4. Despite contacting the hotel 3 weeks in advance to ask for a east river view, as it was a special occasion, (daughters 18th) we arrived 15 minutes before check in time (not bad considering a 12 hour journey ), and then a 2 hour wait for a room, and after all the waiting, ended up on the 2nd floor with a view of a Yorke avenue roadside building with a 24 hour gas station 1 floor below us.