Last month I needed to go to New York City for an overnight business trip. I wanted to stay in between Penn Station and Murray Hill. I found the Hotel William. I booked via hotels.com to build up my count toward a free night. 

This hotel seems to be playing into a larger trend of smaller, funkier hotels. That’s not a negative, just an observation.

On the whole, I rather liked the hotel.

When I entered, I was greeted by a hostess who asked “how can I help you?” I noted I needed the check-in desk. The bar/speakeasy are at the front of the hotel, so she was the hostess for those. There is also a restaurant on the lower level.

She happily pointed me to the back of the hotel. I walked down a somewhat dim hallway. Check-in was easy, the staff was friendly and I was given a room on the second floor.

I went to my room. When I got off the elevator, I noticed that the room numbers are in an unconventional location – on the floor. Not a big deal.

And then I entered my room. I was impressed. It has a modern look that wasn’t sterile.

The room was spacious and the bed was big and comfy (and blue!).

For a NYC hotel, the bathroom was quite sizeable. And I really appreciated the single-use toiletries.

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If there was one thing I didn’t appreciate, it was lack of desk space. The small coffee table wasn’t quite adequate and meant I had to work from the window sill.

Not ideal, but it worked out ok.

The other thing that was slightly annoying: my coffee maker didn’t work quite right. It was one of those single-cup espresso machines. I have one at my office that I’ve never had trouble with. But I couldn’t quite make the machine at the hotel work consistently.

One thing I should add – I poked my head into the room next door and it was huge.  I didn’t get any pictures but I looked on their website later and I believe it’s the Premium King Suite.