it14

How do I search the email add of the loyalty manager? Or do I call in to ask for special request? I have an upcoming stay there and would be great if I can put in a request for suite upgrade, MR plat.

carrotjuice

Does the destination fee apply for reward stays as well, or only paid stays?

mindrisa

I believe you can begin the booking process using points and see what the rate total is. See if the Destination Fee is included in taxes and other fees then exit the screen before fully committing to booking.

rdlmitedu

Pretty mediocre property overall. I realize I should have low expectations in NYC.

1) They charge the 'destination fee' and then at check-in no information given about the services that apparently provides. I knew from looking online ($30 laundry, $20 drink in lobby, plus when I called it was also local phone calls, some kind of bike rental, and 500 points). I think they are intentionally trying to avoid people using these services. When I called for laundry pickup I got the front desk, then the bell captain, then the luggage room.

2) Check-in offered me 1000 points or a $10 voucher on my 5 night stay; I had to ask "or breakfast?" and then got 5 nights of voucher.

3) Breakfast is pretty meh, on par with a limited-service suburban property. Scrambled eggs in a warming tray, some bagels and pastries, fruit, oatmeal.

I did a 5-night 140k point redemption, then SNA'd to a suite, which is large by NYC standards, but really stupidly designed. The bathroom is tiny (you can't fully open the door), but lots of wasted space throughout the rest of the room. Resort fee is charged on point redemption stays.

I probably wouldn't stay here again; I've had better luck in NYC with the Times Square Element, Aloft Harlem, and Four Points near Wall Street.

C17PSGR

It's definitely a mediocre property but, alas, conveniently located for me and often has reasonable rates. The design of suites are poor but its an old building so not much to do about it. Not sure what architects were thinking but maybe there were structural requirements that don't exist anymore.

As for the destination fee, there is a huge line at the bar for people trying to use the vouchers. Then the bartender didn't know what to do when I had two drinks and wanted to charge the overage to the room. As for the 500 points, it never came ...

CMK10

Stay Report - 2/9 - 2/10

Location: The best part of the hotel. It's located on the corner of Lexington and 48th Street which means it's really ideal for Manhattan. You're 3 blocks to the 51st/Lex 6/E/M station and 6 blocks to Grand Central with Metro North and the 4/5/6/7/S trains. There's also a Hertz location on 48th between 2nd and 1st which is open Saturdays and Sundays. Nearby are plenty of places to eat at and drink at too.



Hotel: I like historical hotels and I like how this one embraces its history while also providing modern amenities in the common areas. The lobby is large and well decorated but gets crowded easily. There's a Starbucks that can be accessed from the hotel too as well as a bar on the mezzanine where the elite breakfast is and a large business center on that floor too. Be advised due to the older elevators and the high rise nature of the hotel waits for an elevator can be long.



Check In: Not well done. The agent of course has the thankless job of explaining the "benefit" to the scam $25 Urban Destination fee which if you're Platinum Premier are next to useless. I was offered points or a $10 F&B voucher as a welcome amenity and told breakfast would be in the lounge. Other than that, no benefits.

Room: Your typical tiny Manhattan hotel room. I had tried to use a Suite Night Upgrade at this property and had been unable to do so online or when calling (including talking to supervisors who talked to the hotel) so I ended up in this tiny box. At least the bed is comfortable and there's a nice SmarTV but the room is really small and the bathroom worse.









I'd stayed here for the location and the low off season rate. It's good for those two things but the Urban Destination Fee and lack of elite treatment rubbed me the wrong way. I ended up just grabbing Starbucks to go so I can't review breakfast sadly.

christianj

We just had a quick one night stay at the Lexington and I have to say I was overall very happy with the stay. I was initially a bit hesitant to book the hotel because I had lackluster stay there years ago (first time it was with SPG) and due to some of the negative comments in this thread. Why did I book it? The rate was good and we wanted to be close to the IC Barclay across the street because we were using our last IHG Chase credit card uncapped voucher night for the other weekend night and we didn't want to walk our luggage far. Of the options in the area the Lexington seemed like the best option over the Maxwell and the Marriott.

Check-in went smoothly with the nice agent and since I made some comment about the Destination fee being a joke she must have decided to give us 2 drink vouchers for the bar. This more than paid for the fee since we went down before dinner and the bar was actually pretty nice. As a Titanium LTE, I got a King Deluxe on the 20th floor. Room was fine and larger than most I have had in the city (and larger than the one we got at the Barclay the following night). Bathroom is tiny but considering the amount of time spent in there it was fine. Nice decor and furnishings overall and we had no noise issues at all in the room. Elevators were a bit temperamental but that also seems to be an issue in a ton of NYC hotels. Elite breakfast was fine which really surprised me considering all the complaining I have seen on this. Decent selection including fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, quiche, potatoes, bacon, sausage, yogurt, pastries, bread and a large bagel selection. The setup in the bar is a bit tight but it's doable and the selection was much better than the Sheraton TS, Westin TS, etc.

In summation....pleasantly surprised and at a decent rate I would book the hotel again without hesitation.

