scented

Was PR in charge of renovations at St Regis NY? The Bentley Suite, The Dior Suite, The Tiffany's Suite... ghastly. With so many new hotel developments now, StR should not rest on its laurels of the past.

Kagehitokiri

starwood(marriott) still owns st regis new york
sheraton originally bought it back in 1966
starwood recently sold st regis rome & florence
starwood also just sold st regis san francisco

purplestraw

I believe those suites were redone before the rest of the hotel. I think they're all beautifully done - a nice set of choices depending on an individual's taste. I think the hotel is doing fine.

pogonation

Any recent experiences at the Peninsula NYC? One of my friends came to me for help booking a hotel for him and his girlfriend in NYC. I managed to find a pretty incredible rate ($325/night on hotwire when all other websites were selling for $800/night) so we jumped on it straight away. Now just a bit worried since tripadvisor reviews seem a bit mixed. I don't really trust tripadvisor too much and really value the opinions of FT members a lot higher. I just hope there wouldn't be anywhere else where they could have got a better experience for a similar price. I did notice that the Langham was a similar price and the Conrad was about 70% the price but from my own experiences (albeit all in Asia) I would expect Peninsula to be a higher class of hotel.

DavidO

$325 per night through a wholesaler is pretty incredible. The hotel is quite nice. My only concern would be that wholesaler bookings tend to get blocked in a hotel's "last sell" rooms.

MikeFromTokyo

This hotel gets mixed reviews on this forum. I personally like it at Jr. Suite level and higher. But at $325 per night, I would say by all means go for it. Even if you get their least desirable room, you're still at the Peninsula New York for little more than you would pay for a dump. Even big box chain/convention hotels in this city often have higher rates.

Even in this hotel's most basic room, you'll have a very comfortable bed, good water pressure, the Peninsula in room technology suite, and Peninsula service. What more could one possibly expect for $325/night in a prime location on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan?

Also, if you are not happy with the room you are offered, you could ask about paid upsell to a higher category, and possibly end up with a more spacious room still for substantially less than published rates.

offerendum

At this price you can´t do much wrong. I never stayed at the Pen as I always preferred other hotels, but I also never paid 325 €

MikeFromTokyo

It's also only USD $325, which amazingly now is about €308...

(Note to self: book FS George V for next trip to Paris)

offerendum

Uuups... Yes, it´s amzing! Was 195 € few years ago. Can´t afford holidays in the US anymore

MikeFromTokyo

Of course it depends on whether one's income is derived from USD or EUR...

It is unfortunately bad news for EUR earners, particularly as many resorts world wide are priced in USD.

It's been a long time since I have done any shopping in EUR, as it for a very long time was much more expensive for me due to the weak dollar.

I suppose it is some consolation that the value of EUR remains slightly higer than USD, so while USD travel is less of a bargain it's still not bad...

pogonation

Thanks for all the replies! I thought it was a pretty good deal so I'm glad you all agree!!

SojournsOf

Thought I'd share a few notes re my stay at Crosby Street Hotel last month.

Love the location – great spot in Soho just near Balthazar. Subway is very close if that is your thing. Shopping is great in Soho. Do make a trip to Jeffrey in Chelsea though if luxury fashion is your thing – their buyer is great. If booking Ubers, check your app to make sure if the car arrives on Crosby side or on Lafayette.

We booked a Luxury Room and received upgrade at time of booking to Deluxe Room (ended up allocated on 7th floor). Other benefits included in rate were full breakfast and champagne on arrival. We also received some cakes and a bottle of their lavender room/linen spray.

We arrived early (around lunch) and were taken to the guest only lounge for check-in and given a drink while they finished preparing our room. It was around a 20 minute wait which was fine. They actually did ask non-guests to leave this lounge a couple of times.

