Holiday Inn Midtown Hotel

We came to New York for four nights during the marathon-weekend and got a room on the 3.floor in the A-tower. I read a lot of negative reviews about hotels in New York and also about the Holiday Inn Midtown. But I was surprised: the room was spacious and very clean. We hadn´t much contact to the staff but if then they were very friendly. As another traveler wrote, sometimes the elevater is very slow. But this is not a big problem on the 3. floor. The location is great and close to the Central Park. As a traveler you get there all you need and I would return into this hotel.

Really disappointed with this hotel. Whilst our room was generally clean and spacious the whole place, including corridors and public rooms, were 'shabby' and badly in need of refurbishment. Our shower nearly always seemed to run out of hot water in the evening and the hand basin never held water. A bit difficult when trying to shave. The curtains had come away from the curtain tracks. On the first night the whole room smelt strongly of disinfectant The reception staff were just not interested. The bar staff appeared to take no pride in their work. The glass topped tables were nearly always sticky and dirty, you certainly could not put anything down on them.

Like the last couple of writers, I was very apprehensive about this hotel following negative reviews in the last few months but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised on arrival there last week. While the hotel is by no means fancy (which 3 * Holdiay Inn is?!), the rooms our party were allocated were large, comfortable and clean, which was all we wanted. We found the staff at the hotel to be efficient and amiable. On requesting additional pillows, these were delivered to our room within 10 minutes of phoning the reception desk on the night of our check-in. The negatives we experienced were that the lifts were very slow at certain times of the day, one morning the shower was cold and on the day of check-out the reception area was quite chaotic as there were insufficient staff to deal with the number of bags being retrieved from left luggage. My advice in respect of the latter would be to give yourself additional time to get your bags back - we didn't and ended up paying a waiting charge to our driver to the airport. All in all, we were quite satisfied with the hotel in terms of value, comfort and excellent location (very close to Central Park, subway station and within walking distance of Bloomingdales, other shopping).

It was our first visit to NY and I recently stayed at the Holiday Inn W 57th, with my daughter. I am a Priority Club member but purchased my tickets through another entity. After coming in on a red eye, we stood in the Prioity Club check-in line. Before even being asked if we could be helped, we were asked if we were PC Members (there was no one else in the lobby.) I indicated I was and was hoping there was availability for an early check-in in the"recently renovated tower." The Front Receptionist was very rude, however, she did remind us that we were indeed in New York City! The Receptionist then told us the renovated tower was only for Priority Club members, I reminded her that I was a Member and even offered to provide my number. She stated there were no rooms available at all and told us to return at 12:00 noon. We explored the area (great location, lots of small restaurants, Starbucks 1 block away), and came back at noon. We stood in the regular check-in line and a very nice Receptionst assisted us and gave us a room in the renovated tower without asking. The location is great for exploring the city, two blocks from the Metro, Columbus Circle, Central Park, Theater District, however, the hotel staff are not very helpful. When we first arrived, the Doorman watched us take our luggage from the taxi to the reception area, and did not even assist us with opening the door. This occurred throughout our stay, even with our hands full of shopping bags. It semed to be the people staying at the hotel who were the most helpful. The rooms were very comfortable, although the shower sometimes would not easily shut-off. The rooms were always clean and the beds made every morning after we left. We often would return late evening to the hotel and felt relatively safe walking in the area. There is a market 1 block up where we bought fruit and water. 2 blocks up are several restaurants (Chinese, Steak), which stayed open late. There was even a small clothing store next to Starbuck's where we bought gloves. Watch out for doorman when checking out. We were running late and asked for a taxi to be waiting. We were lead outside and then our luggage was placed in their Lincoln, which they then proceeed to tell us how much it was. Since we were short on time, we said ok. After our not-so nice check-in, we decided not to use the hotel other than for sleeping. We loved NYC and will return next year, however, we will not be staying at this hotel. This could really be a great hotel, if only someone would teach customer service to all the hotel staff.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn with a group tour in October. The rooms were fine-nothing fancy and clean. The hotel is probably a little older, but we had no problems at all. We asked for extra towels and we were told that they could not hand them to us at the desk, that they would send them up. Someone was at our door in less than 5 minutes. I would definitely stay at this hotel again if I was looking for a decent night's stay that is fairly close to the action without breaking my budget.

