HotelChatter

We'll start with things our reviewer liked: He was greeted at the front door by someone who "glided over with a big smile and an umbrella (it was snowing)" and was announced by name to the front desk agent (he got the guest's name off of his luggage tag — nice touch!) Once inside, he thought the lobby was "very attractive and very trendy."

And now for the rough parts. Here we go.

Checking In: Check-in was interminable (14 minutes), despite the fact that I was the only guest there. The other 2 clerks were busy with something, as they were shuffling papers around and looking important. The clerk demanded to SCAN my driver's license into a permanent photo scan. I objected, but she said it was corporate policy. Just examining my photo ID wasn't enough, they had to have a permanent record. It might have been easier if the machine had worked; it didn't, and that took more than 5 minutes.

Apparently, the elevator issues we had during our first stay are back and better than ever:

There are three elevators. One was broken and out of service. The second was malfunctioning and stopping at every floor. The third had a staff member on it cleaning it, but was available for guest use. The other guests were grumbling, so it sounded like this has gone on for awhile.

And now: the room. Oy. From the photo, you can glean that the room was not quite as beautiful and spacious as the Suites we'd stayed in — which is, of course, to be expected when comparing a suite to a standard room — but we'd agree that this room (which lacked the stunning lightbox behind the bed that we'd loved so much) was pretty "bleh":

Even for NY, it was cramped. The closet is ridiculous, more like a cabinet. There is no way any full length garment will fit. Thats because there are a couple of drawers inside and 1/2 of the minibar selection (non refrigerated items.)

There is ONE LIGHTBULB to the left of the bed. You have to aim it at the desk if you want to see anything, and there is no switch to turn it off or on, so reading in bed is out of the question anyway. There is one small, high intensity dimmed light above the doorway, where it will do absolutely no good...otherwise, the room is totally dim, and unsuitable for anyone with mediocre eyesight.

The desk is 30" wide, and is too dim to see anything. The desk chair is not a desk chair, it's a decorative swivel chair, and it's too low for the "desk" anyway. I am 6'4" tall, and I had to reach up to type. No matter, it was too dark to see the keyboard anyway, let alone reach it. There are no electrical outlets at the desk...you need to plug in by the bed, although this wasn't a big deal, one wonders why they forgot about it. BTW...wireless internet was free, which was welcome!

Yeah. Not good. Interestingly, he was told by the front desk agent that Shang was open for breakfast and not for dinner (which is something we don't quite understand since we were there during dinner last week), but when we called the restaurant ourselves, they assured us they were open for dinner, but not for breakfast.

Maybe something got lost in translation along the way, but we've still gotta ask: What the F is going on over there, Thompson LES?