Hotel Gansevoort - New York City, USA 

Only place to stay!
Posted: Thu, Jul 17 2008
This place knows how to do it! Their service from check in to handling broken locks on suitcases, to making sure a birthday girl from Australia has the best few days...was amazing! Besides the best location in NYC for all things...eating,shopping, taking a subway or a cab uptown, across town, walking downtown...this hotel is second to none. Its in the mix of all things cool! Hot night clubs, bars....restaurants. The rooftop bar has wonderful views, gets pretty crowded and is full of different types of people but it mixes the drinks strong, the garden bar is more intimate and the rooftop pool has just enough water in it to keep you cool, plus feel like your on top of the world. The rooms are huge, so is the bathroom. My friend and I shared and didn't get in each others way at all. For female travellers we felt safe and secure always. The staff were genuinely interested in us, and were friendly and helpful and fun! I have stayed in many hotels in NYC and I believe its the only place to stay while tasting the 'Big Apple'

Woeful
Posted: Sat, Jul 12 2008
stayed for two nights over a weekend - first off, i ordered a car through the concierge to collect me - it never turned up - there was some confusion on the dates - then when i was checking in the counter staff had an open discussion on whether I or another couple checking in would get the next available room (this was 12.30pm) - later in the week someone was checking in at 4pm and there were still no rooms ready - when i got to the room it smelled strongly of paint/chemicals - complained about that and they put some sort of air purifier in which solved that - the shower didn't drain properly either - asked them to fix that but never did - asked them to organise a town car to drop me up to colombia university - said minium 2 hours at $90 per hour min 2 hours - managed to organise one myself for $40 - my key card did not work a few times so had to return to reception to get that fixed - the area the hotel is in itself is very loud on weekends - lots of clubs, bars etc nearby - people are queuing in the lobby to get into the club on the top floor until all hours, so mayhem outside the hotel - and there is a big nightclub literally next door with huge crowds of people trying to get in (no queue, just a crowd outside) - room was fine, small tv - air con was poor - blinds let in too much light in the morning - bed comfy - staff generally snooty - location is fine if you want to be in 'hip' area - but a good 10+ mins to mid town and the better shops - overall extremely poor and won' t be returning

Oh so self important!
Posted: Sat, Jul 12 2008
The Gansevoort could be a decent place; nice location, ok rooms, but unfortunately most of the staff have ideas above their stations which inhibits the job they are paid to do; for instance, I simply want friendly receptionists and baggage men to help me with my bags, rather than mince about trying to look cool! So therefore the service, if it wasn't so embarrassingly hilarious to behold, was terrible. I'm not sure how hard any of these jobs are to do, but judging by the painful expressions and self righteous attitudes of the staff, they are obviously akin to rocket science....;o)