Melissa Brooke

Review of W New York-Downtown

My husband and I enjoy The W hotels and he has bee...

My husband and I enjoy The W hotels and he has been a long time Starwood member we saw a few bad reviews but trusted the name. This is always our first choice and sadly we regret this one. The W New York-Downtown is not contributing to the good name that has been built. Cooperate should review the condition and policies of this specific location.

I suppose I should just start from the beginning...

At check in we were informed that there is no food on site due to construction. They did provide a long list of alternatives which was much appreciated. However, in reading past reviews apparently this has been a major complaint of being an ongoing construction project which I must admit, I hear the jackhammers across the street but there is nothing going on in this hotel.

Once we got in our room about 10:30pm after a long flight the first thing we noticed was how damaged and dirty the room was but too tired to deal with it we waited until morning with the intention of moving to another hotel. Unfortunately the daylight made it worse. There were black marks all over the wall, mold rings in the sink, and the shower was unacceptably dirty.

We booked our room through MasterCards BLACK CARD/LUXURY CARD and after calling the front desk to complain about the uncleanliness they said they would send a housekeeping manager to inspect it. No one ever showed up so we told them to forget it that we would call MasterCard to handle it. As soon as we said that, they agreed to move us but told us that they did not want to move us to a low floor(I'm assuming because the low floors are the reject rooms).

Now we moved from the 8th floor to the 20th floor and we still have some cosmetic issues but it is actually a lot better. There's still mold in the sink and marks on the walls, not to mention the broken furniture, but the nicer view and shower floor that I'm not afraid to stand on sort of makes up for it. But all that considered not much of a change in cleanliness. And it's not just in the rooms that this is a problem. The lobby and hallways are all poorly maintained.

Since we can't eat on property I decided I wanted to at least enjoy the bar. According to the website as of August 21, 2017 at 10:49pm the bar closes at 11pm. We strolled into the hotel after dinner around 10:30pm and was told that last call is 10:25pm so the bar is closed. This was obviously the last excuse I wanted to hear. So I called the front desk and the woman confirmed that it closes at 11pm so I inquired why the bartender told me there was a last call at 10:25pm but no mention of it when we checked in, on any of the hotel room information books, or on their website. Her response, "I guess it closes at 10:30pm then." It sounded like a fake reason not to serve us.

I understand the W-Downtown appreciates us choosing them, business is business. And since this is a public forum that hotel staff replies to, I think any solution should be taken care of publicly. It might help some to know that the issues are getting fixed not covered over by an apology and no action.

Again I just want to make clear that we love the W brand but this hotel does not do it justice.