My husband and I stayed here for our anniversary this past weekend, and it was a beautiful, low key place to be for the weekend. I don't know why there are so many complaints about the lobby--yes, it is not the Waldorf, but it is not trying to be an old-fashioned grand hotel.with gaudy chendeliers and tufted sofas with fringe, It is sleek, modern, wood-paneled, understated and elegant with a most gorgeous etched-copper tile art installation behind the desk which is almost worth the price of staying overnight itself. Everything is quiet, and no-drama. Our room, a superior king, was on the small side, but well -designed and well-equipped. The bathrooms, dripping with quartz surfaces; read cool and understated again, with a TV behind the mirror, and sumptuous absorbent robes. The tub was wonderfully deep, and the Grohe fixtures beautiful. The Duxiana beds were sleek and low to the ground,(others had a problem with this, I didn't) and oh so comfortable. I loved that you could actually open the windows and feel the breeze outside. The room's ac/heating was the most incredibly sophisticated system I have ever encountered. Whether the heat or AC was on you could not hear the system working, yet it achieved the correct temperature quickly, as if by magic.The room was soundproof, and the hallways serpentine, so that some rooms don't even face other rooms accross the hall. There were only a couple of negatives--we were never given the soft pretzels I read about and was so looking forward to after my long day hiking all over Manhattan, the personal assistants were sometimes very difficult to reach--the phone would ring off the hook, and the room had not one color photograph or print, or other art item to punctuate the sort-of monochromatic color scheme in the rooms.Other than that, I found the staff welcoming, warm and personable, as well as highly professional. We even had a view of the Empire State Building from our room--a sight which is wonderfully emblematic of NYC.If you can afford the rates, and likea cool, modern vibe, this is a great place to stay in Midtown.

Ok, by NYC standards this is a very nice hotel with great rooms. It has an excellent location, but a boring lobby-definately not a people watching-place to be seen, hip, or even very cool place. It is clean, with larger than usual rooms, a good staff, and is easy to access. The dining choices are limited-but who cares? After all this is New York with fabulous dining adventures on every corner. The hair salon, on Level 4, does a very nice $40 blow out to prepare you for a night on the town.

We came to NYC for a weekend wedding, one week after Sandy hit the east coast. So I think maybe some of my negative reviews were related to that. Anyways, here's what I think of this hotel:

Pros: decent sized room-I requested a corner unit because we had a dog with us, and didn't want to disturb neighbors. It's not the largest room I've stayed in NYC, but definitely the room with the highest ceiling and the largest bathroom. The minibar in the room has soda and sparkling water, all complimentary. In-room service was fast. Staff was nice to me, but per my husband, he walked right after me into the hotel and nobody acknowledged him.

Cons: dirty carpet, which was my biggest complaint. I was appalled to see those stains, for a five-star establishment like this, how can you have stains on the carpet? Second complaint, we needed cabs on several occasions, nobody offered to get us a cab at first, then I remembered this happened twice--after we stood outside for like 5 minutes, someone finally came to help us, but was either at the same time chatting with someone else, or really not trying as hard as I'd like to. Third and last complaint, when we checked out, we waited in line for 10 min, because there was only one girl at front desk.

Maybe it's post-hurricane and people were still recovering, or maybe this is what this hotel truly is, but the whole time, I felt like Setai was under-staffed at front desk and outside the door. Dirty carpet was unacceptable to me, staff was nice to me but not to my husband. And minimal help on getting a cab. For those reasons, I don't think I'd return.

This is a lovely hotel and the staff are incredible. They remember your name and things you have told them you are going to do, nice personal touch! Our room overlooked 5th Avenue and was nice and modern. Nice location ,we have always stayed closer to Times Square on previous visits but didn't find this too out of the way at all. We walked everywhere and it was great to be on 5th avenue and be close to all the designer stores. Would stay here again.