Advertising is misleading. My room was very small (I'm sure some rooms must be larger (and perhaps in accordance with the floor plans posted on the website) for anyone to be happy with the size - the size would have bothered me much less if the room had not been advertised as much larger) - no desk - the only side-table was unsuitable for work and was a long way from any power supply for a computer. TV old and barely worked.

I was 5 floors up and street noise was quite unbelievable, not to mention noise from within (air-con, fridge etc). The tiny business centre was only open during business hours (not helpful if you are out during the day and need to work in evenings). Unable to get any web connection (I've had no problems at any other hotel) and staff unhelpful in assisting (could not even point me to a nearby internet cafe - it turns out there was a connection at the post office down the road but nobody at the hotel knew that). Apparently there was some wireless access in the business that some people could access but to get it in your room you had to pay to hire a huge clunky old modem (which in my case did not work).

Location was fantastic, but even that will not convince me to stay here again.

Beautiful hotel with dark, medieval style lobby, friendly staff, right near Central Park.

Booked through HOTWIRE at a very good price. The first room was dated and dismal!

The front desk offered a suite for a small additional amount. The suite was huge and

very nicely decorated. (One large bedroom, large living room w/...

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I stayed here for 4 days on a business trip. In summary, the mid-town location of this hotel is convenient for both business and sight seeing, but the Buckingham lacks the requisite amenities required for me to recommend it to other business travelers. In fact, the longer I stayed here, the more frustrated I became, and the more I questioned the $300/night price, even for leisure travelers.

Other than location, the only other virtue of this hotel was the rather spacious rooms (by NYC standards). My room had a sitting area in addition to the bedroom – and was about 50% larger than rooms at the W, for example. However, the room amenities were lacking – The TV was not flat panel, and instead of a DVD player, it had a VHS player (been a while since I’ve seen one of those!) The room had a small kitchen, but I never used it – no one in NYC cooks so I would have allocated the space to the bathroom. Plus, the fridge was always running, creating even more noise for the room. And despite the kitchen, I didn’t find any minibar or snacks – something I would definitely expect.

I also had issue with the shower – not only was the spray hard and uncomfortable, the knob to turn the bath into a shower took a while to turn, meaning that by the time the shower started, I was still under it, causing a 3 seconds of extremely cold (and uncomfortable) water. This type of shower setup was what I’d expect in a 2 star motel, not here.

The room was pretty noisy (thanks to a loud air conditioning unit and the fridge – but at least no street noise), and there were no black-out curtains, so I woke up very early when the sun came out.

Perhaps by biggest issue with the hotel is that there was no in-room internet access (unless you wanted to leave a $300 down payment for a cable modem which I was doubtful would work). So, I had to schlep down to the lounge area, sit with a bunch of kids while CNN was on the TV, and check my email (and the wifi connection was very slow). Not exactly an ideal working environment.

The workout room was acceptable, with a variety of weights and towels, but no water. Another big deficiency in the hotel was the lack of a restaurant, bar or even morning coffee – I had to go across the street to Starbucks each morning. There is certainly no scene here at this hotel.

To top things off, and leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth, was that on the last night in the hotel, the alarm mysteriously went off at 7am. I didn’t set the alarm (it was on top of the TV, far from the bed) – so I’m not sure how it went off – perhaps the cleaning crew? Either way, it should not have happened and caused me to lose an hour of sleep. So think twice about this place, I know I will.

Smoking rooms are on the same floor as non-smoking rooms. Given that the heating/air cond is quite old (and loud), smoke filters quickly from one room to the next. Staff not sympathetic to this and other issues. I had a health related emergency, and the front desk wanted me to call 911 directly. The next day when I was released from the hospital, the air conditioner broke. I asked the manager if he could tell me when it could be fixed, he had me waiting in the lobby for an hour. It wasn’t until I went up to him a 3rd time that he told me that the electrician had already been up to fix it. This was one of my worst experiences staying in NYC.

The Buckingham, formerly apartments, is unusually spacious for the price.

The rooms include a living room and kitchenette. The location can't be beat. The only problem is their climate control system is antiquated, noisy, and dysfunctional. I know New Yorkers are used to opening their windows a crack in the winter to cool their apartment, but this guest had to choose between 90 degree room and snow blowing in the window.

Perhaps it’s a good choice in moderate weather.

It's wonderfully located for all the things we wished to do. It has beautiful, well-equipped rooms. It also has a very friendly staff who went out of their way to serve us.

Stayed a week at the Buckingham. The room was just fine for two people--well laid out. There was plenty of lighting. Bed was in good condition. The Kitchen was a small area, but served all our needs with microwave and refrigerator (there are two ...

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