Joebellstaff

Aloha. I used my Hyatt cc 2 night certificates at the Park Hyatt on Halloween and am currently at the 48 Lex for the 2nd night. What stands out at both properties for me is how friendly all of the staff have been. The doormen at both hotels were named Christopher. Especially the Christopher at PHNY. He remembered our names,greeted us by name every time, wished us a good day. He is simply charming. I hope their gm's appreciate that as the first face the customers interact with, they put the hotel in the best light possible. The one complaint would be the breakfast service at the PHNY which was slow and inconsistent. They didn't provide a spoon for oatmeal and no breakfast condiments. Just really didn't have their A game as yet. And one last thing. The beds are too damn firm at PHNY.

MSPeconomist

Are you a bellman yourself?

Joebellstaff

I was a bellman/bellcaptain at the Centre Plaza Holiday Inn in Fresno in the mid 80's.

jepiv

I have a trip to NYC planned later this month. I was originally staying at the Wall Street Andaz at an elite rate of $228. I woke up this morning and just double checked my dates for fun hoping something at 5th Street or Park had changed. 5th was still not open to cash and points and going at about $400 per night. Clicked on Park Hyatt, and I'll be damned, it showed I could book the Park King for 30,000 points per night. I called the Diamond line and inquired about cash and points and was able to book that no problem. A DSU was denied however. I'll report later on the hotel.

ayda

okay, finally have some time to sit down and try to write a thoughtful review about my time here... i have a number of pictures taken but given that a good number of these have already been posted I won't post more, so if anybody wants to know more about a particular aspect just ask and I'll post if necessary.

some facts: stayed 2 nights on 27-29 Oct, booked a park deluxe king room thru virtuoso and i am GP entry-level.

check-in: got in maybe around noon, was well received at the entrance, where the doorman asked for my last name and comm-ed it to the front desk, so by the time I got to front desk on third floor they were well prepped for my check-in. since I was a little early they made no fuss of it and got me a room that was ready without my having to wait. my booking through virtuoso and GP membership was acknowledged and they informed me about the USD100 credit available through my virtuoso booking. the other doorman (name is Jim and he's a great guy) who helped with my luggage showed me to my room and made polite conversation - all very pleasant. I asked about the renovation works and he said it was still ongoing - the PH NY website did state works would go on until 31 Oct but I'd hoped they were done ahead of schedule. Anyway I heard rather minimal and muted hammering during my time there so it wasn't anything to get upset about.

room: got a room on the 21st floor. quite as I expected from what I've read so far already - good hardware and nice amenities. i'd actually just come from the andaz 5th and grand hyatt at grand central (was in NY on vacay and decided to do a bit of MR) and thought it was odd that the room controls in PH were actual buttons compared with the touch-sensitive controls they had in andaz and grand hyatt. took a while for me to work the dimmer function on those buttons.... welcome amenity arrived in the form of a yummy cheesecake and a bottle of sparkling voss so i enjoyed that... view was a very limited vantage of 57th overlooking carnegie hall, which was not all that fantastic but it was what i expected from reviews as well.

spa: i'd wanted to use my hotel credit on the spa cos i was in the middle of a vacay and was actually pretty tired from a hectic schedule. unfortunately when i popped into the spa on the 28th, the spa was closed for some sort of private event - i wish i'd known this earlier so i could have done it on the 27th instead! would have been nice if they actually informed me sooner... how else to use the hotel credit? that bottle of krug looked nice...

pool: had the pool to myself when i went in for a short dip on the morning of 29th before checking out and flying. there was a lifeguard at the pool and while i appreciated his purpose for being there, at times i felt a little bit awkward having a pair of eyes on only me...

concierge: generally very helpful, i'd asked them for help with booking the NY city pass and they were obliging. delivered the printed ticket to my room in a nice envelope (nice touch). what wasn't so great tho, was the fact that i'd called to book a bicycle for a ride in central park at 8AM on 28 Oct. note that PH NY doesn't have bikes on the property itself, they will give you a letter to bring to a bike rental place where you can have the complimentary bike. so concierge gave me the letter, which i brought with me on a hunt for the bike shop "Central Park Bike Rentals". the letter indicated the shop address at "221 West 58th Street". i walked up and down 58th street, looking for unit 221, which if you were to look on google maps now, is simply among buildings that do not exist as they have been torn down and under construction. so... imagine my frustration walking up and down that same street wondering if I got it all wrong somehow. SO, since PH NY wasn't near enough for me to walk all the way back to investigate and come out again and waste all the time in the process, I walked into another random shop and paid $ to rent a bike. Had a nice time cycling, and at the end of it when I got back to PH NY, I pointed this problem out to the concierge so the next guest doesn't have to suffer my fate, but they seemed almost adamant that the info they gave me was correct. One of the concierge ladies looked it up on Google maps and showed which shop it was, it turned out that it was a shop called Central Park Bike Tours, which I did actually walk past, but when I did, it was shuttered, and since the name wasn't identical I didn't think it was that particular shop either. Keep in mind too that the concierge had told me they'd informed the shop I would be coming to get the bike so it didn't occur to me that I should be picking up a bike at a shop that wasn't open... Anyway I didn't want to nit pick with the concierge team as it was all becoming a little bit awkward so I just said "OK my mistake" and went back to my room a little beaten. Guess what though? I investigated a bit more and Central Park Bike Tours' address is 203 W 58th Street. Bummers. I decided I had enough frustration and didn't want to be the self-righteous martyr for something this trivial... and I sort of wanted to give them the chance to investigate this on their own and make it right on initiative but that never came.. so there.

