Holiday Inn Express New York City Times Square by IHG

From a location standpoint, the hotel was very central to the majority of tourist attractions. From a cleanliness standpoint, the lobby, dining room and hotel rooms were very neat and clean. Each day, the rooms were cleaned well with new towels provided. The only thing was that our thermostat did not work and the first couple days it was quite cool and when someone came to service, it was then too hot but we did made do. The continental breakfast was good as well, a good variety of food options available and the staff made sure that the dishes were topped off through the entire breakfast period. The service needs some work! Prior to arriving, I had called the night before to discuss the option of an early check in as we had earlier flight and wanted to make the most of our first day. At that time, I was told that I was added to the list and just needed to discuss upon arrival. We got to the hotel and initially the gentleman working the desk but kind and told me I was on the list but would call me when the room was ready. We left to tour around and came back hours earlier which ended up being approx. 15 minutes prior to the check-in time previously advised but still nothing available and was left to wait in the lobby. From there, we watched many other people check-in and were able to go into their rooms without question. It was only until we went to discuss a late check-out the night before we left that we discovered the reason that we weren't given early check-in was because we were not IHG members. Its very disappointing that at no point we provided this information and were just left hanging -- even after the multiple attempts made to arrange the early check-in. Simple communication of what was going on would have gone a long way but all it did was leave a bad taste in our mouth on our experience. Truthfully, it was the check-in/check-out that really ruined it for us so hopefully improvement can be made to that! The only positive experience we had with service near the front desk was with Freddy regarding our luggage, Freddy was fantastic.

The location of the hotel is fabulous, walking distance from all the midtown attractions. The hotel is old and does not have anything pretty to see. Like other hotels in NY the rooms are small , but this one needs a lot of upgrades, I see maintenance people cleaning a lot so at least they try to keep it clean. The included hot breakfast was good and with a good variety of food to choose .