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I spent 6 days at the Avalon and couldn't recommend it enough. The staff are super helpful and nothing is out of their way, the rooms are of good size (my sister and I had a double twin suite), clean, with spacious bathrooms and the beds were very comfortable as well. It's in a brilliant location, making it within walking distance of a good shopping area and some major sightseeing spots. It's exactly what we wanted from a short city break; comfort, ease, friendliness and value for money.

My gal pals and I stayed in 2 junior suites for 5-7 nights, so we had a good sampling of services offerred by The Avalon. Strengths1) The staff was very friendly and helpful. We're from the midwest, so we're used to friendly and we felt the staff was outstanding. We'd like to give a special shout out to Curtis (a night bellman), the day bellman (who had a taxi waiting before we even asked), and the night desk clerk (Levenia). The day desk staff was also very helpful with directions and answers to questions. 2) I appreciated the two computers in the coffee room that guests could use for free. They were a little old (xp operating system), but they met my needs for checking in to our airline and for getting copies of our boarding passes. 3) The rooms and bath areas were clean and very large, especially by NYC standards. We were very comfortable for a weeklong stay. The rooms also had an extra fridge in addition to the mini-bar. 4) I often judge a hotel by the comfort and quality of the bedding. The mattress was very comfortable, but needed to be flipped because you could tell one side was more broken down more than the other. The full sized bedding consisted of a conforter and 4 quality pillows. 5) We were on the 8th floor and looked out on an empty lot behind the hotel. It was very quiet, which is not always true of big city hotels where there can be lots of street noise. 6) The location was very convenient to the green subway line (1 1/2 blocks to the east) and the yellow/orange lines (2 blocks to the east). It was a pleasant surprise to find an entrance to the yellow/orange line on e 32nd street because the main entrance shown on maps is on e 34th street. We also found it very easy to catch north/south buses on Madison and Park avenue and we observed buses going east/west in front of the hotel. 7) The neighborhood felt very safe and there were many good places to eat very close to the hotel.8) Because of the length of our stay, we were able to take advantage of the hotel's discounted pricing, which made the rate very reasonable by NYC standards. Could Use Improvement1) We found it very odd that our rooms came stocked with only one washcloth. Every day we had ask for a second wash cloth. (There was no shortage of hand and bath towels.) Given that 2 beds were being used, we thought the need should have been obvious.2) From the list of amenities, I knew that the room was not equipped with a coffee pot. I had been advised that we could get complimentary coffee at the breakfast and coffee and teas were available in the computer room after breakfast. There were no paper cups with lids at the breakfast, so you could not bring coffee to your room. And there were no lids in the computer room for safe transfer of hot beverages. I recommend the hotel add lids to the drink station. Because I want to drink my coffee before getting dressed in the morning, I brought my own coffe and a cup at a time coffee maker. There was a perfect place to set it up on the marble counter above the fridge. I would have preferred to use my luggage space for clothes, but this was a make it work moment. I recommend that hotel have small coffee pots available on request for guests. 3) My room was equipped with one flat screen TV that was mounted on the wall inbetween the sitting area and one of the beds. The TV was not very viewable from the far bed located next to the wall. If the TV had been mounted on a swing arm, we could have angled it out from the wall and it would have been acceptable. Our friends were in a junior suite that had two TV's, which included one between the two beds which was comfortably viewable while lying in either bed. Grin and Bear It1) The hotel can only have heat on, air conditioning on or nothing on for the entire building. When we arrived, the air conditioning was on. In our room, we could cool down the room, but we could not heat it up. At some point during our stay, the hotel

I have stayed here a couple of times and each time I am left with the feeling the staff truly cares and wants your stay to be as good as it can be. The staff is exceptional and worthy of praise. The General Manager is doing something right at this property. I have stayed at dozens pf places in NYC and the Avalon stands out. Our room were large in comparison to other boutique hotels, spotlessly clean with comfortable furnishings. The continental breakfast with fresh fruit, ample and varied baked goods, cold meat and cheeses, fresh fruit and vegetable juices for $15 is a steal in NYC. The subway for the East side is 2 blocks away and only 3 or 4 for the West side making this location ideal for people who use the subway and are traveling to different points in the city.

We stayed for seven nights in total. Four nights in a Junior suite and three nights in a standard room which we preferred. The rooms were very clean and staff were excellent and very friendly and helpful. The location is excellent and we could get around very easily either walking or by subway. There are plenty of choices of places to eat. Our favourite is Chipotle and the newly opened buffet down the road from the hotel. We had a wonderful time and will certainly stay at Avalon when we come again to New York.

I was pleasantly surprised with this hotel. NYC is notorious for very tiny rooms. The Avalon features large, clean, quiet rooms. Wonderful location with easy access to Madison and 5th Avenue, short ride to Time Square and Rockefeller. The staff was very friendly and was always available for questions and help. I will stay here again!