Affinia Manhattan Review »
While I was in New York for a brief conference, I decided to actually stay at the hotel where most of the events were being held. This was a change for me. Usually I'll stay elsewhere and just make my way to the hotel. I don't have a problem with the subway, and in fact typically enjoy it, but since the rate at the Affinia was one of the better ones, I decided that it would be easier to just stay there.
In general, I'm glad that I did. But you need to take it with a grain of salt, and be ready for what you'll get when you check in. Make sure that you realize that this is an older property, and you'll probably be okay with what you get when you arrive in your room.
Notably, the rooms are reasonably well upholstered, but they are on the small side, and the plaster is aging, so you will see some cracks, and some of them might be on the large side. You aren't going to see central air, and in fact you won't see a thermostat of any kind.
Instead, you get what is essentially a steam-controlled radiator to handle the heat that is expelled into the room. You'll also have a window unit (air conditioner) for cooling the room, but in the winter, these units are taped shut to keep cold air from coming into the room - so hope that you don't hit a hot spell or you'll have to open the window to cool things down.
Finally, you may want to make sure that you don't get a "17" room (517, 917, etc). This is because the main steam pipe runs through the closet, and it makes the room absolutely bake. Even opening the outside window, with outside temperatures in the 30s, kept the room a nice 65 degrees, so it was bearable - but it meant that the outside noise increased quite a bit. And even when closed, those windows don't block a lot of noise.
