Kacee

So my upcoming reservation just changed to St. Regis Residence Club, "Suite." Is this a good or a bad thing?

daniellam

Check carefully to make sure that your points and nights post.

The St. Regis Residence Club consists of floors 8,9,10,11 of the St. Regis New York. Some years ago, the room and suites on these floors were sold as timeshares where buyers would get to use them for 4 weeks (correct me if the quoted number of weeks is incorrect) per year with one guaranteed week. When not used by the timeshare owners, sometimes these room/suites get released into the general hotel pool for "overflow" use. I believe the owners get a portion of the revenue.

Kacee

So maybe I should reject?

This property played all kinds of games with room assignment last time I was here. They are not booked full.

daniellam

Maybe ask for a suite on Floors 3-7, 12,14-19 instead? That way you won't be assigned to "Residence Club".

Note that the best suites for the "Residence Club" are 803, 903, 1003, 1103. The only difference is that instead of a powder room, you will get a wet bar instead.

Kacee

Very helpful thank you.

Hope I don't regret sticking with StR over the Langham.

bhrubin

Out of curiosity is your stay paid or award? I know the StR usually commands higher rates on average than the Langham.

Truth be told, I found the Langham to be nice, modern, and comfortable and liked its Bryant Park location...but its service wasn’t quite as polished and the F&B were nowhere near the same league as those of the StR. The Langham decor was clean and modern but a bit bland. The restaurant and bar at the Langham aren’t really Langham level and it shows. So you might be happier with the StR.

callmedtop

Checking in this evening for another stay at the StR, and have been pre-upgraded to the Madison Suite based on the app. This makes the third stay in about a year that I’ve been put in a suite. I haven’t even seen a regular room before! Didn’t use SNAs this time, and the hotel is fully sold out this weekend.

Looking forward to a drink at the bar. Hopefully breakfast has improved!

spgplat21

I had another great stay here a couple weeks ago. I used a SNA, which cleared into a Deluxe Suite, and we were further upgraded to a St. Regis Suite. The room was great, and the breakfast benefit is one of our favorites in the US. We switched back and forth between restaurant breakfast and room service and the appropriate amount was removed from our bill each day before we checked out. We can't wait to be back next Spring.

m2704s

Wife and I will be visiting NYC for 5 nights over NYE with our 7 month old. We are deciding between St Regis and New York Edition. There is 75k extra points required for St Regis but the cash rates for the same dates is double that of New York Edition.
I have gold status and from what I've read I won't have any real benefits at Edition. What could I expect at St Regis?

9volt

Honestly, not much. You’ll probably be upgraded to a deluxe room from a standard room. Possibly with a better view. A suite would be extremely rare as a Gold. Also, no free breakfast amenity either.

bhrubin

Over NYE? I don’t think a Gold would get any upgrade since the hotel almost certainly will be sold out. So will the Edition hotels, most likely.

Gold status is pretty meager in the overall considerations of Bonvoy.

daniellam

Book a Grand Deluxe room with a Virtuoso agent and you can get a guaranteed upgrade to an Astor Suite at time of booking (exclusive to Virtuoso at this particular hotel).

bhrubin

That’s only a $200 upgrade in most cases, so perhaps not quite as valuable as it seems—especially with rates for the Grand Deluxe room hovering around $1000-1200 and an Astor Suite at $1200-1400 around NYE.

9volt

Whoops. Missed the NYE part. Agree, very likely no upgrade at all.

ac/elite

My wife and I enjoyed a week long stay recently. Our SNAs didn't clear and we didn't receive any upgrade at all from the basic room, which we had booked with points. The UN GA was beginning during our stay, so the hotel was pretty full. The front desk agent told us that there was no upgrade available, but that he would speak to a manager and they'd upgrade us if anything came available during our stay. We never heard anything further from them proactively, and inquired a couple times to no avail, so it is disappointing to see from another post here that someone else received an upgrade to a suite while I was still in the same room. I realize that normally hotels won't look to upgrade guests already in rooms during the course of the stay, but the front desk agent was pretty emphatic that they'd see if they could find us something to move to. Don't tell guests that if you're not serious about doing it.
The only other issues we had were that twice our air conditioning conked out and we had to have the engineer fix it. We spent one night in a very uncomfortable 75 degree room.
Those issues were all relatively minor in the scheme of things. Even the basic room was very nice and our butler was really fantastic. He knew we drink a lot of bottled water and always ensured that there were 6 bottles in our room. One day I mentioned to him that we really liked the french press coffee and asked what brand they use. He came back a few minutes later with a pound of coffee for me to take home. The service we received from everyone at the hotel was friendly and efficient and they are well trained to make their guests feel very welcome.
We enjoyed the breakfast amenity, eating in the restaurant just one day and using the $90 daily credit for room service the rest of the stay. I checked and had it confirmed that the hotel covers the taxes and a gratuity for the waiter/room service staff over and above the $90. One day when the fellow delivering breakfast to the room gave me the bill to charge, he even reminded me that there was no need to add a gratuity as he is covered by the hotel for the included breakfast.