The Greenwich Hotel NYC

100   Recommended
Deluxe
August 19, 2013 by EXPERT

 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended
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The Greenwich Hotel
 Map | 1 Review | 100% Recommended

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Deluxe

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
Stats
Room
Deluxe

We decided about 5 days beforehand to go to NYC. While we are frequent travelers to NYC, we rarely spend any time below E. 60th St, given that both of my sisters live on the Upper East Side. This side, due to my kid's last minute holiday to SC to visit the grandparents, we found ourselves with a spare weekend on our hands. One of the goals was to visit my college buddy, who lives in Brooklyn (which feels as far away as the moon when I'm up on the UES with my kids) and to visit parts of Manhattan that we hadn't really spent a ton of time at. My fist inclination was the FS, which I guess is in midtown. They were running a special as well, $100 hotel credit per night for the two nights we were there, in addition to FSPP benefits. However, my wife decided she would rather be further downtown so we turned our attention to the Greenwich Hotel vs Trump Soho. She decided that the Trump Soho was too large for her tastes, therefore we decided on the Greenwich (plus she liked the neighborhood guide on their website).

Booking

This summer, the Greenwich is running a special via Virtuoso. Upgrade at time of booking if available. The other amenities include $100 spa credit and $25 per person breakfast credit. I was looking at a regular room and the things that I look for are: King bed and separate shower/tub. The Greenwich, however, poses a difficult dilema. The entry level room is the Courtyard, which is queen bed/shower. The next level is Greenwich, which is queen bed/shower/tub followed by superior (king/shower) and deluxe (king/shower/tub in some rooms). The unfortunate nature of the hotels design (and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's a fairly new build ie within past 6 years) is that there is no possible way to guarantee a king bed/tub unless one books a suite. Armed with this information, and the only availability being Courtyard, Superior, and Deluxe I opted to book a Superior room with an upgrade to Deluxe at time of booking (note I did ask if I could pay for a Greenwich Room price with upgrade to Superior; however they were not willing to do that). In addition I also asked my Virtuoso agent to request a separate shower/tub combination. She noted that she strongly requested such. In addition, I also asked if the spa credit could be substituted with F and B credit, but the hotel noted that the restaurant was separately owned and could not do so. My agent also noted my arrival time (noon) as well as my wife's birthday.

Arrival/Location

Last minute booking on Amtrak from BAL-NYP= $294 per person, roundtrip. Last minute Amtrak rewards booking via Chase UR= 8000 points per person roundtrip. Unfortunately, the NE corridor was running behind so we arrived in NYC about 15 minutes behind our scheduled arrival time. Still, we were at the hotel about 1215 after taking the subway line 1 from Penn Station to Franklin St then walking about 5 minutes. Fairly easy access to public transport nearby, with the ACE within a couple blocks as well. The entrance of the hotel is fairly muted and low key and the area itself seems a bit subdued.. However, it's about a 10 minute walk to the hustle and bustle of Soho, while Tribeca itself was close by. It is quite close to this:

Of note, there is currently some construction going on on N. Moore so be wary of that. The check-in area is pretty small and we were helped quickly. Unfortunately our room was not quite ready yet so we dropped our bags off and left our phone number and went to Eataly for lunch (very fun!). Around 2:15 we received a phone call that our room was ready.

Re-Arrival

We were welcomed back; they noted that we had been upgraded from a superior to a deluxe room. After a quick dip of the credit card, two agents escorted us to our room on the third floor. Room 311, facing N.Moore. Noted as a Deluxe room. Unfortunately, only a shower present. I asked the agent about my tub request and she remarked that she had not seen any record of it but she would check again downstairs. She went down and checked; called back apologizing that there was indeed a request but that unfortunately they didn't have any rooms with a tub available at this point. Another call came back about 5 minutes later with an offer to move us to a superior room with a tub the next day. However, after discovering it was a tub/shower combo I declined. Two lovely cookies awaited us.

Public Spaces

The courtyard was a nice place to read in the morning or have breakfast. They also built a fire in the drawing room which made an excellent and cozy place for a night cap. It was all very intimate and quite nice place to escape the hustle/bustle of NYC.

