I've seen the Park Plaza go through at least two cycles of good and bad. That happens to hotels. They depreciate over a few years, switch owners, get new loans and remodel. The thing with the Park Plaza is the location. Super quick from the airport now that the big dig is done and a choice location. It really was one of the best domestic hotels we had at one time, before we ever stayed at embassy suites or the new Marriotts. The Benson out in PDX and the Mayflower in SEA, the Palmer House in Chicago, the Captain Cook in ANC, the Skydome in Toronto and the Biltmore in Miami were all top layover spots. The rest were a mixture of mom and pop hotels, skeezy chain joints, and run of the mill Holiday Inn types. Plus the occasional oddball Red Lion, usually in the Western system. NYC got pretty bad, the Mildew and the Penn were easily the worst in the system. Scary bad. Hopefully the Park Plaza will get another facelift soon. If it's getting bad, then definitely write it up. I'm not sure that another downtown alternative will be any better though, I don't think DL will spring for the W, unfortunately