Beautiful and trendy hotel located in (not (yet) very trendy) Hell's Kitchen on 11th av and 48th between the car dealers, Fedex and Verizon trucks (keep in mind that you have to walk some 15 to 20 minutes (through not very exciting streets) to go to for example Times Square or Central Park).
We were upgraded to a Hudson Suite on the 12th floor. Very nice, large room with floor to ceiling windows all along, sitting area with flatscreen, comfortable bed room with flat screen, lot's of storage facility, wifi throughout the hotel (register for free as an Ink48 member and wifi is for free). Magnificent views over the Hudson river, New Jersey, the Intrepid, the cruise piers, ... However, the airconditioning made really a lot of noise (not possible to put the fan low; we mentioned it, but either it just is like that or they were not able to fix it during our 5 nights' stay). The aluminium frame of the windows is not isolated (making the temperature in the room drop if you put the airco of (which is necessary for us to be able to sleep)). The same flow of cold air can be felt when seated in the bar or restaurant near a window or door. For the light sleepers, be aware that the hotel is exposed to quite some outside noise, but hey afterall it's NYC ... (bring some ear plugs).
The restaurant is really excellent (see our comment on Print restaurant).
The rooftop bar (Press Room) is also very nice. Cosy, loungy atmosphere, great views.
Breakfast is only à la carte, which makes it a bit more expensive than a typical continental all-in breakfast buffet (+/- 35$ per person, compared to a more standard +/- 25$ buffet formula).
The hotel has a daily happy hour in the lobby area with complimentary wine. There is also water available in the lobby all day and complimentary coffee/tea in the morning, which is just an example of the many small things that this nice hotel does to comfort its guests.
The hotel has two bikes available on a first come, first serve basis. We used them for a day to go to The Cloisters (great trip, beautiful destination at the very north end of Manhattan island). A bike is really the best way to discover NYC (provided that it does not rain). If the bikes of the hotel are taken already, there are plenty of places nearby where you can rent one.
The staff is very friendly and helpful. It is clear that they aim for customer satisfaction.
Overall : the pluses definitely outwheigh the minuses. We will be back !