New York City: Hilton Midtown (April 2018)



My spouse and I stayed at the New York Hilton Midtown (previously called the Hilton New York) for one night on a Saturday evening in mid-April 2018. We booked our room online using the Hilton website. After we booked, an email offered upgraded accommodations for a fee, which we did not accept. We also did not check in online prior to our stay.

(Note: This hotel was previously called the Hilton New York. It should not be confused with the Hilton Times Square/New York City Hilton, which is located on West 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, where we stayed in March 2018; see our separate review.)
The New York Hilton Midtown is located on 6th Avenue between West 53rd and 54th Streets between the Theatre District and Central Park. The hotel seems to occupy an entire city block, with at least five different entrances; the main entrance is on 6th Avenue, but there is one entrance on 53rd, two on 54th, and one sort of mid-block at the parking garage. It boasts notable guests including hosting every president of the United States since JFK, plus Elvis in 1972 and The Beatles in 1964, being the location for the first hand-held cell telephone call in 1973, and the place where Donald Trump made his victory speech in 2016. 

The hotel offers two bars (the Lobby Lounge and Bridges Bar; note that the Minus 5 ice bar that opened in 2013 closed earlier this year), a grab-and-go counter-service market called Herb ‘n Kitchen, an Executive Lounge for Hilton HHonors Gold and Diamond members, a fitness center, and a business center. A Bluemercury beauty and spa chain is one of the shops on the street level of the hotel, and a souvenir shop is also available at the hotel. Service at the front desk during both check-in and check-out was brusque and business-like, even bordering on unfriendly and unhelpful. There is a separate line for Hilton Honors members; however, the regular line moved much more quickly. The two lines at the Herb ‘n Kitchen were ridiculously long whenever we passed. For example, we stood in line for more than 20 minutes just to buy some bottled drinks. (The market is well-outfitted and offers a wide variety of drinks, snacks, and other sundry items.) Despite there being at least four cash registers, and about six staff members present, they operated only two of the check-out stations. We think that if each line contains more than 15 guests, that staff should have opened another registers to absorb the crowd. 

Note that this property assesses a $25 per night “Urban Destination” charge that covers your internet (which we would have received free anyway as HHonors members), a $15 credit at either the Lobby Bar or Bridges, and a $10 credit at Herb ‘n Kitchen. If guests are staying for multiple nights, we believe that the credits can only be used per day; you cannot pool/accrue them to use cumulatively for one transaction at each venue. We have recently begun to see this charge pop up on other (but not all) New York Hilton-owned properties: our stay at the nearby Times Square Hilton just one month earlier did not assess this charge; however, a stay at the Doubletree Times Square in February did. The charge does not seem to be location-based or brand-based, so we are not sure why some Manhattan hotels charge it and others do not. The hotels charge you $25 per day, but then refund it in the form of food and drink (for which you will surely spend more than $25; it seems like a way to encourage guests to spend more money). 

The hotel offers almost 2,000 rooms (including 47 suites) spread across 47 floors. (It is reportedly the largest Hilton hotel in the United States.) Rooms are available in the following categories: City Room (with one or two beds), Skyline room (with one or two beds), Urban Room (queen, king, or two doubles), accessible rooms, and Executive Suites (with one or two beds). Based on the map posted on the back of our door, it looked like rooms at the end of each long hallway (numbers ending in -08, -09, -38, and -39) are a bit larger, and rooms ending in numbers -01, -02, and -46 are a bit smaller. We had room 3231, a double-bedded room located toward the middle of the floor and overlooking West 53rd Street. We generally reserve a king-bed room, but a room with two doubles was the only type available when we checked in early on a Saturday morning. 

Our room seemed large and spacious for a city hotel room. It contained two double beds with a nightstand between the two; the nightstand offered a clock with a place to charge a mobile phone, although it did not fit our Samsung devices. (The nightstand also offered charging plugs on both sides.) Note that the beds were DOUBLE beds, not QUEEN beds. If you have a party of four adults, two adults in one DOUBLE bed might feel a little cozy. On the other hand, the room offered plenty of space. Opposite the beds was a long furniture piece that held the flat-screen TV and also offered desk space (with a rolling chair) and drawer space (some of which was taken up by the empty mini-refrigerator). A closet unit near the door offered hanging space, extra bedding, and an iron and ironing board. A small lounge chair, matching ottoman, and side table were positioned near the window nook. The bathroom was a decent size, with a combination bathtub/shower, toilet, tiny sink, and vanity. The single sink offered some counter space around and beside it, and recessed wall shelves provided additional storage space.

We had a good stay at the New York Hilton Midtown; we particularly liked the size of the rooms.







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