platbrownguy

Also keep in mind you can use it for room service, and breakfast for 2 is more than enough food to share with a kid as well.

habshabs444

Just completed a 5 night stay at the St Regis and overall it was a fantastic stay. We were able to book under the old points regime for 240K for the 5 nights which was a steal. I attempted to apply SNAs to the reservation, but was not feeling optimistic as it appeared that the hotel was fully booked for the first two nights of our stay. Upon check-in, we were upgraded to a grand luxe room which I was told was a 2 category upgrade. I enquired as to whether we could use SNAs for the last 3 nights as both the Astor and Deluxe suites were showing as available on the app, but was gently dissuaded from doing so as we could potentially be without a room for the better part of that day. I realize that I could have pushed the issue a bit, but given we wouldn't be spending a lot of time in the room to begin with. I decided against doing so. One interesting item of note that I had not heard of before, was that the $50 daily 'destination' fee was waived given this was considered to be 'an extended stay' at 5 nights. I'm not sure if anyone else has had this experience? Honestly, I was indifferent with respect to paying the daily charge as we would have got our money's worth out of it regardless.

The room itself more than met our needs as it was decently spacious, especially for NYC standards. We utilized the butler service several times for coffee, shirt pressing, shoe shine, etc and everything was completed in a timely manner. The first night I requested a quick turnaround on a shirt pressing and was told it could be done in an hour which would leave things tight for our dinner reservation if it was delayed. Literally the doorbell rang at an exactly an hour with the shirt in the butler's hands!

As for the food/drink, there was some sticker shock which was to be expected, but all food and beverage was top notch. We had drinks in the Old King Cole bar 2 nights and in the adjacent lounge area another 2 nights. Service both times in the actual bar was spot on, but I found it to be somewhat slow both times we were sitting just outside the bar area. $27 for an old fashioned cocktail was the most I have paid for such a drink, but it definitely was a generous pour. As for breakfasts, we of course elected for the platinum breakfast amenity for which we dined in the restaurant three times and got room service twice. Room service was delivered in less than 25 minutes both times and came with everything we requested. The crab cake eggs benedict was by far my favourite on the menu out of everything that I tried. We did have some overages from breakfast on our bill which I'm not sure were valid, but I didn't press the issue at checkout as they were minimal.

The concierge team was absolutely top notch. I reached out a couple of weeks prior with some requests and throughout our correspondence, their response time was literally less than an hour every time! As well, I utilized the chat feature on the app a few times throughout my stay and all recommendations were timely and spot on. I will note that this is the first time I have used the chat feature so I'm not sure if this is par for the course at all Marriott hotels, but I found it extremely handy. Our face to face interactions were similarly positive. We also used the Bentley car service, once to go for dinner and also to grab our rental car upon departure. One minor quibble was that the car was only available until 8pm which I thought was a tad early.

The location for us was perfect for everything that we wanted to get accomplished and right in the heart of the action. Overall, this was a fabulous stay and really couldn't have been much better other than the lack of suite upgrade which was expected going in.

bhrubin

Thanks @habshabs444 for that recent review. This StR is most certainly one of our favorite all-time hotels worldwide.

We are booked for a return stay of 5 nights in June 2020. I’m already excited.

callmedtop

Thanks for the review! We'll be back in two weeks for a wedding wekend. Though I doubt we'll ever be able to top the last two suite upgrades we've received here (Milino Suite and Madison Suite), I'm glad to hear that the "normal" rooms are indeed sufficient. I love this property as well, though the breakfast F&B quality is truly subpar, both in-room and in the restaurant. Cold breakfast potatoes, stale bread, Entenmanns-level pastries, and omelettes soaked in oil. Hope it has improved in recent months! It's a small shortcoming for what is otherwise a great property.

Glad to hear you had a good experience with the concierge. I had what might have been the worst concierge slip-up I've ever seen on my last stay, though they were quite apologetic. I no longer trust the concierge and book restaurants on my own.

theOtherHolmes

Curious— which hotel is a better? St Regis NYC or Miami? Not counting the city itself (ie if both hotels were in the same location). Reason being I’m booked for Miami but could be persuaded to try NYC instead

bhrubin

There is no question IMO that the StR New York is one of the world's finest hotels in all regards. The same cannot be said IMO for the StR Bal Harbour, which is a fine luxury hotel and perhaps the best property in the Miami metro area, but which doesn't quite come close to the luxury standard of the New York flagship.

I've stayed at both--most recently in 2018, as it were. I am dying to return to the StR New York and I am not a fan of NYC; I am not a fan of Miami, and I am not dying to return to the StR Bal Harbour at all.

The StR New York decor/furnishings/hard product are to the highest standard, even if it isn't to our personal taste. (Of course, neither is the StR Bal Harbour style, but that hotel is most certainly still due for a refresh/refurbishment IMO.)

The StR New York service/F&B/soft product are to the highest standard, as well. While others may quibble over what the breakfast benefit is or should be, we found the F&B to be incredible.

The service at the StR New York is world class. The service at the StR Bal Harbour is uneven, largely as service at almost all of the best Miami/South Florida/Caribbean hotels is usually uneven.

You can see for yourself with our StR New York stay and Table 55 dining experience in the Luxury Hotels Forum review I've added to the wiki above and copied here:

https://www.flyertalk.com/hotel-revi...ular-stay-2408

This concierge managed to book us into Eleven Madison Park, something no other concierge team in any Manhattan hotel is going to likely do for you. The concierge also got us permission to dine at Le Bernardin without jacket (but wearing jacket to the table as compromise) for which I was very grateful.

