Review of Sofitel New York 4*

Chouette, my first hotel review! While I certainly have heard of Sofitel before, I never stayed at one until this past weekend trip to NYC. My boyfriend booked the hotel for only $200/night which is not bad at all for NYC especially in the Times Square/Midtown area. We decided to drop off our bags/see if we could check in early around 8 in the morning. To my amazement, they did have a room available and let us check in. When we went up to the room however, there was clear evidence the previous occupant had smoked. We called down to the front desk, primarily because we didn't want to be charged for a room that was smoked in and because they have a strict no-smoking policy. The front desk receptionist was very apologetic and said they would get housekeeping on it immediately. We went back down to the front desk, where she told us that she would be upgrading us to a king bed room for the inconvenience. Honestly, it wasn't inconvenient at all; we just wanted to bring it up to their attention and not get extraneously charged. It was very, very nice of them to upgrade us at all. Service is top notch. Everyone speaks both English and French and are extremely helpful and polite. This kind of service is on a whole other level when it comes to hotel service. Later in the day, we came back after they had called and said our room was ready. The room was very spacious and clean. There were complimentary waters, free Wi-Fi, robes, slippers, glasses/tumblers, a Bose stereo/alarm clock, and other amenities. The bathroom was enormous with a full tub and separate shower with one of those waterfall showerheads. There were even fresh flowers and a candle and matches. They have oversized body towels, which I appreciate since I dislike the small body towels some hotels offer. It rained the weekend we stayed, so we received complimentary umbrellas from concierge. The lobby is beautiful, with plenty of fresh cut flowers and cushy sofas/chairs. There's a restaurant downstairs called Gaby. I had a pretty good French onion soup and a pot of Darjeeling tea there. Location is fantastic. Right in the heart of Midtown close to Times Square, Fifth Avenue, Grand Central Station.