Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel New York

The concierge and comfy beds are this hotel's best features. Running a close joint second is it's location, power showers and warm chocolate cookies on arrival are some of the biggest selling points for this midtown Manhattan hotel.

The hotel, which became a Doubletree in February 2005, having previously been the Cross Keys Metropolitan, is located at 569 Lexington Avenue, right on the corner of E51st. It's right beside a green line subway station (4, 5, 6 trains) on the corner right outside the hotel, which means you could go all the way up to The Bronx or right down to Battery Park in one go. It's only three blocks up to Fifth Avenue - when you head up towards 5th on E51st you come out at SAKS Avenue beside St Patrick's Cathedral. It's easy to walk to the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Centre, Bloomingdale's (only 8 blocks along Lexington) and Broadway.

The hotel itself is quite impressive. The recent overhaul when it became a Doubletree means it's very modern, the lobby is clean and contemporary and you can check in at automated kiosks when reception is busy. Mark and I got checked in without any problem at the computers, but it wouldn't issue keys for my parents, but a gallant doorman helped out and gave us our chocolate chip cookies, which were warm and freshly made - everyone gets one on arrival, but we somehow managed to get eight, so we had one when we got upstairs, and the other later that night!

The difference between the reception area and the rooms is quite marked. The rooms are comfortable and absolutely adequate for a city centre New York hotel, but the bathrooms were the biggest disappointment. They were tiny! If you were using the toilet your knees were pretty much touching the door. If Mark was shaving at the sink he had to move right into the bathroom so I could squeeze past to switch the shower on! Although the shower was extremely powerful (which I like) and everything was clean, just a bit dated. The Neutrogena toiletries were appreciated - especially as I'd forgotten shower gel!

The beds were SUPREMELY comfortable. The feather toppers were cloud-like and the duvet and pillows contributed to the sleeping in a Marshmallow experience! In saying that, the bed was firm enough, which was the main thing.

The room had the bed, a desk, a bedside table by the window, a sprung arm chair, a chest of drawers with the TV and a built in wardrobe which was the tattiest part of the room. The doors were pull apart and jammed on the carpet, and the paint was quite chipped in our room, but they held the clothes, and the safe worked so it was perfectly useable. The other small problem was that there was quite a large gap under our door, and for some reason a bunch of kids were rampaging up and down the corridor one night and they were very noisy - we ended up having to phone reception and plug the gap with a towel to keep the bright corridor light out when we were trying to sleep. I think each floor of the hotel was being gradually upgraded - maybe they just hadn't got to our floor yet? The views were nothing special either - another roof top. Some rooms face onto Lexington and have views towards the ESB but not ours. That didn't bother us though.

We didn't eat in the hotel at any point, but I hear room service is good. The gift shop/ newsagent in the lobby was great because we could pick up bottles of water or a chocolate bar or two in the mornings to stick in our back packs and keep us going. We ended up buying a few touristy mugs there so we didn't have to trail them around the city from anywhere else.

The concierge was EXCELLENT. I don't remember his name, but he recommended Mr K's across the street as well as Shula's at the Westin Times Square, both of which were fabulous restaurants. We also went to the Revolving Restaurant at the Marriott at Times Square which was good but confusing. You have to queue for an elevator up and some people seem to get priority! The guy also booked us our airport transfer and asked how we were every day, which was a nice touch - he always checked if we'd enjoyed our meals after his recommendations too.

We checked out the hotel on TripAdvisor.com, which I think is a pretty good site, although I always take really bad reviews with a pinch of salt, especially if they crop up amongst a string of good ones. Apparently there's been an issue with staff at rival hotels posting exceptionally negative reviews against their competition. But if the general consensus is good (or bad), or reviews continually refer to any good points or problems, you can pretty much take it as read that's what it'll be like

All in all, we were pleased with the Doubletree - absolutely adequate for Midtown Manhattan, and better the places like Thirty-Thirty by all accounts! And considering the amount you can spend to stay in some place (I'm particularly thinking the Waldorf=Astoria) the Doubltree is more than adequate. To me the beds at the Doubletree were more comfortable, the staff friendlier and there's no complimentary cookies at the Waldorf! Of course somewhere like the Waldorf is grander in fixtures, fittings and furniture, and there is a more sophisticated atmosphere, but for a family out to see New York and spend hardly any time in the room, it was fine.

We'd go back - sure the bathrooms are small and the wardrobes need done up, as do the cracks under the doors, but they're minor, especially the cosmetic things. We managed to seal our safe accidentally with our wallets, passports and flight tickets in it and the security officer was up within minutes to crack the code with an electrical gadget. He stayed while we set a new code and made sure it was working. We called for something at the Waldorf and didn't get it til the next day...

And I think that's the thing about hotels in NYC: many of them have small rooms, many of them have no view, but unless you plan to spend masses of time in your room (which in NYC it's unlikely you will, unless...) then somewhere like the Doubletree is absolutely fine.

Having a pretty rough experience at the Doubletree in NYC. It was the only open hotel around my office so I decided to give it a shot and I wish I decided on a place farther away. I showed up and the front desk was fine but upon entering my room found that the fire alarm cover was sitting on the bed, the bathtub contained some form of matter and there was CANDLE WAX covering the insides of my room drinking glasses.

I called down to the front desk requesting a room change but they said they were overbooked as it was, so I just asked for some new glasses. The gentleman showed up 10 or 15 minutes later with a blanket in hand and I had to explain to him I just wanted some new drinking glasses and not a blanket. The gentleman brings back clean glasses and I head to bed around 10:30 PM, after receiving a call from the front desk regarding my glasses, due to a 7AM meeting on Park Ave.

The last straw happened when at 11:30, I wake up to a shrill ring and it's my bedside phone. I pick it up not knowing what to expect and it's someone from the "CareLine" asking if I received my remote control. I'm never rude to hotel staff but was about to lose it at this point. I say it's the wrong room, I never ordered a remote control and the woman says, "Ok...Well do you need anything else?" I just need a clean place to sleep for under $500 a night and this will never again be the place.

The only redeeming quality here is the bedding and the location.