As it turned out, our Table 55 experience was vastly better than our EMP dinner. We are planning to do Table 55 again when we return. Considering how expensive that is, I think that speaks volumes.

EuropeanPete

You will obviously get more for your money at Bal Harbour. Not the fault of the St Regis New York, but Upper East Side Manhattan is one of the world's most expensive hotel markets.

bhrubin

I think you might be mistaken on the average hotel rates at both; those are more often than not most comparable except during the height of Miami's hurricane season and very rare low occupancy periods in NYC.

And certainly, the costs for F&B and other hotel services/spa are more or less comparable, too.

EuropeanPete

Oh, odd. I've looked at both pretty often (and actually stayed at the St Regis NYC a couple of times) and have generally found the St Regis New York was almost always at least $200-300 more expensive per night, adjusted for seasonality. For next Wednesday for example, New York is $1,073 vs. Bal Harbour which is $474. That's not all that untypical for random other days for the next few months (despite this being Miami's main peak season) and is more or less what I've seen over the last few years. I've also never seen Bal Harbour at over $900 unless all base rooms are gone and it's close to being sold out, whereas I've never see the St Regis New York at anything within $100 of $474.

I'm sure we can look it up on a tracking website. Perhaps someone has one to hand?

And in case there's any Marriott lurkers on here, you may want to fix your website which if you search for St Regis New York, USA will currently give you a few limited service hotels in Saint Regis New York state.

ac/elite

I’m looking forward to my first stay there next week. My wife and I will be there for 7 nights. Although the question about the appropriate tip for the butler has been asked in this thread, it has never been fully answered. I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me what the appropriate tip amount is for the butler and whether he/she should be tipped daily or just at the beginning or end of the stay. Thanks very much.

bhrubin

There is no rule about tipping; different people do it differently or not at all.

For a 7 night stay, we’d likely use butler service for unpacking and packing, morning beverage service, and perhaps a few other pressings and shoe shines. For those routine services, we’d likely tip the butler team $30-50 at the end of our stay. If any butlers went out of their way for us or did something unusual, we’d tip more overall or give something more to that specific butler or butlers—but usually we give it to the team rather than an individual. I have tipped butlers as much as $15/day in rare circumstances, but most probably tip between $5-10/day depending on where the hotel is.

We also tend to tip the concierge team when we take advantage of them, and we always tip housekeeping for any luxury hotel stay of more than a few nights. But we always leave tip at the end. On some occasions where the overall team has been so great that we don’t want to specify one department over another, we’ve left one huge tip to be distributed as the hotel teams decide.

When things go awry, which has been very rare for us, we don’t normally tip, understandably.

Some people believe that tipping is not appropriate or necessary on the basic services that butlers are expected to provide. Others like me prefer to tip when great service is provided.

bhrubin

Coincidentally, I just got approved for a BRG rate of $434 for a 4 night stay here in 2020. Unbelievably amazing rate. So I likely will tip more than usual with concomitantly good service—since I’m saving so much off the rate. I like to pay it forward when appropriate.

VCURamFan

For me, it's Bal Harbour without a doubt. I enjoyed StR NY, but found the clientele very stuffy, which is saying something for a StR. You can't match the history (at least in the US), but the hotel lacks a grand lobby, etc. The King Cole bar is very cool for one night, but I found it to so stuffy that it was difficult to relax. The service is very good, but not as personable or friendly as other StR.

Bal Harbour is an entirely different resort, so it is difficult to compare. I prefer the modern large rooms and relaxed but very personal service at BH. Outside of the Maldives, which is in a class of its own (as well as price), BH is my favorite. It's a totally different thing from NY though, do you want to shop on Fifth Avenue, or relax at an adults only pool?

I've stayed at around 15 StR, and I'd rank NY in the bottom third. Having stayed at the StR Rome and Florence in the past two weeks, I found both to be better examples of grand urban five star hotels than NY.

bhrubin

Forgive me, but I think it’s possible your perceptions of stuffiness/friendliness may be more about you than about the hotel. The King Cole Bar isn’t stuffy to us, and I’ve been dressed pretty casually there (though one does have to wear pants and real shoes). The service has always been stellar and very friendly, and I’ve been to 20+ StR too!

I think that while you may be put off, that doesn’t necessarily mean others will be. (I concede that the reverse can be true, as well, of course.) As if the bar is the only element that matters for a hotel, of course.

Ranking the StR New York in the bottom third is quite surprising. There’s a reason that this hotel is always considered among the very best in NYC—even with the Peninsula just across the street. Its service and F&B and incredibly hard product are extraordinary. Just because you perceive the bar to be stuffy doesn’t preclude its other incredible attributes.

Our all-time favorite hotels stays worldwide include the StR New York, the StR Florence, and the StR San Francisco, as well as other Bonvoy properties like the Gritti Palace Venice, Suiran Kyoto, Prince de Galles Paris, and Hotel Imperial Vienna. It also includes Amanjiwo in Java, Indonesia; Amangiri in Utah; Amankila in Bali, Indonesia; the Upper House Hong Kong; the Peninsula Shanghai; Cayo Espanto Belize; and Cavas Wine Lodge Mendoza. I think that list speaks for itself—and we’ve found none of those to be stuffy.

Sometimes, stuffy is more about us and our own issues than the actual places we try to characterize.

ac/elite

Thanks very much. This is very helpful.