One of My Best Stays Ever
 

This was a very important occasion for me--I was celebrating my second wedding anniversary and my 500th stay at a Starwood Hotel. I was hoping for a great experience and it was.

The suite was WOW. The staff could not have been nicer or friendlier. Great restaurant. What's not to like? Oh, stunning views of New York too.

Sunday brunch was really good with great desserts. I would go back just for the macarons.

One of New York's great hotels is just across the Hudson.

Are Corner Cool rooms only on the first few floors? The Fantastic suites seem to occupy the corner areas on the higher floors. Anyone stayed in those; Cool or Fantastic? Stayed in Manhattan last year, small and noisy rooms, gonna try the W Hoboken this year.

Just to follow up on this, I stayed at the W Hoboken last night and was given a South-facing room on the 9th floor (as a Gold).

There is a new office building going up immediately adjacent to the W on the south side, that will block 90% of the view of many of the South-facing rooms. My room was looking directly into the construction site, and the building will be at least 12 stories tall (it's still going up).

The view is only partially obstructed right now (no walls, just the floors), but when it's done, it will block the entire downtown view for most of the rooms. The farthest East rooms will probably be ok, but the south-facing, western half of the hotel will be blocked.

Yea, I live across the street from that construction. It is horrible and also blocked the water view from my apartment!

Didn't you have anything to say about pre construction survey in terms of view blocking by the council?
Also curious, has the car service at W H stopped? Did anyone notice?

I didn't see one outside, but I arrived pretty late, and left pretty early. It's a short enough walk to the PATH/Ferry, and the weather was good.

I will say the bartender tried to tell me my gold drink coupon was only good for house wine or beer. This was after the receptionist specifically reiterated "any drink under $15 at the lounge".

Unfortunately, that's something that could happen to any building without build-able land in front of it. My old 'waterfront' condo in Jersey City had a nice city view when it was first built. The only view from it now is of the rental building that went up afterwards.

I'm getting married there in October, and specifically brought this up as a concern. They seem convinced that 90% of rooms will not have an impacted view; only the very most southern rooms will. I'm guessing they'll create a lesser room class to deal with that.

Interesting note: The largest reception room does not have a NYC view, which was a detractor for us.

Here's the review of my stay from a few months ago. If you're interested, the full photo gallery is here: W Hoboken Hotel Review – Hoboken, New Jersey

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W Hoboken Hotel - Starwood Category 5
225 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Award Redemption: 12,000 pts or 6,000 pts +$110 (very limited Cash & Points availability)
Normal rate: Around $269-350 avg, ranging from $224 – $414
Starpoints return: 1.88 - 3.45 cents/point – Average to REALLY GOOD

Booking/Check-in

I had a last minute-ish stay required in New York and it happened to be on opening day of the United Nation General Assembly in Manhattan. As a result, all hotels were fully booked in New York so the best I could do was Hoboken, New Jersey. I booked a “Cozy Room: King Bed,” and despite the busy week, I was able to get a pretty good rate. On my way to check-in I noticed that I had been preassigned to a “Spectacular Room,” I made sure to screenshot it just in case… I came in on the Amtrak train to Penn Station (Amtrak Acela Express First Class: Washington, D.C.-WAS to New York-NYP) and had to make the transfer over to Hoboken. This is a bit of a hassle if you have a lot of luggage but well worth the savings on a cab. You’ll need to exit Penn Station, walk appx 7 mins east (~2 blocks) and take the PATH train towards Hoboken. The ~15 minute train trip will cost about $2.50 and dead-ends at Hoboken so it’s hard to miss your stop. From the Hoboken PATH station, the W is about 4 blocks north, an easy 5 minute walk along the Hudson River.


