My wife and I stopped at the Sofitel for three nights in October 2008. It was the final leg of a world trip celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. It was great ! A warm & friendly welcome with a great comfortable room. WE had everything we expected. Yes, the room was a little on the small side but it gave us what we wanted. This was our first visit to New York, without doubt the location was great, 3 minutes from Times Square. WE WOULD BOOK AGAIN & RECOMMEND TO OUR FRIENDS. One tip, if you go for the bus tour where you just jump on and off, go for the blue bus city tour and not the red bus tour. There are loads more blue buses than red ones.

Just got back from a 3 night stay in NY and the hotel was just perfect from the moment we arrived to departure. As soon as we climbed off the shuttle, staff were on hand to welcome us take cases to our room.

We quickly checked in and had been given an upgraded room on the 19th floor with lots of space and the most comfortable king size bed ever. Beautiful bathroom and excellent facilities throughout.

All staff very helpful throughout and room service brought my wife a complimentary cheesecake up to the room on our arrival as we were there after her birthday. Not much I know but it was unexpected, a great surprise and showed just how much they cared about there guest.

All fantastic.

I saw other reviewers mention the RedFlame diner a few doors away. Went everyday for breakfast and loved that too. Very well worth a visit or 3

Just back from a 3 night stay over the weekend at the Sofitel. As usual, I booked this on the strength of it's reviews and I expect I'll be staying again in the future.
The location is good for everything I wanted to do/see as it's fairly central. A 5 min walk to the west and you're at Times Square (and just beyond that, Madison Square Garden - Well Done Joe Calzaghe - what a great night!). 2 Mins to the east and you're on Fifth Ave. The other plus point of the location is that it fronts onto 44th and 45th Streets, both of which aren't too busy at night and, hence, don't suffer from too much traffic noise (I didn't notice any whatsoever from the 12th floor).
Everywhere within the hotel is absolutely spotless.
The Bar is nice, although it closes to residents at 1:00am (but there are nearby bars open 'til 4:00am).
We only used the restaurant once for dinner as we packed quite a lot into our trip but, again, the food was good.
Others may disagree but I actually didn't find the staff overly friendly - they were very good and efficient and helped with any queries but they just didn't seem to smile very much. This isn't a big issue though and you'd be hard pushed to find anything of any substance to gripe about.

I booked a trip to NYC as a surprise for my boyfriends 30th at the end of oct for 4 nights. when it came to hotels sofitel stood out when reading the reviews on tripadvisor. I was a little apprehensive that it wouldn't live up to the hype but thankfully I have to say that it did. location was ideal. arriving at the hotel to see the bright lights of times sq along the street was great.
best parts for me were:
(1)the friendly approachable staff- especially the fantastic concierge service who sorted out trips/tickets for us and suggested the perfect place for a meal and night out on the town!!
(2)the bed was truely comfortable, after a long day of sight-seeing. we had a queen size room and it was more than spacious enough.
(3)the cocktails at the bar were fantastic and the bar girl was more than happy to make us cocktails that weren't on the menu - possibly the best long island ice tea we've tasted!!
overall, I would definately recommend sofitel, its higher priced but very worth it.