One gripe that has nothing to do with the hotel, the Starbucks you can access from the hotel SUCKS! Waited 30 minutes in line on Saturday morning at 6:50 in the morning (I was jetlagged due to arriving back to the US a couple of days earlier from Germany). They would NOT open a second register and the staff including the management could not have give a crap that people were waiting so long. They had a line almost out the door.

C17PSGR

Thanks for the review. This hotel often has very low rates (booked on at $79 recently). The breakfast isn't bad but last time I tried to use a drink voucher at the bar, it took 20 minutes to wait in line. I'd tolerate it if they would follow the upgrade rules ...

As for the Starbucks, that's an issue in NYC since the minimum wage has gone up. Restaurants are cutting back on staffing to compensate for the minimum wage increase.

christianj

Bar wasn't that busy overall and I walked up to the counter and ordered our two drinks and we got them pretty quickly.

Interesting thought on the Starbucks staffing but overall there was enough staff there but they were just slow in general and disorganized...and worse yet they could have cared less how long people waited in line.

59Impala

Are there any recent stays here? Company is arranging reservations for a group of us, so have no other choice unfortunately.
looking at the pictures and price range I would not book this hotel. I think I stayed here about 12 years ago and did not like it. Rooms are really small in the standard rooms.

Used to be top tier with Marriott at that time. Today nada, so am not expecting any goodies.

patmcpsu

I just stayed here this past weekend (mid-June 2022). Even using weekend certs plus points, I was given a very generous upgrade as a gold member. I don't want to say the exact room I received because I feel like it was a real outlier (especially for Gold), but all I'll say is that I was extremely pleased by it.

As for the hotel itself:
1) Perfect location - 20 minute walk to Broadway, while being near Grand Central for anything outside of midtown. Removed from the hustle and bustle of Times Square hotels.
2) Feels old world - everything works.... but not perfectly. I personally like older hotels, and this hotel has that charm, but beware that the TV interface is clunky, the water temperature/pressure leaves some to be desired, blinds are tough to open/close, stuff like that. There's no glass cups in the room (only paper cups) which makes you feel like a bum if drinking wine. Everything was clean, especially for the hotel's age.
3) There's only one bar/restaurant (not counting the attached Starbucks), and it's not even open between breakfast and dinner. They didn't offer room service either, as far as I could tell. Everything in the restaurant is ridiculously overpriced - you have to pay a resort fee to get a dining credit which is a hassle to redeem, and when you do, your money doesn't go far. Yes, the resort fee still applied during an award stay.

If you're not looking to splurge, but not looking for a cookie cutter place either, this is a decent option. I may have felt differently if I was placed in a standard room.

SeAAttle

I am booked for 4 nights in September at the Lexington but am having second thoughts after reading mixed reviews. No posts on this Master Thread for over a year add to my concern. Comments from recent stays would be appreciated.

Thanks.

EricH

I stayed a couple of weeks ago. It's the same as it ever was: small rooms, very small bathrooms, no lounge. Upgrades to nonsmall rooms don't seem to happen. Breakfast in the bar was pretty poor. I had stayed many times in the past but switched to the Midtown East, which is no more. I like the location, which is what brought me back. If you have limited expectations and like the location it works, but just barely.

sxpsxpsxp

I just checked out from a 1-night stay. I was proactively upgraded from a standard king to a full 1-bedroom suite, with a separate living room and a door between the bedroom and living room. That bedroom door came in really handy because the living room had a connecting door to the room next door, and I could hear people in there talking quite clearly. My room was in a little side corridor, so I didn't hear much hallway noise. My room was on the 20th floor, and away from Lexington Ave. Because of the building design the room was in a corner, and I still had windows in the bedroom looking out at Lexington Ave as well as side windows looking at 48th St. Street noise was typical for NYC. The room and bathroom were clean and well maintained. The living room was spacious, and had a sleeper sofa, coffee table, desk with chair, a side table, min fridge, and TV. The bedroom was quite spacious as well, and had an armchair and ottoman in addition to the bed. The bathroom was very decently sized, I would even say large by NY standards. I saw someone comment about water pressure, but I found it to be perfectly adequate. I really appreciated having both a fixed and a hand-held shower that I could run together or individually.

Like many NYC properties, they have the $35 destination fee scam going. The main component of it is $35 F&B credit, but it has to be used at the bar in the evening as that's the only way to get food (there's no room service). They also give you passes to the gym, which I guess you have to pay for otherwise, and you can get codes for the Citi Bikes. They told me this also covers laundry and premium Wi-Fi. When I asked about the alternative amenity for Wi-Fi, the front desk agent had no idea what I was talking about. I tried to explain it, and I think she got confused by the term "alternative amenity" because she pulled up a card from a stack she had on her desk. This seemed like a card they offer to Platinum and above guests if they can't upgrade them to a suite, because it says something along the lines of "sorry we couldn't upgrade you because we have so few suites, but please pick an alternative amenity." There were 3 options, of which I only remember 2: 10k points or $10 Starbucks card. I guess that shows you what it costs the hotel to give you 10k points.... The agent also offered to waive the amenity fee for me if I didn't end up using it, and I opted for that.

Overall I'm quite happy with my stay. I'm sure my experience would have been different had I not been upgraded.