Phew!! I did as the person who reviewed the hotel before me did - emailed in advance of our check-in to request a room in Block A. We did this after reading some terrible reviews of the hotel. And we got what we asked for!!! Hotel room was excellent - 2 double beds, clean and comfortable! Carpets in the lobby seemed ok too! Bit noisy as we were fronting 57th street and other guests were inconsiderate and let their bedroom doors slam at all hours of the morning. Hotel employees were ok - I think the problem is that they are ALL speaking a second language (english) to them! Bar was quite expensive but hey, you're in a major city what do you expect! We paid $5.50 (£2.75 approx) for a bacardi and coke, but they were pretty strong. No problem with getting our bags to our room or anything at all. Bar snacks are LARGE portions, but cheap so be careful if you're not that hungry. All in all I'd definately go back to saty at this hotel if I visited NY again!!!

I must admit that after reading mixed reviews before our arrival I was a bit hesitant. I took note that the hotel was being refurbised and emailed the hotel ahead and asked for a newly refurbished room which I got. The rooms are spacious and because of the location of the hotel you are able to sleep of a night. It is just a shame that they forgot to give the bathroom ceiling a coat of paint. Take note that they have only refurbished part of tower A and this has now stopped for the time being due to them being busy(info from one of the managers). A couple of the reception staff did have an off day (but so does everyone) but on the whole they were very pleasant. I can confirm what has been said about the customer advisor, he was very pleasant and helpful and would give Liz Taylor a run for her money with that ring on his finger. Try Applejacks on Broadway for breakfast and the market on 8th Avenue on Saturday for craft shopping. If you want to pay your respects to some of the people who died at 9/11 go to the New York City Fire Museum in Tribeca, thus avoiding people selling Disaster magazines at Ground Zero. My husband and I went for our tenth wedding anniversary and after seeing where some of the other hotels that we had considered were situated, I was glad we chose the Holiday Inn

We stayed there 5 nights on 10 October, 2004. When I checked in the hotel, I asked the lady at the front desk if there are any privileges for Priority Club Platinum member, like complimentary room upgrade or complimentary continental breakfast. She replied in a very grumpy and unfriendly way, "No, you get your points already, and you get more points than the others since you are platinum member". I found her very rude, and of course I didn't get any privileges from the hotel at all. What a service! Besides, there were a lot of the doormen standing at the front door when we arrived by taxi, none of us intend to help us to carry the luggages. When I was paying my taxi bill, my colleagues helped me to unload the luggages from the taxi trunk and put them on the ground behind the taxi, and one of doorman even pushed away my luggages as he was intending to help someone else (guest already checked out) to load a luggage into the taxi trunk. None of them even said a word to me or my colleague if we needed any assistance on our luggages. Probably they think Asian don't like to pay tips and they hardly make any complaints, that was why they were trying to ignore us!

We already had reservations for this hotel when we arrived but we were left waiting at the desk even though there was someone (counting a till) behind the desk, they never greeted us or said "someone would be with us soon" or called anyone. We had to wait for someone to come out from the back. We just went straight to bed because we were tired from the flight but we were woken at 3am with a loud ringing noise, at first we thought it was a fire alarm and ran out into the hall but there was nothing going on, so we rang down to receiption and they told us they would investigate this and that it probably was the lift alarm. Our room was very near the lifts. The ringing went on for another hour before it stopped, next day we complained and we were moved to another room. This room was fine. Reception in the hotel is very nice but carpets through out are very dingy, also we ordered a brandy and glass of water in the reception bar and we were charged $18! Ridiculous

Please do not stay in this hotel. The Holiday Inn at Midtown may be cheap and in a good location but the rooms are terrible and the staff unhelpful. The first room that I was allocated was dirty and full of damp (so much so that the beds were wet!). When I complained I was informed that this was standard(!). The second room was not much better either. The white plastic curtains did not fit the window and the lamp shades were covered in burn marks. I certainly do not recommend this as a place to stay and I am sure that you can find a better deal for your money!