joshua362

For food only, the JW has an awesome lounge based upon a stay there in August. Have not experienced the others.

DENROC

Highly reccomend Essex House; location and facilities

Eujeanie

Also, for some of us (well, me ) it would be helpful if people mentioned "which" RI (referring to most recent post about a RI by kcaluwae), since there are several in Manhattan. Can I assume it was referencing the new Central Park one? (I also know it was probably clear in a dedicated thread, but here in the merged one it is not. Thanks).

MSPeconomist

Ren 57 rooms are small and SOP seems to be to give only one category upgrade even to PP. Bathrooms are decent but rooms are small (deliberately repeating myself) with lots of dated wood paneling and built-in furniture but no real style.

Small lounge is located on lobby floor and closes on weekends, although I did get an appetizer coupon and you can ask the concierge to let you into the closed lounge to get water and tea/coffee.

Staff generally impressed me as unprofessional and clueless. They're unaware of the hotel's advertised features as well as published MR program benefits......

C17PSGR

I've stayed at all three. First, consider your location where you want to be. Of the three, Essex House treated me the best. Nice upgrade although I suspect the Essex House is the most likely of the three to actually sell it's upgraded rooms. Right across from the Park. Ren57 gave me a closet. I like the neighborhood of the Ren57 though. Agree that they don't seem to care about status. Eastside was professional/impersonal. I think the room was decent.

idealflyer

Thanks for all comments. I did see the merged thread, but to cluster all the NY Marriotts together made it harder to see reviews. Perhaps there should be a separate forum for Essex House. FT SPG forum had one for it previously when it was a Starwood property.

I have decided on Essex House and am looking forward to my upcoming stay and review!

DealAddict

I can see why the Lexington gets mixed reviews. Wanted to request the Centerfield Suite (this is the one bedroom suite suite Marilyn Monroe "supposedly" stayed in) or one of the other Specialty suites for the dates I'm staying... The specialty are all 1 bedroom suites that have been named after famous cultural figures and are decorated with their memorabilia etc... Called in and spoke with front desk person Adasha who claimed none of the specialty suites were available on my dates because of a convention that was supposedly happening that week. I wasn't really buying it because people don't even KNOW these suites exist unless they look at the website. The Marriott site only lists the suites as 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom. So to suggest ALL of them were booked for a convention - it's not the site was showing all 1 bedroom suites have all been booked, so I really was not buying it.

Sure enough, I called in-house reservations and they told me that that suite had been booked, but another of the specialty suites WAS in fact available. They told me they could not guarantee it though because it had been booked up until the night before I'm arriving. Should the person staying in prior to my arrival want to extend their stay in the suite, the room will not be guaranteed.

I thought this was silly, considering RIGHT NOW, that room is unoccupied for my nights, so why couldn't they assign it and guarantee it? I called the front desk and asked to speak to a manager. Turns out I got Adasha again, who told me AGAIN none of the specialty suites are available. I told her I had spoken with in-house who indicated otherwise, but she insisted and said she doesn't know why I got told that, but there is no availability. She seemed very unhelpful and borderline rude to be honest.

SkiAdcock

If there's a convention in NYC & a company is willing to book/needs to book suites, it wouldn't matter if they knew they were named after famous people or not. They'll book the suites.

If there was one available you would think they'd let you book it, but if they have experience that some stay over (this wasn't during Fashion Week was it?) then perhaps they were being pro-active so that you wouldn't arrive & then find out you didn't have a suite.

Perhaps Adasha was being rude; perhaps she didn't appreciate the end run. You must really like celebs if you're willing to go to all that hassle to try & get one of the specialty suites. Who are the other ones named after?

You can also do the hang up & call back method (but during a different shift).

Cheers.

VickiSoCal

In large threads like this it is helpful to put the full name of the hotel as the very first line in your comment or review, then continue. On the mobile apps peopel cannot see the title of your comment and with multiple peopel responding on different properties it is very confusing.

SkiAdcock

You mean like this one?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...ht=Essex+House

Enjoy your stay!

