The Sire Hotel Lexington, Tapestry Collection by Hilton

I spent three weeks at The Sire, in three different rooms. The first two weeks were really good: the rooms were clean, comfortable, and nicely furnished, with touches like Matouk linens. It’s a small boutique hotel in a historic building that’s been renovated to modern standards. There’s a lot on site, for $11 a night. The third week was a letdown. The room they called an “upgrade” was another two-queen corner room, this time on the first floor. Since the building is on a corner, people walking on the sidewalk passed just inches from my windows, and cars were close enough to see in if the blinds were open. I kept the blinds closed, so the room felt gloomy without natural light. It was drafty, the heat ran constantly, and it was down the hall from the bar. One night around midnight, an intoxicated person there made a lot of noise for a while and disturbed my sleep. That room didn’t feel like an upgrade. The parking lot was the biggest problem. Snow had been forecast before I arrived Monday, but the lot was almost entirely covered in packed, frozen ice. It didn’t melt during the day, and there was no clear route from the lot to the hotel without walking on ice. Every parking space meant stepping out onto solid ice. I have bad knees and can’t risk slipping. This was a major safety hazard and a liability for the hotel. At the desk, I was told they use a private company to scrape the lot because it’s private property. With the storm forecast in advance, the hotel had plenty of time to arrange for the work, at least on both halves of the lot. I understand there wasn’t much they could do once I arrived Monday, but the planning was abysmal. By Tuesday, they agreed I shouldn’t have to pay the nightly parking charge, but offered no other solution. They said someone would come scrape it eventually and that they’d run out of salt. It snowed lightly Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning the lot still hadn’t been scraped. Contacting Hilton Diamond customer care was the only way I got any kind of resolution after checkout. The room situation had been mixed before that. My first week was in a king room that was just right. The second week I was upgraded to a spacious corner room on the top floor, but it had two queen beds despite my booking a king. I’d rather have one king, but I liked the extra windows and natural light. I did want to enjoy The Sire, and mostly did, but the icy lot and the other problems really soured the experience.