When I arrived at the front desk I was greeted by some of the best Starwood Platinum recognition possible. The agent was very polite and, debatley, overly enthusiastic. Despite seeing the SPG app that I had been preassigned to a Spectacular Room, dude-man worked the angle that he was going to **try** to upgrade me. He played on the computer for about 30 secs and confirmed, “I was able to do it, I have upgraded you.” I made sure to play along, because who likes to crush enthusiasm, no matter how unfounded it is? In the end, this resulted in a 2 tier upgrade:

• Cozy Room – 280 ft² – BOOKED
• Wonderful Room – 330 ft²
• Spectacular Room 330 ft² – RECEIVED
• Cool Corner Room – 448 ft²
• Fantastic Suite – 544 ft²
• WOW Suite – 864 ft²
• Extreme WOW Suite – 1,088 ft²

Booked:

• Cozy Non-smoking Room, Smoke-free
• 26 Sq.m/280 Sq.ft• 37 Inch Lcd Tv
• Hoboken View• Free Sweat Access
• W Signature Bed

Received:

• Spectacular, non-smoking: 2 Queen Beds
• Non-smoking, 330 sq ft / 31 m²,
• W Signature Bed, 37 Inch Lcd Tv
• New York City Skyline View, High Floor Room

Location

It’s worth discussing location since many people might be looking at staying here instead of Manhattan to save some money. Going from the W Hoboken to Manhattan is quite cheap and easy using the NJ PATH trains:


So you’re only looking at about a 19 minute door-to-door trip to make it to 33rd Street: W Hoboken –> Walk 5 mins to Hoboken PATH station –> 14 min train ride to 33rd Street and Avenue of the Americas. Trains run Mon-Sun: 12am–11:59pm · every 10 min


The other line from Hoboken to Manhattan is the “Hoboken – World Trade Center” line. This will put you near Wall Street in 15 minutes flat: W Hoboken –> Walk 5 mins to Hoboken PATH station –> 10 min train ride to World Trade Center. A one-way ticket will cost $2.50 and trains run Mon-Fri: 6am–11pm · every 12 min.


The Room

I made my way up to the 11th floor and found the room to be much brighter than most W hotels–something that I don’t mind at all.


The W Hoboken has a great design that allows even the rooms that aren’t directly facing Manhattan to have an awesome view of the city:


If you end up with xx01 or xx18, you’ll have a view off the back of the building overlooking New Jersey–time to start complaining and have them switch you. I didn’t have that issue:


My room was equipped with 2 Queen beds, which is all that they had available on short notice but I generally prefer a Queen, those Kings can be too big when traveling solo.


The Bathroom

The bathroom was surprisingly roomy by Manhattan standards, and let’s be honest, that’s who the Hoboken hotels compete with.


Service

Again, service was stellar. I had a short stay so I didn’t have too many run-ins with the hotel staff, but the few times I interacted with them, was impressed. The check-in agent was one of the best I’ve ever had. Also within a few mins of arriving to my room, a bellman arrived with a SmartWater, a tray of nuts and a handwritten note:


Lobby/Restaurant/Bar


Bottom Line

Bottom line: the W Hoboken is a pretty cool hotel at a great value. It’s really not too difficult to get to Manhattan and you’ll save hundreds of $ (or thousands of Starpoints) by staying across the river. And, you wouldn’t have been able to get those amazing views of the city if you’re staying in the middle of it.

If you're interested, the full photo gallery is here: W Hoboken Hotel Review – Hoboken, New Jersey

The Hoboken City Council had almost no say over the office building that's going up next to the W. That building's site, like the land of the W itself and the other buildings along Hoboken's southern waterfront, is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which has declared itself exempt from most local zoning and other land-use regulations.

And I suppose we'll have to see once construction is complete, but it certainly looks like a good number of rooms on the south side of the W will lose their view once the office building is done.

I love this hotel. Extremely friendly, and always looking to help. Very professional and courteous.
The only downside is the parking.
a++

It was clear they were going to develop something next door, as the land was begging for construction and it is prime site afterall!
My main concern is, is the works in progress noisy for does south facing rooms and are they also carrying work over the week end?
I love this hotel as well, but not sure if I would stay there currently, can anyone comment on the noise pls?

When I was there a month ago, while they were actively working on the new building, noise was not an issue. I suspect it depends on what they're doing that day (they were welding while I was there).

The bigger issue for me was the effect on the view (drastic), and having workers looking in your window from 10 yards away. The buildings are very close.

Great to know this property has rooms with 2 queens - not that common in NYC.

A minor correction to one of the posts - the W "Private Residences" start a floor 18-26 i.e. the hotel has 17 floors, incl. the outdoor lounge.

Any pictures of the next door construction building work( finished)? I'd be interested to know if it finally blocks some of the south facing views of downtown Manhattan?