HotelChatter

First Impressions
From the outside, the building is quite lovely and stands out on its 26th Street block between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue with its silvery, modern-looking facade. We certainly wouldn't have been able to miss it, especially since there was a staffer to greet us outside the door on our way in.

But then: the doors. Ok, there are sets of some crazy-ass automatic sliding doors going on at the lobby entrance; they open super fast and are sort of intense and startling, especially considering they open into a teensy lobby to announce your arrival to all the other guests standing there. (Again, no secret affairs here.) Another set of the same doors open from the lobby into the attached restaurant/bar, so when the lobby is busy, the space is small enough that your check-in experience has the potential to become a veritable audiovisual symphony exclusively performed by these freaking automatic doors.

Check In
But we digress. The lobby, though small, is beautifully understated, decorated with just a touch of modern funkyness with a giant bamboo display along one wall.

No problems at check-in, though at 2:00 pm there was only one staffer at the front desk and he was trying to check us in and field phone calls at the same time. Perhaps the front office was a bit shorthanded?

Room Reaction
The first thing we noticed was the hallway on our floor (5), because it was disgustingly hot. We forgot all about it when we got to our room, though, which was completely different than what we'd been expecting from the Holiday Inn: flat-screen TV, white linens, sleek, modern-looking furniture, and lots of light.

The Bed
Here's where we realized there would be no sexin': we sat down on the bed and heard the distinct sound of ... our grandmother's couch. Yeah, dudes: below the fitted sheet on the bed, the mattress seemed to be covered in something plastic and kind of loud. This is not good for sex for several reasons, one of which is, of course, that it reminds us of our grandmother's protective plastic furniture coverings and also of our grandmother.

Also, there were only 3 pillows on our king bed. They had cute little tags on them -- one was labeled soft and one was labeled firm and the other was just kind of there -- but what if you and your lover both dig firm or soft? Then what? Or, worse, what if you want two pillows each? Disaster.

The headboard, while it looks cool, is massive and banged against the wall a bit while we rolled over in bed (alone, sadly) a few times, so we can't really imagine it would be pleasant for anyone in the vicinity if two people were goin' at it with that thing banging away.

What We Liked
The free WiFi was fantastic, reliable and super-fast. Much appreciated. The sheets were nice and in good shape, the blowdryer in the bathroom was nice and powerful, and the place was quiet: we couldn't hear a single horn honking on the street. The new decor was great.

All interactions with the staffers were totally pleasant; they went out of their way to make eye contact and say hello to us each time we walked through the lobby.

What We Didn't Like
Forget about sex in the shower, too: even though the walk-in shower is spacious, the shower curtain doesn't quite come close enough to the floor -- leaving the whole bathroom susceptible to flooding.

Also, the elevators were a bit of an issue. There are only 2 passenger elevators for the property, and we had to wait for longer than two minutes for them on two separate occasions - and once we had to squeeze in between staffers with boxes, another time we shared the ride with a housekeeper and her cart. Perhaps there's no service elevator. Whatever.

Bottom Line
Like we said: if you're not coming here for a fantastic night of getting laid or having a secret affair or whatever, we totally recommend it. We think the upgrades and more upscale look are going to do wonders for the brand -- but, hopefully, with Holiday Inn's new look, they might be able to become a "nice hotel" instead of "a nice hotel ... for a Holiday Inn."

Tags: Hotel Sex / Holiday Inns / Hotel Openings / Manhattan Hotels / HotelChatter Reviews

by Jenna