Courtyard New York Manhattan/Upper East Side

4 stars for location and room rates. Should lose 2 stars for staff services (front desk, room cleaning staff) and room furniture condition, but the location overules and I give it 4 stars anyway. We are here for business and Sloan Kettering cancer center services for about a month. We are on week #2 currently, and getting to MSK is a breeze with the M31 bus essentially right outside and down the street some from the hotel. Lots of food options in the immediate area as well. If your a platinum elite member, forget about any upgrades as the front desk won't acknowledge upgrades exist. Of course that's if the front desk staff can hear you speaking to them with the rediculous COVID setup they have. They have plastic shields at the front desk counter which is great. They all wear masks which is great. Problem is, they have tables and a rope adding an additional 3 foot barrier between you and the staff. You must scream to each other through masks which doesn't work. On top of that, they have overhead music blasting, making it impossible to have any kind of meaningful and discreet conversation with the front desk. Very frustrating and terrible way to run a major Marriott hotel in NYC. I requested to change rooms and was given the third degree by front desk staff (who, what, where, why, when, etc.) Before they would grant my wish. Terrible. My first room heating system had an electrical problem that kept shorting out the tv and other electric outlets. 2nd room everything worked fine and was on a high floor like I had originally requested in my profile. Lower floors are claustrophobic with buildings right across your window. Upper floors nice view and feeling of openness. Rooms are tiny but was prepared for that. Courtyard at midtown east have nice large rooms but charge a rediculous nightly rate. They do daily maid service here as well which is very intrusive. I prefer once a week or twice, but the room attendance were very foreceful to get into the room. Sucks because I have to put everything away before they come in in. Working in the room was great and the wifi was pretty good. Did a couple of video conferences so far with only minor bandwidth problems. The tv service is terrible. I think they use dish satellite, but whatever it is most of the channels don't work. They offer lots of streaming options which is nice, just be prepared for the tv to reboot itself in the middle of movies and shows. Happened in both rooms so far. Great thing in addition to location is that each room has microwave and mini fridge. Absolutely perfect, do we can enjoy the local takeout and restaurants and reheat food as needed. We drink lots of tea and use the.microwave all day. Anyway, just under 3 weeks left and will make the best of the location.