ChEMBL

A boutique hotel in downtown Manhattan (Tribeca district to be more precise). Convenient for most things from Battery Park, JR on Park, Times Square, Union Square, 5th Avenue, Canal St, Chinatown, the Soho Apple store, and close to the fishing store on 27th St. My favorite place (sort of) to stay in Manhattan, and it is nicer to be in NYC rather than out in New Jersey when visiting. However, the service is slipping over time, and I may well switch to a new hotel the next time I am in The Big Apple. It is the little things - like I always used to get a free hat - a lovely black wool one with 'Grand' written in gold on the front, and their used to be five or six CDs in the room that you could listen to (mostly 'lounge', but hey, what are the chances of finding obscure UK 80's 12 inchers anyway?), but they are no longer there. There was also a child sized T-shirt that was nice. The last time I was there, two things niggled me. 1) Teh internet was a bit of a joke, and 2) when I went down for a drink in the bar, they looked me up and down, and sat me at a really bad table way out of the way. I guess I didn't really fit in with the crowd in there (young, slim and cool, and me, well....). So, I made a point of wearing my Gordon Conference T-shirt everytime I went in after that - it didn't help. The other odd thing that happened when I was there, was that since I was wearing the 'hotel hat' (the same as the bellboys/bellhops) I guess some people thought I was staff, and looked a little perturbed as I confidently ignored them all outside the hotel on my way in and out.

Hotel Web Site

Overall an okeledokele score of 50%. However, not really one for a travelling scientist.....

Room Quality - 7/10 Nice room, quite spacious, has a good white noise generator (needed for the large bar outside), and reasonable facilities. However, getting power points was a pain. The bathrooms are lovely, and have good quality shampoos, body lotion, etc.

Getting There - 8/10 About a $8 cab ride from Penn. station. Well connected for almost everything

Cost - 5/10 - ca. $250 a night. Not bad for a downtown hotel. However the price is very variable, but there is a loyalty program 'Grand Guest' that gives discounts, and effectively includes a free breakfast/room service rebate.

Phone reception - 8/10 - Good reliable signal, but it is a city center location....

Internet - 1/10 - Wireless in the rooms, but the login system would not work. Had to call a non-free number, and then they had to hack the access for my computer. The internet connection was pretty poor, very high latency, and then more and more web sites were redirected to on-demand video sites. Looking up the company responsible (via vpn, since Google was intercepted!) showed mine was not a unique occurrence.

Conference facilities - n/a. I don't think they have anything.

Mushroom factor - 1/10 - I'm in needa amanita - no chance!