My spouse and I stayed at the Hyatt Union Square on a
Saturday evening in mid-January 2015 for one night. We booked our reservation
on-line on the Hyatt website using a special rate called “And the Winner Is”,
in which each guest is presented with an envelope at check-in that offers a
special perk such as a bottle of wine, a late check-out, or a room upgrade. We hoped
for the room upgrade, because we had already booked a “better” room category of
the Alcove Loft. (Therefore, the only categories to upgrade to are the
Emphyreal Suite and The Sanctuary.) Much to our delight, the front-desk agent
upgraded us to The Sanctuary (a 1-bedroom suite with a terrace) upon check-in!
What an awesome surprise!
The Hyatt Union Square is located on Fourth Avenue at 13th
Street in the Union Square / Gramercy / Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan. The
property is located one block from Union Square itself, and many shops and
restaurants are right outside of its doors. Two drugstores, Walgreens and Duane
Reed, border Union Square; in addition to pharmacy items, both stores operate
as mini-markets, selling drinks, snacks, reading material, and so on.
The Sanctuary Suite is located on the second floor of the hotel, as are all of the Terrace rooms. The room number for The Sanctuary is 211. (We believe that the other rooms ending in “11” are the Alcove Loft rooms, which are all corner suites and offer slightly more room to their occupants.) The best feature of the Sanctuary is the 1,000-square foot L-shaped terrace. Because the living room area is positioned on the corner of the building, the room contains floor-to-ceiling windows, each set of which has automatic blinds and sheer drapes that open and close with the touch of a button. You can access the terrace from both the living room and the bedroom. Unfortunately, we stayed in this room in the winter, so we did not get to fully enjoy the outdoor space, but it contains many different pieces of outdoor furniture, such as a dining table / chairs for six people, two single-person lounge chairs, one double two-person lounge chair, two sofas, two chairs, several outdoor lamps, and potted plants / foliage. The terrace must be an amazing space when the weather is nice! The room itself features wood floors, leather wall panels, and suede ceiling tiles. The oversized suite includes a separate living room with a 2-piece futon-like sofa, dining table / chairs for four people, large free-standing iPod speaker cube, and unique kind of mini-bar. The bedroom features a king-size bed, second flat screen TV (incorporated into the mirror of the dresser unit). The two-part bathroom contains a huge walk-in shower for two people and a large sink vanity. The toilet cubicle is in another area that you can closed off with sliding pocket doors, and it has a second tiny free-standing sink in an area that can also be closed off. (Note that the description of this room online mentions a “separate powder room”, however, this room contains only one toilet. Although this room contains two sinks in different parts of the large bathroom, it does not incorporate what we think of as a “powder room” meaning an additional “half-bathroom”.) Two bathrobes (but no slippers) hung near the shower, and larger-than-normal (perhaps 5-ounce) bottles of CO Bigelow toiletries (including shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and body lotion) were located in a recessed area of the shower. In the living room, The Sanctuary contains a door that permits it to adjoin with a terrace suite, creating a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom unit when both units are rented.
We previously stayed at the Hyatt Union Square in October of
2013 (see our previous review for more information on the hotel features). Our
second stay was just as pleasant as our first stop, and we plan to visit this
hotel again. Although there are not many hotel options in this neighborhood,
this hotel is surely the best!
