This is a bit of a difficult review to write for a few reasons. 1) This is not a new hotel, but it was recently reflagged from a Conrad (Hilton) to a Luxury Collection (Marriott) property for some unknown reason. 2) I booked this hotel for a crazy low 34k Marriott points per night when it first became bookable with Marriott points – this rate was only available for about 24 hours before someone caught it and tied the award price to the cash price like most Marriott properties. 3) The hotel has a great midtown location (54th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues). 4) We were able to book directly into a suite as the hotel is almost all suites, so we brought our oldest with us as she has a lot of friends in NYC from her time as a college student in nearby Westchester County.

We arrived late on a Friday night as our daughter needed to work for the majority of the day before we could fly up. As we had the great deal using points, I wasn’t that bothered about arriving late on this trip. During the day, I had chatted with a friendly front desk agent using the Marriott app and they had assured me we would have a suite with a pullout couch for our daughter. However, when we arrived, the less friendly front desk agent on duty was unaware of the prior conversation. She did move us to a suite with a pullout couch on the 24th floor. The hotel is tall and skinny with about 14 suites on each floor but it’s 54 stories tall.

As we walked out of the hotel to grab some late-night sushi at a nearby restaurant, I realized we had stayed at this hotel before around 2005 when it was the Righa Royal, also a Marriott property in those days. I remembered that we were thrilled to have a suite in Manhattan with two small kids. Since that time, it became the London (also Marriott), then the Conrad Midtown (Hilton) and now it’s back to Marriott with the anonymous Luxury Collection branding.

Of course, like many Manhattan hotels, this one charges a stupid destination fee of $35. That fee gives you $35 in food and beverage credit plus $15 in laundry credit. I’d rather there be no fee and no credits. Of course, unlike Hyatt and Hilton, Marriott still charges this fee on award stays, even to elite members (I have Lifetime Platinum status with Marriott).

The suite itself was fine. There was a fridge and microwave, which is a nice addition you don’t see often in Manhattan. There were closing double doors between the bedroom and living area which was nice for our daughter (and us.) The bathroom (shower only) was clean and modern with nice toiletries.

We had a bit of a service issue on the night we arrived. After we returned from our late-night sushi around 11pm, we all wanted to go to bed. I realized that there were no sheets for the pullout sofa, just a pillow and blanket. I called down to the front desk and requested sheets. It took about four calls over 40 minutes or so before a manager finally brought up sheets, or so we thought. Actually, he brought one sheet, but at that point, our daughter was ready to just go to bed. She ended up using the fluffy bathrobes as extra blankets.

Breakfast at the Luxury Collection was less than optimal. On the weekend mornings, there was an a la carte menu with very few options. As a Lifetime Platinum member, I received $25 x 2 credits per day toward breakfast which you can see does not come close to covering breakfast for two people.

There are a whopping five choices and none of them include a coffee or juice which are priced separately (and ridiculously). On the second morning of our stay, my wife and I had breakfast there. We each ordered one entree and a beverage. With added service charge, the total came to $91, which we offset with the $50 breakfast credit and $35 food and beverage credit (from the destination fee I had to pay anyway). We still had a small balance after this. Who would eat breakfast here if they were paying for it themselves and had no elite status? The food was good, but again, it’s midtown Manhattan. Walk out the door and find better food and better prices just about anywhere.

During the week, there’s a breakfast buffet. The continental buffet is $25, and the full buffet is $50, but both include coffee and juice. I ended up getting the continental buffet on Monday morning as my wife went out early and our daughter was still sleeping. Honestly, the continental buffet was probably the best value breakfast available at the hotel as it included fresh fruit, pastries, cold cuts, cheese, cereals, bagels/breads, and smoked salmon as well as juice and coffee. With tax and the service charge, it was $34 which I was able to cover with my elite breakfast benefit (though it still wouldn’t fully cover two people!).

There is a fantastic gym at this hotel. It’s on the 4th floor and has plenty of weights, a floor space for workouts, Peletons, treadmills and other machines. I was the only person there when I worked out on Saturday late afternoon. Cold water, fruit and chilled towels were also available.

I requested late checkout, and it was initially denied in the Marriott app chat, but I asked again at the front desk and after making some excuse about being sold out that night, they gave us a 2pm checkout which was good enough for our purposes.

The three of us all agreed that this was neither the best nor worst place we’ve stayed on our many trips to Manhattan. The rate made it a good deal and the suite allowed our daughter to join us without booking a second room. We have another 34k per night stay booked at the Luxury Collection in late March 2025 (assuming it’s not named something else by then). I’ll be happy to stay there and pay the stupid destination fee again at that rate, but I seriously doubt I will book this hotel again at regular rates when there are plenty of Hyatt and Hilton properties that can be booked with a reasonable number of points, elite breakfast that’s fully covered and a waived destination fee with elite status.

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