check-out: relatively quick process, except that when I told them that I'd taken a bottle of krug and that the virtuoso credit should take care of some of the charges I'd racked up, the lady said my booking didn't have virtuoso on record... how odd huh? I waved her off and told her to double check. Asked her to have the final bill emailed to me, but that never came (had to request for it thru the GP website). Got down to the entrance and the nice doorman who'd received me was there again to wish me goodbye.

conclusion: besides the considerably nice hardware in the room and the attendant comforts, what i truly liked about this property was the friendly doormen who were consistently there during my stay and hence recognised me and greeted me each time they saw me. the other staff seemed to rotate pretty often and I hardly recognised them from one day to the next. room service guys were also very friendly, so I would say the software is pretty good. considering my experience with the concierge though, it's safe to say it needs work.

In sum, while the property was okay-nice and my stay pretty okay, having paid over USD1k a night for my stay, I think I did expect it to be near perfect without the kind of hiccups I encountered. I don't think I would say it was an impressive property, especially having stayed at PH Busan and PH Tokyo very recently, where I easily can say I enjoyed myself more (each for different reasons). So there, that all explains why I have trouble understanding why PH NY should be a flagship property...

ThreeA4Me

Great and thoughtful review...

RTWSTARALLIANCE

I'm heading in with very very low expectations. Want to give it at least one try. Would love to be impressed.

thucanhho

Now that Flyertalk is doing more formal hotel reviews, I think that it would be really useful for future reviews to include the reviewer's status with the hotel and what they paid (cash, pt, cash and points.) That is what makes the above review more balanced.

Would PH Vendome and breakfast be as great paying cash without status?

My Andaz Papagayo stay in an 1100sq suite was amazing, but I paid $100 + 7500pt + DSU. Would my review be as amazing if I paid $1500/nt without breakfast, etc? I don't think so...my expectations would be higher.

FlyingDoctorwu

Was an upgrade offered for your virtuoso booking? What was the breakfast credit for virtuoso? In room or restaurant or both?
Thanks
Chris

ayda

I didn't get an upgrade but didn't make a fuss about it. Not certain on what the breakfast credit was but I should think it's the standard USD41 everyone else has mentioned, worked for both in room and restaurant.

RTWSTARALLIANCE

I'm using 30,000 points per night with upgrade being requested before and at check-in. Given one category room upgrade with offer to buy up with cash for something "nicer".

For NYC the room is nice. But for that amount of points (given the Hyatt universe) and low upgrade effort my very very low expectations have been met. I feel free to roam about the City to other properties. The hotel holds no special sentiment for me.

MSPeconomist

Aren't Hyatts supposed to upgrade Diamonds to the best available nonsuite room, or do the T&C only say one category like FHR? It seems to me that if it's available for cash, it's available. Plus the upsale offer at check in to a Diamond sounds tacky to me.

JetAway

Yes but a lot of the hotels don't follow this T&C:

"Enjoy the best room available upon arrival, excluding suites"

pnq91

Had a stay this Sunday as a Diamond using points.

Was given a Deluxe whatever room, or whatever term they have for their best nonsuite room. However it was on the 11th floor, and had a view of the AC unit and apartment building next door. Probably could have prodded for a higher floor, but didn't bother during check in.

Room itself was very nice, crisp and clean. Was generous in size for a standard room, but not as spacious as the biggest nonsuite room at a property like the PH Washington. The one plus with the room/ building design was that I couldn't hear anything from the hallway or the doors from other rooms during my stay. Either it was the thickness of the doors or my floor was really empty that night.

Bathroom was almost the size as the room itself, had a very nice shower too.

Ordered room service for my diamond breakfast, it came quickly and was just fine.

Didn't get a chance to use anything like the car service or bike rental, but overall if I was forced to use points in NYC I would just redeem here at 30k vs 25k for 48lex or hyatt times square.
Whenever I had interaction with the staff I found them to be great, which makes this a pretty solid choice. IMO they did a good job of maintaining the Park Hyatt decor but had a nice modern feel to the whole property

RTWSTARALLIANCE

Positives

Grew to enjoy room
Door person and concierge staff
Internet speed

Negatives

Number of channels including CNN HLN, ESPN Classic were inop
No newspaper delivery even after being asked at check-in. Had to call down at which time papers delivered promptly.
TV does not swivel to view from working desk
Doors slam hard aka HR Waikiki
Breakfasts not taken off room bill until pointed out at check out
57th street noise
Other persons hair on bedroom nightstand light base and left bathroom counter sink top
Rain shower drips
Clock on bathroom counter not set correctly
Dried foreign matter at bottom of glass left bedside at turn down
Pricked finger on hanger with nail/staple sticking out