A few years ago, I worked for a Swiss bank and it was necessary for me to make frequent business trips to Zurich and New York. Whenever I as in New York, I tried to get a room in the New York Palace Hotel and fortunately most of the time I was successful. So this is a hotel I have stayed at on many occasions. By and large, my experiences were similar each time; I always stayed in the same standard of room and I always received the same standard of service from the staff.

I nearly always travelled to New York on a late afternoon or evening flight from London which meant arriving at the hotel at around 8pm local time give or take an hour or two. The main hotel entrance and lobby is breath taking, palatial and exquisitely decorated; the entrance is especially beautiful during the December holiday season. Reception is invariably busy at this hotel but there are plenty of manned desks so never much of a wait, a relief to somebody still on European time. Staff are friendly, charming and would usually refer to my previous visits. Before my very first visit, somebody recommended I ask for a room with a view of St Patrick's Cathedral next door, the staff are more than happy to oblige and I managed to get a room with a view on more or less every visit and it is indeed a beautiful building and a fantastic view which I never tired of.

As one would expect of a hotel of this calibre, the room has a full service during the day and a turndown and mini service with perfunctory chocolates on pillow in the evenings. I have always found the rooms to be spotlessly clean, I remember there was one occasion when I returned from the office to find my room not serviced, but this was my fault as I had accidentally left the privacy button on. One call to reception and somebody was there within minutes to rectify my mistake. This is so typical of the service in this hotel.

Other dining options include a formal restaurant called Gilt, which holds two Michelin stars and looks fantabulous, but sadly I have not tried it myself. I have visited Istana the lobby brasserie, although my most recent experience of this was last year when I was not actually staying at the hotel but wanted to show my husband my favourite NY hotel. Service really let the side down this time and we gave up and walked out in the end without ever getting to place an order, despite our repeated attempts. This is my only experience of bad service in the many times I have visited, but what a let down.