As I'm writing this I can't help notice the picture that came up with the hotel listing. It was so different from the room I had, I decided to look up this hotel again and see if hotels.com is using a stock image. As I reviewed the pictures, I realized this was NOT the hotel I stayed at on the website, just a fantasy. Only a couple bathroom pictures on hotels (with the pink tile and the old shabby vanity) were accurate. The rest, all AI, or rendering of what they might look like assuming a renovation. I should have taken pictures to share, my bad.
That said, THE GOOD: great location, excellent access to subway, if you're going to shows or visit times square you can't go wrong for the location. The staff seemed very friendly, and many other guests clearly were staying there.
The BAD: thin walls (could hear every door slam in the morning, security called middle of night for a noisy neighbor), wallpaper in the room was peeling, hallways shabby, dingy, drywall debris outside the door stayed >48 hours, just an overall dingy feeling.
My 2nd day I noticed a temp construction wall on the outside that advertised Crowne Plaza, permits, and had an AI rendering, much like the photos on this site, of what the hotel will look like in Aug 2025. My room key also had the Crowne Plaza icon on the back of it among other major hotel brands.
IF Crowne is rebranding this hotel, there's a LOT of work to do in the next 2 months to bring it up to standards I'd expect from Crowne Plaza.