TTT103

Yes, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but I usually stay at The Plaza when I'm in that area of town, and both are fairly comparable in terms of rates, but The Plaza is by far preferable to me. The tile work in the guestroom bathrooms are absolutely superb at The Plaza, as are the furnishings and fixtures in the guestrooms.

When just going in for a weekend show, we tend to stay at either the W Times Square or Intercontinental Times Square, and I can't say that the Park Hyatt rooms are any nicer than either of those properties. The PH rooms may be a bit larger, but that's about it.

Again, maybe my expectations were too high, but for $900 a night, we certainly did not feel the love.

MarkOK

I just had a very nice stay here overall. I was impressed with both the hard and soft product. Maybe it is because I have limited experience with true 'luxury' properties, maybe it is because my expectations weren't great on account of this thread's fairly negative tone. But, on any account, my wife and I were very pleased to have stayed here.

-- When the taxi pulled up, a porter immediately came out to take our luggage, we were greeted in the lobby with water by the 'down stairs receptionist' and after confirming our three day reservation, we were escorted up to the front desk to get keys. The check in was smooth (and a couple hours before check in time), the porter ended up having the elevator held open for us and escorted us to our room where he gave us a nice 10 minute overview of the room's amenities, and offered to unpack anything for us (we kindly declined).
-- Upon leaving, and entering, we were always actively greeted by the staff at the front desk, and by the staff in the downstairs door area. On the way out, we often were asked if we needed a taxi or any assistance. Upon returning, they always had the doors opening as we walked up and were welcomed back. When we needed a taxi, they walked out onto 57th street and hailed one for us and helped us in. Really, I couldn't expect them to do anything more. The staff always made us feel like welcomed and important guests. There was some level of casualness with the staff interactions at times, but it was still professional in my opinion and I actually really appreciate that compared to the overly formalized stuffy interactions by overly-uniformed staff like one gets at The Carlyle, for example.
-- The gym, pool and steam-room were immaculate. We made use of these facilities everyday. Not a thing was out of place in terms of waters, towels, robes, etc. the 10-head shower in the locker room was also very nice.
-- We made use of the free 2-hour bike rental which was really quite fun.
-- I liked the location. We felt it was pretty easy to walk to Broadway, 5th Avenue shopping, central park (of course) and the subway station was right there to get uptown or downtown.
-- The room was immaculate. We were in the "king bed studio suite" on the 10th floor facing 57th street. The only hardware issues were that one of the closet lights wouldn't go off (but we only noticed because I was looking for defects) and the bathtub is really loud when it drains. We barely heard any noise from the street except for the garbage truck despite not being very high up and fronting 57th street. The housekeepers did an immaculate job cleaning the room. We spilt a dime-size drop of wine one afternoon on the bed sheets, and the turn down service must have replaced our sheets that evening as it was gone after we got in that night. The bath products were fine (Le Labo Bergamote) though I like Jane Jacobs (found at GH DFW, for example) or Bigelow (found at Andaz Wall street, for example) better.
-- Front desk acknowledged our status and made clear about the breakfast benefit (see below).
-- We had some cocktails and apps in the living room in the evening and thought they were quite good. They were a little pricy, but we've seen higher prices at similar hotel bars.

Overall, this was a great experience. I can make four complaints though that make this hotel easily not my favorite.

-- No check in amenity -- I don't really expect this and it isn't a globalist benefit, but it would have been nice and many of the other nice Hyatt's still practice this.
-- We were 'upgraded' to the ~700 sq foot Studio Suite and appreciated the little larger accommodations than the base King that was reserved. The 'standard suite' is a 825 sq ft King bed suite which appears quite equivalent. But there are true 1 bedroom suites here and they were all available during our stay. It is disappointing that Hyatt doesn't open those suites for TSU redemption or for at-check-in upgrades. It's a little stingy and makes a TSU value practically worthless there.
-- We enjoyed the simple and reliable 57th street breakfast just fine, and we thought "the living room" was comfortable enough for breakfast, but the breakfast benefit is very stingy. For one thing, the breakfast prices are outrageously high by any measure -- I would say about 100% pricier than they should be. It is impossible to piece together a different egg dish (fritatta, or eggs benedict), a meat side, and a coffee without going something like $15+ over the $41 limit too so heaven forbid if you want something just a little different. There is no reason for this kind of stinginess.
-- Late check out wasn't mentioned at check-in. I was able to get it after asking the morning of check-out, but I appreciate the properties (and there are quite a few) that proactively offer it at check-in.

At 30,000 points, I think the point redemption value is there compared to the only slightly fewer 25,000 points for the other NYC properties. The pool alone makes the extra 5,000 points worth it for me (and don't all NYC properties right now have a crappy breakfast?). As for the cash price, I could never fully justify the $400+ mark up.

gengar

Thanks for the review. The last bit pretty much sums up my feelings on the property - blowing points here makes sense (although part of that is the decline of other NYC Hyatt properties, like Andaz 5th), but there's no way the room rate is justified given the iffy soft product and nickel+diming on stuff like breakfast.

mann1mal

So, I've got a 5 night stay in NYC coming up. I have to be in town for work and it just happens to fall on my wife's birthday so we are going to make a trip of it. Am currently Globalist and sitting on a mountain of Hyatt points so currently have the first 4 nights booked at the PH and the last night booked at the Andaz (the last night is not available at the PH on points).

Have been thinking about switching to the Andaz as it is available for all 5 nights of our stay. I ALSO just read an article that Hyatt is giving double stay credit for all Andaz stays through August 31st. As someone chasing Globalist again, this is an enticing offer.

