Consistently Amazing!
Let's face it, most hotel rooms in New York are small and expensive, but not so at London NYC. We stay here frequently and have become spoiled by their large suites and great customer service. Last year we decided to kick it up a notch and we treated ourselves to a special weekend and reserved the Atrium Suite. It was amazing! (See our Trip Advisor review of this hotel titled "Glass Cathedral in the Sky", Dec 2011.) I did not think they would be able to top that visit but they have. This year our daughter requested that we take her and a few friends to NYC for her Sweet 16. Well, we only have one daughter and she only turns 16 once. So we allowed her to bring 4 friends and we all traveled to NYC for the weekend. We decided to reserve a "Luxury Apartment with a connecting Vista Suite". Wow! Imagine getting off the elevator and discovering that everything down the hallway to the right was part of your suite of rooms. We had views of Central Park to the north, the water to the west, and the rest of Manhattan to the south. The room was simply amazing. The Luxury apartment was 1800 square feet and the Vista suite was another 500 square feet. We were so amazed we actually started counting things and taking pictures, no kidding: 5 flat screen TVs, 4 showers (one had two heads), 24 places to sit including neat art deco rocking chairs, 5 rooms (6 if you count the kitchen), 6 phones, 29 windows, 6 sinks, a full refrigerator/freezer, 5 thermostats for those hard to please temperature sensitive individuals, 3 "double door" closets, free wifi and cat 5 cables even in the bathroom, and a favorite of the girls: a full suite sound system with ipod docking station. Not only were the girls amazed, but so were we, and my wife and I have become somewhat jaded travelers. Now, that just describes the actual physical suite. London NYC is also renowned for it's amazing service and personal touch. This visit was no exception. Dimitri Andreakis is Director of the Front Office and he went out of his way to find out what would make our visit special. He communicated with us several times in advance of the visit and wanted everything to be perfect. When we arrived there was a personal note from Sonia, the general manager, welcoming us. They knew my daughter's favorite candy came from their Gordon Ramsay restaurant and they had left some for each of us along with a nice card wishing my daughter a Happy Birthday. In addition, knowing that we had a group of 15/16 year old girls, they wisely left several bottles of coke and several boxes of popcorn. It was a hit and the perfect welcoming present for a group of girls who had no intention of going to sleep until the sun was actually rising. I could go on and on about all the other special favors that they arranged but I am sure you get the picture. Whether you just want a nice luxurous suite for almost the same price as the other hotels small crampy rooms or whether you want an over the top, blow me away extravaganza, this is the place? We are always looking forward to our next trip. Dimitri, thanks again for helping to make our daughter's Sweet 16 visit to New York so special. (By the way, if you do have teenage girls, our group were all very excited that the band One Direction had just stayed at London NYC!)