The Empire Hotel

E Ladz

I had an extremely disappointing experience at this hotel. Many of the issues in other negative reviews are 100% accurate, including poor overall maintenance, broke or not working air conditioning, and odors throughout the premises. The first room we were given had a non-functioning AC, broken curtains (some obstructing the only airflow source), and an extremely uncomfortable pull-out sofa bed—so thin and worn its essentially unusable for an adult. The flooring creaked loudly in our room, chairs were chipped, furniture damaged, and the in-room phone had constant static unless the cord was manipulated. I mean come on , seriously? The replacement room we received after complaining was just as bad, maybe slightly cleaner. The AC circulated warm air without cooling the space, and the noise level when it ran made sleeping unbearable. Given the conditions, we requested a refund bc I refused to stay there at that point. Thankfully, we were only charged for part of the first night, and the rest was refunded through Expedia with the property's ok. We had 2 small girls that had to suffer on the pull out mattress and we all had to sleep in essentially stuffy, warm room. During our time at the hotel, I saw other guests frustrated and pissed bc of the same frustrations at the front desk, ranging from room leaks to complete lack of AC in this terrible heat. Do not fall for the cheap price or location. Only the location was a plus, and staff were respectful, reasonable, and tried to help. The linen team was great but the maintenance guy was rude and was no help. I would never recommend this hotel to anyone and will never return.

scott sitner

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. Hallways are stupidly dark like dangerous. Location is amazing. I usually stay midtown and won’t again so much more relaxing being in a neighborhood. Block from park. Less to subway Price was fair I book direct and they noted it Rooftop top bar was fun but I’d make it a drink and app not dinner

Jack D

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. However, 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. The 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. We 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. One 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. That said, the staff were genuinely lovely – welcoming, helpful, and willing to go above and beyond to assist us. In summary: great location and lovely staff, but not well-suited to families and in need of a serious update in several areas.

Delilah

Was really disappointed with our experience. Location & lobby were the only great things about our stay. Our blinds were broken so couldn’t get any lighting in our room. We walked in to no trash cans at all and empty hand soap. The toilet was ridiculous loud when flushing that it woke up my daughter if I used it in the middle of the night. Despite calling the front desk, the person brought up one small can with no bag for it. He replaced the bath soup but not the hand soup and didn’t bother trying to fix our blinds even though they said they would. We had no extra blankets or pillows. The bathroom had paint peeling and no vent for the steam. Also the elevators were broken half the time so we were waiting extra long for just one to work. Our key cards didn’t work twice and the desk said many people were having issues with them. Finally we went on the roof top deck only to find out we couldn’t sit and lounge unless we were using the restaurant. The way the website made it was like we had access. The host at the restaurant said their restaurant was considered separate from the hotel. The pool was very small and cold. The sun never hit it. There weren’t many seats available by the pool and only 4 or 5 had sun access. Also the pool closed by 7pm. The website is very misleading. I will not be staying here again unfortunately.

Tony Falcinelli

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. The 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.