I've stayed at the Andaz before but not at the PH. I really want access to the PH pool and I've heard the Andaz has gone downhill recently but loved our stay there a couple years back.

Part of me wants to switch to the Andaz just so we don't have to switch hotels and getting the bonus stay credit sweetens the deal. The other half of me wants to stay at the PH because of the pool, general service/experience at the PH, etc. We're also eating big this trip (have tables booked at Le Bernadin, Jungsik, Cote) so will be counting on the Globalist bfast benefit to help us save a little bit of scratch.

So what do you think? Is the PH worth the extra hassle? I tend to agree with the poster above that the pool alone is worth the extra points but don't know abut the extra hassle of switching hotels...

TheTravelPlaybook

I just wrapped up a trip here this week- stayed at the Andaz Wall Street for 3 nights, then the Park Hyatt for 2. Had stayed at the 5th Avenue one in the past. I definitely liked the Andaz properties more- wine happy hour at Wall Street, good breakfast, nice design. Park Hyatt was stuffy and, while a very nice room, isn't worth 30,000 points in my opinion. Breakfast benefit is nice to have in room, but the Andaz 5th does that too, if I remember correctly. With the new Andaz promo, it would be a no-brainer for me.

MarkOK

Well, some points:

As for saving scratch on the breakfast, it only works at PH NY if you are okay with the '57th street breakfast' (two eggs, a meat product, a bread product, coffee and juice). I call that an okay breakfast, but not necessary enough to skip lunch or anything, and if you want to go different from that, you will pay dearly for it at PH and won't save a real dime. I'm not sure how the Andaz 5th avenue (I assume) compares breakfast first hand.

If I was simply burning points, I would do the PH as I think there is some good value out of that 5,000 point per night premium, but I am quite adverse to switching hotels mid stay while travelling. It's just too much hassle.

So the question is whether the 20,000 extra points (5K times 4 nights) plus the hassle of moving one afternoon plus the very limited breakfast offering at PH is worth the 'upgrade' in hard product for four nights. That is a little tough for me to answer and would be riding the fence. I guess it comes down to how much are you going to 'use' the hard product. If, I was fairly well booked with dinners, shows, shopping and the like, I wouldn't do the move - it would require a couple of hours mid afternoon one day that I couldn't be doing other things and I wouldn't make great use of the amenities anyways.

But, if I was looking for a low-key, not much-to-do stay, I would probably do the move as I would probably swim/hot tub/ and sauna each of those 4 days, and enjoy the easy access to central park from that location (to read, walk, and take advantage of the free bike rental).

mann1mal

Great insight from both of you! Thank you for the quick responses!

Re: the breakfast at the PH, I thought you could just pick al carte and at least get credit for the price of the 57th street offering? Maybe I misunderstood that. Edit: re-reading your post, Mark, I understand what you mean regarding the breakfast.

Either way, that's great insight and thinking about going with the Andaz as to not have to relocate. We are going to be very busy so we probably won't spend a ton of time in the room anyways... I'm just a sucker for the PHs sometimes.

speedytimmy

I don't believe there is a breakfast menu on the PHNY website, but I think there are better options than the admittedly somewhat lackluster '57th street breakfast'. Steak and eggs, if I recall correctly is $31 (and comes with potatoes and grilled romaine) and the lobster dish with avocado and egg whites is $32. If you add a couple of juices or smoothies the cost isn't much higher than the '57th street breakfast'. Of course none of this addresses the issue that the breakfast allowance should cover any entree, juice and coffee.

If one happens to be staying with kids, their breakfast allowance is $25 per child and the kids french toast, pancakes or waffles are only $10 - and I wouldn't describe the portions as kid-sized.

speedytimmy

I think this overstates the amount of time it would take to move between the properties, even with New York traffic. They are essentially one mile apart. 57th St has traffic in both directions so, if heading to the Andaz, get a taxi on the southbound side heading east. Two avenues across and you are on 5th and it is a straight shot to the Andaz. With easy traffic, this would be ten minutes, bad traffic 20 minutes.

Andaz 5th Ave. to the Park Hyatt you would want to get a taxi on 5th Ave., not Library Way (41st St.).

TheTravelPlaybook

Can confirm that we used our benefit for our two nights on non-"57th Street Breakfast", and used it precisely on steak and eggs for me, and the lobster dish for my wife. Just watch out for the $11 orange juices, and you should be ok. Side note, the bacon was some of the best I've ever had on our last morning.

MarkOK

I don't mean to overstate the time of the actual move itself, it's more about the time to pack and resettle/unpack. If I did a 3PM checkout, I would feel the need to budget 2PM-4PM, a good chunk of the afternoon, for the hassle.

As for the breakfast, sure there are dishes that individually are less than the 41$ allowance. But how about coffee and juice? When I was there, once I added a dish (with some sort of protein), a side, and coffee (not even juice) I was always more than 10$+tax+automatic gratuity over the allowance. So, I suppose this depends on your breakfast needs, but PH does -not- have a breakfast benefit that fuels your day.

speedytimmy

Juice is $11 so that takes you $1 over the $41 allowance if you ordered the steak and egg dish. Coffee is $13. There is already a Nespresso coffee maker in the room, but if you add both juice and coffee, the overage is $14.

That the flagship Hyatt property in the US is really actually going to charge Globalist members $14 (double that if two adults are staying) is disappointing.

But, the PH does have the pool and the fitness center isn't stuck in a basement space.

martinplas

Aventine

Probably luck then. I've stayed here twice and been charged for extras everytime.

joey965

Been here three times as a Globalist and never charged for the overages that usually ran about $20. Frustrating for those of you who get charged.