Room

Underwhelming I must say. Upon entering a small hall the bathroom is off the the left a lovely refurbished armoire to the right. In the armoire there is a mini bar which is complimentary except for alcohol. Nice selection of beverages including Mexican coke, Perrier, Aranciata San Pelligrino, some juices and some nice looking Ginger ale as well. The mini bar was not restocked at turndown, only in the morning. A fairly nice selection of snacks were offered too including M and Ms, Cape Cod potatoe chips, nuts and some nice looking pretzels. Alcohol prices ranged from the rediculous to the reasonable. $65 for a half bottle of Stoli is ridiculous, but $65 for a half bottle of Hudson Distillery whiskey is actually quite reasonable. No coffee available in room. I couldn't actually ascertain the location of the safe until the last morning when I was checking the drawers; it was disguised as a drawer. Very nice ascetically but I didn't really think to look there. Next with the bathroom. Looking at the floor plans on the website, the bathroom was an exact copy of the Superior room bathroom. I understand that some of the deluxe bathrooms do not have a tub, but I was figuring that the floorplan would be closer to the deluxe bathroom minus a tub; especially the separate toilet. As I've said, the floorplan was the exact same as the superior room. The toilet behind the door was not ideal and although the website quotes an "oversized" rain shower it seemed closer to a normal sized shower. Probably about 2x4 ft would be my guess, if that. Another minus a small gap at the bottom of the shower door, which allowed a significant amount of water to flow onto the floor. The rain shower was quite nice and very good pressure though. The toiletries were Red Flower I think. Some sort of local NYC brand. Quite nice; 3 ounce bottles were given. Unfortunately, it was only midway through my shower the first night that I realized that they hadn't stocked any conditioner. A gentle reminder the next morning resulted in delivery. The hand soaps are excellent and my wife actually wanted to take them home.I quite liked the Morrocan tile look. Two bathrobes were provided; both the same size. It fit my wife just fine, however, it was quite small on me...

Greenwich Superior Floorplan Room note bathroom

Greenwich Deluxe Room Floorplan

My bathroom pic via iphone 5 The room itself is reasonably comfortable. The view was of the construction, though there wasn't any construction throughout the weekend. A pocket door separated it from the hallway and also helped reduce the amount of noise (which actually was not insignificant). The bed was Duxiana, which I guess is Swedish. I was excited to try it because my previous Swedish bed experience (Ikea) was definitely not luxurious. We sleep on a Heavenly bed at home and I felt that the Duxiana bed was springy and soft in comparison. I didn't care for it, but maybe that's just a personal preference. Sheets were Frette and excellent. Our room did not have a couch, but a chair with a table and a lounger type chair. The blackout blinds worked quite well. A large LCD TV was available, but we never turned it on. Free wifi The high ceilings made the room feel quite airy and light. However, the only thing that seemed to separate the deluxe room from the superior room is 50 sq ft...

Service

Overall, I would say the service was merely okay, if that. I've never stayed at an Aman but I would say the service wasn't as polished the Four Seasons. My wife actually found them a little snotty at first but that evaporated after more interaction. I was quite disappointed that they missed my request for a tub. I could definitely handle not getting a room with a tub because of occupancy issues but to miss the request completely is fairly inexcusable. On anegative tripadvisor review, the manager notes that almost anything is available with a quick call including Nespresso machines. I wanted coffee in my room so I asked the front desk if coffee was available in my room and they replied "no unfortunately". I didn't press the issue, but on tripadvisor they give the appearance that they are willing to go the extra mile. In practice however, it seems that that isn't exactly true. They also missed my wife's birthday, which my travel agent had also noted. We had excellent service in the restaurant and lounge and the pool. Excellent. Housekeeping was okay; new sheets were placed on our bed every day (different trim). However, I had left the wine opener out during the day and the turn down just left it in the same place (askew). Finally, not that it's a big deal but I was never addressed by name except for when I ordered room service where I was addressed as Mr. FlyingDoctor, which I thought was strange (instead of Mr. Wu)

Food and Beverage

Well just food. We had breakfast in the courtyard one morning. Their signature Italian soft poached eggs and sausage hash was nice and I quite enjoyed the crispy potatoes. The next day we opted for room service and the food arrived within 20 minutes. The zucchini fritata was quite good, but I was disappointed by the zucchini bread and blueberry polenta muffin. The blueberry doughnut was excellent. It really was.

Spa/Pool

The pool in the basement was very lovely. The beams are either Japanese or Chinese, transported and reassembled. Quite a nice treat to be able to take a dip in the city, especially being without a tub. It was very serene and not a madhouse like I imagine the Trump Soho would be. We were offered a choice of sake or tea, which was a nice touch. There was also a sitting area off to the right, which would have made a lovely place for a hot tub. My wife had a Shiatsu massage which she quite liked but do note that the treatments include a mandatory 20% gratuity so a 60 minute massage is about $250. The workout area looked nice but I did not venture in.

Overall

Pros: nice pool/pool service. good massage. Excellent toiletries. Nice courtyard/drawing room. Good breakfasts. Minibar is nice. Tall ceilings Cons: Limited king room selection with bathtub. Poor attention to detail. Missed the little touches. In conclusion, I would not return. Primarily because in the future I want to guarantee myself a king room with a tub but I can't afford to book a Studio suite.Reading my review, I question if I had unrealistic expectations. Perhaps. This hotel was much more expensive than I had previously budgeted for this trip (room rates higher than both the Trump Soho and the FS) and perhaps my expectations were unrealistic, however, I really feel that they missed/overlooked my requests. I don't want to be a DYKWIA and raise a big fuss but it is important to me. I really did enjoy the pool and the public spaces though. It's quite a nice, cozy intimate hotel and I wish I had had a better experience.

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