Time for me to compare hotels in New York, mid-town area before my memory fades. I wish I had stayed in more hotels to do a really thorough comparison, but hey i’m not hotel.com. And compared with my friends and random people on the street, I probably lived in amazing number of hotels.

    Best Hotel Gym
    Marquis, Times Square
    The best hotel gym-I gotta give credit to Marquis. It’s about 2000 squarefeet (I think), has at least 10 elliptical trainers, probably more than 20 treadmills (sorry I never pay attention to treadmills since I don’t use them), and a lot of bikes and a few stair climbers. The number of cardio machines is astonishing. If I have you blindfolded and drop you off in this gym, you’d never guess it’s a hotel gym. All the cardio machines have individual TVs on. It has more than basic weight training machines, and abundant choices of free weights. It even has a spacious corner padded area to do stretches and other floor exercises, supplied with yoga mats, medicine balls, resistence balls and other Reebok powered equipments. And it’s 24 hours.
    W hotel The Court/Tuscan has a decent 24-hour gym. The Court and Tuscan are right next to each other, so if you stay in Court, you have to get out on the street in order to access the gym. Hey don’t ask me why they choose to have two hotels on the same block. One time a cab driver pulled up in front of Tuscan, refusing to believe W the Court is right behind him, and I had to drag my luggage back to the Court

    Best Bed
    Starwood’s Heavenly Bed is definitely the best. Westin, W and Sheraton are part of Starwood. Come to think of it, I don’t remember anything spectacular about Sheraton New York though. Having been traveling for so long, I really appreciate a nice thick, firm and well padded mattress and a comforter. Unlike traditional hotels that offer a bed spread covered with you-know-what, and washed once a month, Starwood give you a real comforter with washable comforter cover. Do they wash the cover is still a mystery. But Westin’s cover is white so I’m guessing they’re forced to wash it more often than once a month. There’s subtle difference between W and Westin’s comforters too. W’s comforters are as comfortable however the cover is somewhat slippery and they usually end up on the floor the next morning. Quite a nuisance.

    Unique
    Library Hotel
    Two thumbs up for Library Hotel. It’s not a chain, so the drawback is you don’t get hotel points, but they compensate that with better price and much better and personal services. The most interesting part about the hotel is that the floors and room numbers are organized by the Dewey Decimal System. For example, if you stay on the eleventh floor, the whole floor is Philosophy themed. Room #6 on that floor has books related to “Love” since it corresponds to 1100.001 in DDS. The first room I stayed was “Library Management” (worst luck or what) and the second room was architecture related. I really liked that room because I got to read all about the fantastic architecture around the world.

    It serves free breakfast (continental with hard boiled eggs), and 5-8pm it serves free cheese and wine. It doesn’t have a gym in the hotel, but they give you free daily passes to New York Sports Club 2 blocks away from the hotel.

    For the budget-conscious
    Three hotesl I stayed over a moth each: W hotel the Court, Marquis by Marriott, and Westin at Times Square. My best overall experience was with Westin, mostly because I got free upgrade to a corner suite. I’d say it’s at least 600 squarefeet with two sides of openable windows and heigh ceiling. It feels like a New York Loft. But if I ever go back to New York out of my own pocket, I’d stick with Marquis by Marriott. The rate is really good. I remember it was $219. The rooms are very spacious (rare in NYC), even bigger than a standard Westin room, and as mentioned before the gym is amazing. The only thing everybody hates is its elevators. It uses the so-called smart elevator that you punch in the floor you’d like to go before you step into the elevator, and the system assigns you an elevator. Once you step in, there’s no button in the shaft and it goes to the floor(s) that the system designated it to.

    The problem with the design is that a lot of times tourists go by a big group. So if an elevator is assigned to go to 10 floors, chances are there will be more than 10 people for the ride, so one elevator doesn’t take all the people. The guests that failed to squeeze in the elevators in the first place usually would go to some other elevator that they’re not assigned too, and in turn squeeze out other guests assigned to another elevator. Now you can see the compounded chaos. In summer peak season, it’s easy to wait for half an hour for an elevator. And if you forget something in your room? I’m telling you’re better off buying it on the street.

    I would NOT stay in W the Court. It’s nice on corporate account, but it’s over $330 and it’s really not all that great. The staff are snooty and they play this W theme music everywhere in the hotel. Every time you turn on the TV it’s automatic loudest volume tuned in the W channel playing that music. After a few weeks in the hotel, the music was officially adopted into the soundtrack my reoccurring nightmares.