Room was nice. We were allocated I think on the 7th (maybe 8th) floor, looking out across the rooftops Crosby Street direction. We were close to the lift which I don’t usually like (because of noise), but the rooms are well soundproofed and I was not disturbed. Our room was a fine size (we had carryon size luggage only) for a few nights. Bathroom was shower only, but I really liked it. Loved the décor in the room, the warehouse-style windows especially make me feel like I’m in NYC. Room was always kept very clean and turn down was as expected.

Breakfast was great. I really enjoyed our mornings here. We were in town for fashion week so hosted some guests for breakfast before some shows. We asked what the situation was with breakfast and we were told to order what we wanted as full breakfast was included in our rate. Turns out this included our guests too so this was a daily saving of at least $200.

My only issue with service was in the restaurant on our first morning at breakfast. I ordered a fresh green juice and the server accepted the order (after I asked twice if it was fresh). Five minutes later she came back and said it would be a 10 minute wait as it had to be made fresh in the kitchen. Five minutes later she came back with a bottled cold press juice and asked if it was okay as this was all they had. I just took it as too much back and forth at this point. Then I asked for hot English mustard with my steak. They brought me Dijon, which I sent back. They then bought me grainy, which I sent back. Then the manager came over to see what was wrong and I asked why an English-owned hotel did not have English mustard (maybe I was still annoyed by the juice but this honestly really did baffle me). Long story short, I had to settle with Dijon. But the server (a new one now) brought grainy, which I sent back. I finally got Dijon mustard and at this point I wasn’t very happy and expressed this. I also asked if they thought it was appropriate at this kind of property to serve bottled juice. The manager then said he would get a fresh green juice made for me. Within five minutes I had my juice (it was incredible actually) and was told for my following mornings to just mention that the manager has arranged my juice and the server will know. Well, that didn’t happen the next morning and I had the same discussion with a new server before I asked for the manager and then the correct juice came.

A bit long winded, and almost as fickle as when I commented here on someone waiting 30 minutes (was it more?) for someone to draw them a bath, but I feel this was actually a service issue. Every other interaction with staff was fine – requests for items met quickly, room service delivered promptly one day when we wanted a snack due to an early start (this was comp too even though we came back to the hotel after a fitting for breakfast later). I did not use concierge as they proved useless prior to my stay at confirming restaurant reservations.

To end, very, very much enjoyed the Crosby overall and will definitely be back. Maybe it is just my demographic and interests, but I really cannot fathom why anyone would stay any further uptown. We went to a party at The Edition (Madison Square Park) and it just felt so removed from anywhere I find enjoyable about being in New York. I didn’t really enjoy shopping uptown either.

As an additional, non-hotel related note, nicer places I dined were Carbone, Mercer Kitchen, The Polo Bar, The Bowery and Lafayette (and a few others, but they mustn’t have impressed). Enjoyed them all, especially Carbone – really recommend this (although they did let three Middle Eastern guys take over the section of the restaurant you can hire exclusively for around $6k, staff stood at the entry to this section to escort guests to the restrooms, and the guys were clearly smoking inside, we had all our deserts and a bottle of champagne comp’d when I complained about the smell…). Mercer Kitchen was a bit of a circus. Also went to a place called Once Upon A Tart on Sullivan and Prince – really enjoyed this for breakfast the few nights we stayed at a friend’s apartment.

(I tried to attach a couple of pics of the room)

aa213bb

Fantastic! As someone who lived in NYC, and returns somewhat regularly, if we don't feel like bothering friends/family, I've added this to the list.

I agree; much above 14th does not interest me, but I get why tourists want to stay near the park.

DSI

Great review. This hotel has been on my radar. On another note, is there a luxury-lite hotel (we're going with friends and I would like to stay around $400 a night, given that our friends want to keep it at $300...) that's south of midtown and has rooms large enough for a kid or two? Obviously Crosby is too expensive for this trip.

scented

I've seen The Langham Place in that price range. Depends a bit on your dates, but it is doable. Excellent choice for value by the way, considering the entry level rooms are 420ft²/40sqm²! Sadly it is Midtown and not really South of Midtown.