This isn't the first time we have stayed at the Grand Imperial. We have stayed before and had a room overlooking all the activity on Greene Street. This time however when we booked in March for the 4th of July holiday there were only 2 rooms left, so we took what we could get. What a big difference from when we first stayed there.
Our room was on the north side this time. The view out the window was a flat tarred roof with tires placed here and there on it (I guess to hold the tar paper down)? After the roof ended, was the south brick wall of the building next door. The room was crying out to be renovated. The furniture is mix-matched pieces, and the carpet is worn. When looking for an outlet to plug in my curling iron, all I could find was an extension cord running that had the t.v. and lamp plugged into it. There isn't a clock in the room, so be sure to bring one of those traveling alarm clocks. We had to turn on CNN to find out what time it was when we needed to know the time (yes, neither of us had a watch)!! The reception on the t.v. was pretty bad, only 1 channel came in clearly. There was one large window in the room (besides the window in the bathroom). It wouldn't lock and could easily be opened from the outside if someone wanted in your room bad enough. However the window did have horizontal bars on the outside which worried me a little had there been a fire. There is no way we could had gotten out thru the window, there was not enough space between the bars to squeeze thru unless you are really skinny. Another thing was one of the several hall lights was right outside our room. There is a transam window above the door that lets all that light come into your room at night. If you need your room to be dark to sleep, bring something to tack up over the transam or bring a sleeping mask. Our room was so lit up at night from that light I couldn't sleep.
On the plus side, the people running the hotel are very nice and friendly. They have a breakfast buffet that is $6.95 for all you can eat. They have scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, pan fried potatoes, pancakes, fruit, etc. It is very good.
I just would love to see them use some of the money they are charging for the rooms and pour it back into renovating the hotel. She is truly a diamond in the rough right now. You can tell it was once a grand hotel back in the old days. It's just sad to see multiple thick layers of paint built up on the woodwork, worn carpeting, old wiring, and the mix-matched furniture. It makes me even sadder to write a review like this when the hosts are such nice people. I am sure it is very costly to keep a hotel of this size running, but I know the nights we were there they had sold out all 40 rooms. Our room was $110 a night. Surely some of this money could be used in fixing her up. She is a grand old lady and deseves nothing less.