I recently stayed at the Gansevoort with my family arriving the Saturday prior to the arrival of superstorm Sandy. Our rooms were a good size by NYC standards and well appointed. Generally the hotel had a great atmosphere and of course it is in a fantastic location in the Meatpacking District. However this turned into a trip like no other with the arrival of Sandy.
The power went out as we sat in the bar on the Monday evening. There was nothing else to do but turn in early and see what the morning unveiled. It's only after when you come home and reflect on what you experienced that you really get a true sense of how devastasting this storm was.
With regard to the Gansevoort staff I cannot compliment them enough for their professionalism in dealing with the situation. Every member of staff we encountered from the maintenance guy upwards was excellent, and when the hotel took the decision to close on the Wednesday because of the continued lack of power the Management Team worked very hard to secure accomodation for my family elsewhere in NYC.
We never got to sample the full range of what the hotel has to offer, but we will definitely be back.

We stayed at the Gansevoort during Hurricane Sandy. The staff was so professional, cared about us and went out of their way to take care of us and make sure we were safe and happy. The rooms are very big for New York standards, many rooms have little balconies where the door opens for fresh air. The decor is very modern, but very comfortable. There is a roof deck and pool which is awesome. By far, it was the classiest place I have stayed because of the amazing staff. When the power and water went out during the hurricane, they helped us look for other hotels, got coffee and food delivered which was not easy. Upon my return, I even got a letter where they told us they discounted our stay due to no power. None of this was their fault, but again, they care about their guests. Awesome neighborhood as well, great shops and restaurants!

The Gansevoort in the meatpacking district is a boutique hotel in a trendy neighborhood with great restaurants. By "boutique" I mean small. That applies to the number of floors as well as the room size. Our family of four met my cousin from The Netherlands, there for a weekend in October. We reserved a suite for $850/night which was essentially 2 tiny rooms and 2 balconies that served to let in the noise at 3 a.m. The hotel is not protected by other buildings as it is on a small block with one other building that holds a night club that gets out around 3 a.m. every night. Thus the partiers who are unsure where to go at quitting time get to stand in the 3 streets that surround the hotel and block traffic resulting in a cacauphony of honks for one hour. Blessedly everyone remembers where they live by 4 am. On the positive side the pool was great for the kids and the hotel left cupcakes for us in our room. My cousin changed hotels after we left.

Obviously, the location of the hotel is great. Meatpacking is a fantastic area, perfectly located in between great shops and restaurants and the top clubs in the city. However I travel regularly for a living, and have stayed in some of the most wonderful hotels in the world.
For the rate that we payed for this hotel room, the hotel really did not meet the standard that it should have.
The spa, in particular, was completely pointless and disappointing. We spent an hour in there waiting for the heating to rise in the spa, and the sauna to work, and nothing seemed to be heating. We waited there for about an hour when they said that they would turn it up, and still nothing. When we finally decided to leave after freezing ourselves in a cold shower, the staff member said to us very unapologetic that they turned the heating off about an hour ago and forgot to tell us.
Then when asking for a newspaper, I was told that the hotel didnt carry any, and that we could run to the deli if we needed one. This is something any standard hotel in the world should have.

The room service is over priced, and not good at all!
We had no room service menus in our room to begin with, and then were told that the delay was going to be over an hour, to receive a $30 burger that was worse than something I could have bought at KFC.

The staff and service at the front were super nice, I cannot say anything bad about the staff, they were probably the only reason I never complained about all of this in the first place.