The Empire

I know Manhattan is expensive... but my experience there has been if you're willing to pay the money, you'll usually get something nice. Not so with the Empire Hotel. This place is scrappy... it really really needs an update. It felt like the whole place was a bullet hole with a band aid slapped on it. Window sills with painted over rust pits, rotting bathroom doors.. also painted over. Pealing wallpaper... lots and lots of it. Oh, and let me tell you about the missing shower door: I go into the bathroom to take a shower and notice that we've got no shower door! Half of the shower is exposed to the bathroom. I call the front desk and am told that all the showers are that way and that it's a "design flaw". What?? Now I know why the bathroom door is rotting... from being constantly wet. Next, I notice that the toilet is totally wonky - pushed towards the wall. That's because (what I'm assuming is another "design flaw") the bathroom door hits the toilet when you try to open it all the way. There's also a weird sink that is completely flat, so that the water won't flow towards the drain (the design flaws just keep on comin'). This sink is pretty much the only place to put your make-up/brush/blow dryer and everything ends up wet from water in the the sink... that is flat. The 3 stars are for the rusty, painted over old-timey a/c that worked great and the comfy beds. The room was clean enough and I thought the magnet "do not disturb" signs were kinda cool. And oh yeah, I sure wish I'd had a white sharpie to draw some portraits in the blank, black picture frames that are on the hallway wallpaper!

We stayed her for 3 nights and we were not impressed. The lobby looks nice but it went downhill from there. The hallways and by the elevators are dimly lit which may be for ambience but not helpful. The design on the walls in the hallways was nauseating. We decided it was like being trapped in a funhouse. Our room was average at best and not the junior suite we were anticipating. In a 2 bed jr suite with 4 people I would have thought they would have put more than 2 towels. Our beds had no top sheet which we are accustomed to. We had to ask for flat sheets, towels, and wash cloths. It took me a while to locate a trash can. There was one small one in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. The sink didn’t drain well so we had to be quick washing our hands and brushing our teeth. The faucet was close to the sink so there was little room for movement under the water. The shower was an experience. I turned on the water and was blasted in the face and then soaked the floor and wall. It just had the glass partition, not a full door or curtain. The piece that holds the hand sprayer was broken and would just drop it. We had to angle and prop it up the whole time. When you turned on the ceiling waterfall the hand sprayer continued spraying as well which was annoying. The pillows were flat and there were 3 per bed so we took turns getting a second pillow for the night. The second night, we noticed they made the beds with the flat sheet we put on but the tag for the sheet was sticking up right between our faces. We were looking forward to some relaxing time on the roof deck but all the doors were locked. The front desk stated that it doesn’t open until summer which was a little confusing since we were from Texas were it was already 99degress everyday. The guy couldn’t give a specific open date but we were told it could be Memorial Day weekend. The hotel is in a nice location but that’s about were the pro list stops. We will never stay there again.