My spouse and I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn New York
Park Avenue on a Saturday evening in early March 2019. We reserved our stay
online using the Hilton HHonors website. We received an email from the property
manager in advance of our stay, which was a nice touch. (We also received an
email afterwards thanking us and asking for comments.) Although we didn’t
receive an email offering online check-in the day prior to our stay, we could
have done so through the Hilton website.
The HGI Park Avenue is located on East 33rd
Street (between Madison and Park Avenues). Many restaurants (including
Wolfgang’s Steak House on the corner), bars, shops, and other hotels are
located within walking distance, as is one of NYC’s iconic sights, the Empire
State Building. A Duane Reade Pharmacy and a 7-11 convenience store are located
on the same block as the hotel, so you can purchase drinks (including alcohol),
snacks, and sundry items for your room. (The hotel also offers a 24-hour pantry
where you can purchase items [although not beer or wine].)
Hotel amenities include a 24-hour fitness center on the
basement level (which we did not use), a business center, free Wi-Fi, private
function rooms, and a full-service restaurant and bar (called The Ainsworth,
which also offers a second-floor terrace bar). (Although we are Hilton HHonors
Diamond members, we requested additional points for our stay rather than eating
the hotel’s buffet breakfast.) The hotel offers a complimentary beverage
station in the lobby, with either hot coffee or cold flavored water, depending
on the time of day. The small lobby is attractive, offering seating in three
places: a more private street-view lounge area, a space with a high communal
table for working or eating, and another soothing lounge area with a water
feature.
The hotel offers rooms in the categories of King (247 square
feet), King View (241 square feet), 2 Doubles, and 2-Room Suite (319 square
feet). Guest rooms offer free Wi-Fi, microwaves, mini-refrigerators, electronic
safes, and Keurig coffee machines. We felt the TV was a little undersized for
our room (even though the room was not large); even worse was that the TV was
positioned atop a low piece of furniture, which made viewing from the (somewhat
high) bed difficult. Our HVAC unit didn’t seem to function properly, but
because we had read so many reviews from past guests with similar problems, it
didn’t seem worth calling the front desk to try to fix it. We were assigned
Room 1100, which gave us a slight view of the Empire State Building (although
we didn’t book a “view” room, we were upgraded at check in; in return for the
view, we got 6 square feet less of floor space). Although our room was located
right next to one of the three elevators, we never heard it. (We also never
waited more than a minute for an elevator, despite the hotel being sold out.)
Our room had a long hallway that contained the closet and storage unit for the
microwave and refrigerator. The contemporary bathroom was located off the
hallway, with a full-size modern shower (no bathtub), toilet, and vanity with
single sink (which offered plenty of storage space, along with lots of towel
and complimentary Neutrogena toiletries of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion).
The main room had a king-size bed with a nightstand on each side, the furniture
piece that held the TV, a desk with a rolling chair, and a comfy chair and
ottoman.
We loved the location of the HGI Park Avenue, and we could
have dealt with the coziness of the room if the TV had been better positioned
(even mounted to the wall, which would provide more surface space for people to
store belongings) and the HVAC system worked properly.
