Empire Hotel

"We stayed at this hotel for five nights at the end of July – two adults and two young children. The location is excellent: within easy walking distance of Central Park, the Lincoln Center, and Times Square.\n\nHowever, the hotel itself is quite weathered and rough around the edges. It was the first hotel I’ve stayed in for a long time that didn’t have a coffee machine in the room, which felt like a basic omission. There was also a consistently strong smell of cleaning products throughout the building – I’d suggest switching to something more pleasant for the sake of both guests and cleaning staff.\n\nThe pool was a disappointment. It’s very small, located up several flights of stairs at the top of the building, and really not suitable for children. Not the most family-friendly setup.\n\nWe encountered a few issues during our stay: problems with room allocation for our group, a room safe that didn’t work, and the overall room size was too small for a family with young children. There was no bath in the bathroom and no business centre with access to computers, which might matter for some guests.\n\nOne of the most frustrating parts of the stay was the key card system. It was incredibly unreliable – we must have gone through about twenty cards over the course of the week. Being stuck on a higher floor only to find your key card doesn’t work (again) is frustrating. This system really needs updating.\n\nThat said, the staff were genuinely lovely – welcoming, helpful, and willing to go above and beyond to assist us.\n\nIn summary: great location and lovely staff, but not well-suited to families and in need of a serious update in several areas."

"We stayed at the Empire Hotel for the second time this past weekend because we had such a good experience on the first stay. The location, cleanliness, and service have been great in our experience! We had a standard room, didn’t book anything special, but it was clean and decently spacious for NYC unlike some other hotels we’ve been to in the city that have some pretty abysmal standard rooms.\nThe main reason we booked this hotel again was because we were treated so well on our first stay over a year ago. The last time, we checked in with Pasquale who was so very nice and accommodating. He upgraded our room and helped us get acquainted with the hotel’s amenities. We were so happy with the way he treated us on our first trip that we were hoping for the same experience this past weekend, and it did not disappoint. Every person from the hotel that we interacted with was very respectful and kind, always acknowledging us. We thankfully also got to see Pasquale at check-out and were able to tell him how appreciative we were for him the last time we were there and how much it meant to us. Lastly, I also noticed on this stay that the gentlemen at the door downstairs were very good about monitoring what was going on down there, between directing people to the rooftop and checking for room keys later in the evenings. We felt like they do a good job of keeping it secure downstairs."

"Seems to be the rooms are of scattered quality based on reviews. I had the smallest room but the interior view was actually a view over Broadway and quite nice. Yeah it’s tiny and could use a refresh but was functional. My ac worked great. Bath had rain shower. And yes was crazy tiny. Room was great for solo like me. No chair so only place to sit is bed.\nHallways are stupidly dark like dangerous.\nLocation is amazing. I usually stay midtown and won’t again so much more relaxing being in a neighborhood. Block from park. Less to subway\nPrice was fair I book direct and they noted it\nRooftop top bar was fun but I’d make it a drink and app not dinner"