I took my wife to NY for a romantic weekend getaway. The room was comfortable and romantic. Everything in the room was new and trendy. All of the staff were friendly except the front desk. It seemed as if they were used to dealing with younger urban guest because of the way they spoke to us. Other than that, the hotel was very clean, centrally located and affordable.

I was discplaced from my home and found the Ravel to meet the needs of location and pet friendly. What I was not expecting and was a pleasant suprise was the roof top. Very nice.

The hotel was a welcome place to stay for the 2 days. The staff was accomodating especially on my departure. They made me feel like they did not want me to leave.

I enjoyed my stay here clean rooms nice club upstairs and I liked my view of the city from the balcony. Real comfortable beds. Pleasant front desk employees. No free wi fi but, you will be busy enjoying the vibe of your room. In the penthouse upstairs, nice club with outside area. Sexy look had alot of sexy people there. It was a cool vibe, there was one guy who was overdrunk and acting a fool but the bouncers there was cool and spoke to him and he cooled off. Nice looking woman was on deck I enjoyed the view and the music was nice and I have nothing but good reviews for this hotel/nightclub. For smokers there is a outside deck for that, but if you have a room don't think bout smoking in the room unless you ready to cough up that fine money and it is not work it. If you stay in the hotel you can go to the club as a guest and if you not a hotel guess you can just pay admission for the club with proper id and attire of course.

After much deliberation my wife and I decided not to stay in Manhattan. Our reasoning for this is that we could get a lot more for our money outside of Manhattan and we could get an MTA week travel card for $30 for unlimited subway use. The Ravel hotel is near Queensboro and Queensboro Plaza subways which are only 10 mins from Times Square on the Subway.We stayed in a Superior King room. The room is a good size but all open plan (which is interesting). The view of the Manhattan sjyline was nice but our blind in our room was broken so always 2/3 shut. We also noticed a lot of the mini bar had been drunk/eaten and filled up with water. We immediately reported this so we were not charged. The first issue we did find is that getting from Newark Airport to Queens is not easy. Most company's will not take you there as they have to pay to go back into Manhattan. We used Future Taxi which was Amazing! The room was clean but run down, the water was not 100% clear and there were a few items that looked a little tired. The staff were friendly and we did not experience any issues with the Penthouse that other TA reviews had described. We saw no issues in Queens but did not want to venture out as all the staff made us aware not to. The hotel runs a free shuttle service to the subway which is why we booked this particular hotel. This is great for taking you there but not picking you up. 3 times we were left waiting in the cold and after getting a taxi back we were told the shuttle did come but didnt see us. This would have been impossible as we were standing curbside for 45 mins. The other issue is that no Taxi knows where the hotel is and even if you tell them, they are never sure on how to get there on the one way system. The hotel does have a card with directions to give taxi drivers but we were not given this until our last day. We ate breakfast once at the hotel and found it to be ok. A little overpriced but not too bad. It was nice to eat in the glass penthouse with the sun shining so we were happy. Check-in and checkout were fine and we did ask if we could order takeout when we arrived as it was too late to eat out (and we did not fancy paying the hotels prices for food). Not only did they say we could but they also provided us with menus for local takeouts, once it arrived they called our room for us to come down (this is a nice touch they do not have to do). As we left we realised major building works going on next door and asked what was happening, the hotel staff advised they were expanding and were installing a pool as well. All in all we liked the Ravel, it was a good stay but it does become a drag getting a subway and a taxi each morning and evening especially if you come back to change for dinner. This is a really good medium budget option if you are looking for something 3/4 star but if you can afford it (or want to pay it) then I would recommend staying in Manhattan.