Did you know that category 7 is the highest category for a Club Carlson hotel and that there are only 5 category 7 Club Carlson hotels in USA? Cassa 45th Street NY happens to be one of the two category 7 hotel in New York and it is very undeserving of 70,000 points it costs to book a category 7 hotel. Now, starting March 1, 2018, Cassa 45th will a be lowered to category 6 and will cost 50,000 points but I feel that even 50,000 is too much for this hotel.
Times Square is two blocks away from Cassa hotel
We went to the hotel at around 11 AM. I was hoping my early check-in request would be approved but it was not. We were told it would be done in a few hours, however our room was not available until past normal check-in hour.
The entrance of the Cassa hotel in 45th Street is a rather unnoticeable one for a hotel. It is definitely not something you will notice from a distance.
The moment you enter the hotel, you literally run into the check in desk and the bell boy. The lobby is almost non-existent. Sure there is a small sofa but it is next to entrance of the hotel. The chilling winter wind that comes through the door will chase away anyone who dares to sit on the sofa for an extended period of time.
There is no business center in this hotel, however you can email the staff and have them print your documents. I had a check-in staff print our boarding pass but for some reason he went out of his way to magnify our boarding pass resulting in the pass being unscannable.
As a gold member I am entitled to a welcome gift at Carlson properties but we received nothing. This is a benefit a lot of properties tend to “forget” and I simply choose to not remind them. On the other hand, we received a room upgrade but these days “we upgraded you” seems to be parroted by check-in staff in every single hotel.
the bedroom
I liked that our room did not open into the bedroom. When we entered the room we found ourselves in a small sitting room with an attached bathroom. The sitting room was too small to act as anything other than a buffer between the door and the room.
the sitting room and the bathroom door
The heating system was located above the sofa which unfortunately meant it would take forever to heat up the bedroom. It did not help that coldness leaked through the walls of the bedroom window. As far as the view through the window goes, well….
category 7 view
The mini-fridge was empty which is fantastic but the lack of freebie water bottle was unpleasing and limiting complimentary wi-fi to two device was a little bit too much.
The bathroom was fairly standard but I cannot say I am a fan of hotel bathrooms having full sized pump bottles.
Overall Thought
I am clearly not a fan of this hotel. The hotel is mediocre yet costs a lot in points but I guess that is typical for Club Carson hotels in US. The only major positive point of this hotel is the location but there are far superior hotels nearby.
