Rather than spend last night at one of the Andaz hotels in New York (both of which are fantastic), I decided to try out the W New York Times Square. I was only staying for a night and the hotel belongs to American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts®, meaning I’d get a $100 food and beverage credit plus free breakfast, in addition to my Platinum benefits. Besides, I want to be able to review new hotels for you guys, since reading about the same thing over and over isn’t that exciting.
I’ll only briefly mention my issues with the hotel (I’ll cover them in more detail in my review), and then get to the good stuff:
- Despite nine “Fabulous Suites” showing as available online I wasn’t offered a suite upgrade, even after asking. I wasn’t in the mood to argue after last week.
- The $100 food and beverage credit can only be used in the restaurant and not via in-room dining, while the free breakfast can only be used via in-room dining and not via the restaurant. What the…? And the continental breakfast consisted of a muffin and coffee. That’s it.
- There’s not a single trash can in the (bed)room, aside from a recycling bin. The only trash can is in the bathroom. There was also no way to turn on the shower without getting in it, and as a result getting soaked with cold water. I know both of these points are terribly minor, but they’re so basic that it pains me. I’ve never stayed at a Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, or Four Points where I had either of those issues, yet an upscale brand like W doesn’t seem to consider these when designing hotels.
Aside from those things, let’s get to the meat tofu of my “experience.” I went to the gym last night to work out, and it was empty. Great, nothing beats an empty gym! I got on the treadmill and started running. I go at an incline for at least half the time, and as it turns out the treadmill wobbles side to side. Fine, I’ll use the next treadmill. Oh wait, the buttons don’t work on that one. Then I tried the next one, and it had the same “wobbling” issues. Again, in all my hotel stays I’ve never had an issue with gym equipment, yet at this hotel all three treadmills don’t work? I went down to the front desk and they sent up engineering, and they figured out a temporary solution.
So I go back to working out, and eventually am joined by an older guy in the gym. About 30 minutes into my work out seven girls come into the gym, probably between the ages of 12 and 16. They’re all wearing short skirts, not wearing shoes, and have slurpies. They were all screaming at the top of their lungs and abusing the equipment. It was like Toddlers and Tiaras gone bad (and who knew it could get worse than the original version?). At one point there were four girls on a single treadmill, and the one in the front kept increasing the speed, making the others scream. More importantly than anything else, the situation was dangerous, and one of them could easily have been hurt.
The older guy and I exchanged looks, and he said “girls, are any of you 18? You could get in trouble otherwise, so I’d suggest you stop doing that.” They completely ignore him, and after a few minutes he leaves. As he’s leaving they say to one another “*&#$^&@ snitch!” I wasn’t going to say anything since if they don’t have respect for an elder (the guy was 60+) they sure as heck won’t have respect for me. I waited another couple of minutes and the screaming and horseplay got worse, so I jumped off my treadmill and grabbed the emergency phone to call security. As the girls see me move towards the phone all seven of them dart out of the gym while calling me names.
Yesterday was definitely one of those days where I’d rather not be traveling and would rather be at home just living my everyday life.
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