It’s the Exelsior’s stupendous location, down the block from Central Park and across the street from the Museum of Natural History, that keeps it in this guide. Other than that plus—and it’s a major one, to be sure—this is your standard bus-tour hotel (when I was last there, signs for Cosmos Tours were all over the lobby). So the rooms have the kind of art and furnishings that one expects in a mass-volume tourism joint. Not that they’re uncomfortable—actually the rooms are roomy and feature quality bedding. But they’re the sort of digs that you forget what they look like the minute you get out the door. Rooms with a park view will be pricier; rooms overlooking the courtyard are a bit dark, but very quiet.