Cheers.

DealAddict

Well, my point is that those specific suites would not be booked in advance unless people were specifically requesting them. Why? Because they cannot be booked online; you have to call in and request it. As I explained, they don't list the Centerfield suite anywhere on Marriott.com. It is essentially listed as a 1 bedroom suite, but not specifically as a specialty suite.They do not assign rooms until before arrival... They had 1 bedroom suites listed as available on the website, so clearly they were not sold out of that room type. So it just seemed odd to say the least that she was saying they were ALL sold out of specialty suites for a convention...

Nope, not fashion week. My reservation starts in October on a Monday. Why should it matter if the guest staying there before me wants to extend their stay? They don't wait for other guests to decide if they want to extend their stay in a particular room before offering them for sale. The room is available now, so it should be simply a matter of me being able to book it.

If she was not being rude, I would say she was being unhelpful and dismissive... if you are being told that reservations told me there was availability you don't straight out deny it, you at least offer to double check it. If the room type is not available for booking for other reasons, maybe she should be honest about that. I think I would not have called in-house to check had I felt she was giving me the whole story.

Actually, the reason to book some of the specialty suites (specifically the Arthur Godfrey and the Centerfield) is because they are the biggest (600 square feet) and offer 2 bathrooms, compared to others. The Centerfield suite also has a kitchen. Some of the specialty suites do not have 2 bathrooms but have a balcony.

The other 3 specialty suites they have are the Lady Ella (that one is a 2 bedroom) and the Hemingway & Gallery Suites (both 1 bedroom... the Gallery Suite has a balcony).

For me, the draw of the first 2 was definitely the extra space of the Centerfield and the 2 bathrooms.


Well, front desk (when I got a different person) and in-house both confirmed the Arthur Godfrey suite had been blocked for me, so I should be good. Unless they change their mind or something. I'm still going to call in and check the night before.

SkiAdcock

Good to know & glad it appears to be working out. Enjoy your stay.

Cheers.

DealAddict

Here is a link describing the specialty suites with photos:

http://www.lexingtonhotelnyc.com/rooms/Specialty-Suites

More photos of the Centerfield suite:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...5600328&type=3

DealAddict

Jose at the Lexington is very helpful on the phone (unlike Adasha - I'm surprised she was positively mentioned in one of the reviews of the hotel I read). Also, they waived the nightly fee for the rollaway bed when I asked - yes!

tkey75

Had a great stay the other night at the Marriott Downtown. Called the Plat line at 8pm when I arrived in Manhattan for a very last minute meeting the next day. I quickly secured a points stay, and at only 35k points, I thought it was a good deal considering rates were $500+. The Plat agent said she'd put me in for an upgrade.

I met up with some local friends and finally arrived at the hotel after midnight in a state overly worthy of the Bugger, I'm drunk thread . The front desk was very nice and incredibly helpful. Before I knew it, I was in a NW corner king room on the 34th floor with simply stunning views of the Freedom Tower (which judging by all the construction lighting inside is surprisingly very lightly occupied) and Ellis Island out of the west facing window. If that darn building weren't there, the Statue of Liberty would be in full, glorious view. The room was spacious and comfortable, with a great seating area and ample bathroom.

The only tragedy of my stay was the next morning when housekeeping unrelentingly knocked on the door at 8am. It's by fay my biggest pet-peeve in travel. My repeated shouts of go away were not accommodated, so I decided it was time to get up and have breakfast in the lounge, only two floors up, with the idea that I'd be right back in bed to freshen up my brain before my noon meeting only a couple blocks away.

The lounge was an average lounge, but I thought the breakfast, while typical in offerings, was quite good. The eggs seemed to have come from real egg shells and not a cardboard container or from powdered form, the sausage was of particular quality and they had a warm maple sweetened rice pudding like tart that I'm sure was very good fresh from the oven.

My plan came together and I was back in bed quickly after, DND finally on the door. I made my meeting and look forward to staying at that hotel again.