As promised, a quick review of the Baccarat...

I was there for 4 nights during Fashion week. 1st two nights was just me (had business in the city) and wife joined over the weekend so I just booked a Classic King and upgraded to a Grand Classic King.

Spoiler alert! Overall, greatly enjoyed my stay but before I go on about what I liked, I need to vent and share that it was -9 (or felt like it) and raining when I arrived, rolling up with two luggages (after taxi dropped me off a block away due to traffic) and the doormen just stood there and kept going with their conversations. Gave me flash back to Park Hyatt NYC.

The hard product is stunning!!! For those who don't like dark lobby areas or having to take an elevator to the 2nd floor to arrive at the actual hotel lobby, this won't be your cup of almond milk! (is that the correct saying? sorry, second language). Think Park Hyatt NYC but even darker entrance on the ground floor. I'll stop using PH as a punching bag. (I actually do like some aspects of PH). I much prefer contemporary decor and design but I really loved this property. It had a great blend of Parisian chic-ness to it and still felt modern. I hate carpets...was that random? I loved that the floor had hard wood. Even though, the carpet covered much of it, I still liked the contrast. The rooms also smelled fantastic! Felt like I was trapped in a bag of cotton candy.

The bathroom is gorgeous. The shower was a deep rectangular hallway, basically...A door on the bedroom side of the shower can be closed or opened so you can shampoo with a view, I typically close my eyes when shampooing, though. So it was unless for me but loved knowing if I ever changed my shower habits, a reward awaits me! I actually stayed in Grand Classic King on the 7th floor and the 11th floor, but one had a tub and one without. So if you require a tub, might want to pro-actively asked to be assigned to a room with one. The reason I moved was due to noise. My original Grand Classic King was a connecting room and guests in the connecting room started to blast Just Bieber at 2:48am. I'm an easy going person (you can tell by my writing) but I really just cannot handle loud music after 2:33am EST so it didn't sit well with me...I guess they had just returned from the after party? Given it was Fashion Week, the hotel was basically sold out and asking to be moved was a rather tall task...However, the onsite manager chatted with me at 7am and did everything he could to arrange a new room. We were relocated and slept much better. A bottle of house Champagne also followed to ease in the transition. We don't drink much but it was still much appreciate it! I'm a believer that every property can screw up (Amans, too) but the intention and effort to recover makes all the difference.

One thing that annoyed me...The in-room tablet/phone that is meant to be a single device to control: in room dinning, lighting, phone, curtains, billing, etc...I know everyone here has seen it and many hotels are going down this path...when it's executed well, it's fantastic (Peninsula HK), but the device in my room just never goes into any sleeping mode, so unless I leave it on the charger all the time, it will run out of battery when I need to use it. So I went back to the Stone Age and adjust all lighting, curtains, phones, manually.

I only had breakfasts and room service here...The food was fine, nothing to write home about or memorable but perfectly edible. Menu did seem VERY limited for in room dinning and breakfasts. Prices weren't cheap but I was also expecting it given I'm in a luxury NYC hotel.

Overall service (for NYC/North America and during nearly 100% occupancy ), it was fine to good...There's not to much to complaint about but again, certainly not on the level of fine European or Asian luxury properties.
We took the house car (S class) to dinner at Sushi Yasuda, which is about 12 blocks away and it was really nice to have a house car that's actually available for use. Usually, we have fight people for it (I'm 5'10 and 155 lbs, so we always end up taking uber or walk). The range limit is up to 15 blocks. I realize this write up may seem much more negative than I intended to be (or feel) as I'm excited to return for future stays and can see why almost all of my clients that's been have loved it. It's probably my favorite NYC option at the moment.

I guess that wasn't that short of a review after all and please don't judge my poor grammar. I learned English by watching Saved by the Bell and Family Matters...If anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM me and I shall do my best to compose short responses

I know no one asked for it, but here are some photos....



Grand Classic King


It's nice to have actual keys!!! Wait, it's not real?!


Not a bad view for NYC hotel.


You could have watched the Olympics opening ceremony and shampooed at the same time...they value efficiency here!


Sorry, there were others in the pool and didn't want to be overly intrusive...only a bit, that's fine.


When wife goes shopping, I drink myself to sleep...early valentines celebration in the City!