave and I’m partial to that familiar area. I searched for the discounted hotels there but could only get to the W Hotel on Sunday night and would have to stay at the W Downtown for the first two nights. I had never ventured much down there and figured I would be bored on the weekend down there, but what choice did I have? It’s against my nature to pay full price!
I paid the standard $45 cab ride from JFK and got some great views. As we neared the hotel I realized we were very close to Ground Zero. And as we pulled up to the address I realized this new W Hotel was right across the street from all the construction happening to rebuild. After paying and tipping the taxi (It’s so convenient that you can do all that with a card these days and it calculates the tip percentage right there), I walked in the doors to the W. Instantly…I was very confused. There were double doors to the restaurant and 3 elevators in the dark gray cube I was now standing it. After closer inspection I read the small print next to the elevators. I was to take the elevators to the 5th floor lobby to check in. I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered a 5th floor lobby.
Stepping out of the elevators, there was the most amazing view of the construction. It became obvious that they built this hotel to overlook this monumental rebuilding. The lobby had a bar and lounge space and a small front desk. Check in went easy enough and I headed to my room. I went up a second set of elevators (private for guests and required use of your room key) and found my room. I ironically got room 911. That kind of freaked me out. I’m actually surprised they have that room number at all. Also unfortunate-my room was on the backside of the hotel and my view was just of plain old Manhattan. Oh well.
I tested the gym out, it was small and cold, but I forced myself to go on the elliptical type machine and get 45 minutes in. W Hotels stock green apples at most locations and that was a great snack after my workout.
I ended up loving this hotel. It was a great location. Saturday, I shopping with a friend and then had indian food at Ruchi, by myself just around the corner. I came back, took a hot shower, and found a comfy white robe to lay in bed and watch TV in. I felt a little lame just staying in on a Saturday but part of the reason I was taking this mini vacation by myself was to relax, so I did. Sunday morning I walked to the Bodies Exhibit at the South Street Seaport and it took just 15 minutes. Being down in the financial district on a weekend reminded me of the neighborhood feel I got in Murray Hill. It was around $30 for a ticket. I had been looking forward to the exhibit for years. I don’t know if I built it up in my mind, but I was a little underwhelmed with it. I thought I would like it more than I did.
Later that afternoon I moved to the W Hotel in Midtown. The hotel wasn’t as nice as I had remembered it. I had gone to an event there for Pepsi Jazz when I was interning at FamilyCircle years before. My room there was TINY. Instead of the wall to wall windows I had the 2 days before, I now had a narrow window that looked at ugly rooftops. I was a little disappointed and wished I would have stayed at the W Downtown one more night. One high point was the great taxi line the next morning when I had my early flight.
My chief complaint is that of every W Hotel-why is wireless internet not FREE??? This seems insane. If all the lowest chains have free wifi, why is W Hotels charging me and arm and a leg for internet. Wifi is free in the lobby, but I don’t want to be forced down there, especially if I am trying to work and there’s a party at the bar. C’mon W, get with the program!
And EVEN WORSE, the hotel charged me the full rate and I had to wait 20 minutes for them to fix it. Then they had a bogus food charge on my bill and I had to have them email me 3 more times before it was resolved. This same billing issue happened when I stayed in Barcelona, but not at the Midtown Manhattan location, so maybe by that point they learned how to apply it. It’s always nice getting those ‘Thank for staying with us, come again!’ emails when they still haven’t taken the time to correct their mistakes on the last bill. Oh well, I guess a little hassle is worth saving hundreds of dollars.
Explorasaur 