Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Good, safe location |
| Disadvantages: |
Price will increase |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
The Carlton is currently undergoing some major construction work, but don't let that put you off. The rooms are all in tip top condidtion following refurbishment and it is just the lobby area that is being worked on. For the happy traveller this means hugely discounted rates up until spring 2002.
The hotel is easy to find at 22 East 29th Street New York, NY 10016, on the corner of Madison Avenue. The reason for the construction work, and the upcoming price hike, is that the hotel is building a new front door facing onto Madison, meaning that by the summer this will be 'The Carlton on Madison Avenue'. This move to a landmark address is likely to mean landmark prices so get in while you can!
The hotel stands in the shadow of the Empire
State building, a few blocks from Macys, close to the Flat Iron building.
Right now there is no bar and restaurant, but that is no major hardship when you find yourself in the heart of midtown
Manhattan. You'll find plenty of diners and restaurants nearby, with coffee shops and delis galore on the block, along with a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.
There is no gym either, although discounted rates are available at a local health club, and a new leisure facility is on the 'to be built' list.
The rooms are large and comfortable, with mahogany furnishings, new comfortable double beds and European linens that they are terribly proud of! They are even more excited about the English toiletries from Gilchrist and Soames, although there was minimal novelty value for me in either these or the specially imported Italian marble bathroom fittings.
There is a full size TV with a good dozen broadcast channels and the option of pay movies and video games.
The staff are efficient and friendly. The hotel is Jewish owned and so they hand over the management of the residence to a specialist company on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, but you cannot tell the difference in service level, so no cause for worry. Reception staff offer top class advice on where to eat, drink and party, as well as directions for top attractions.
I have reason to believe that Matthew Broderick is working on a new movie where he will star as a slightly dippy but affectionate bell boy working in a Manhattan hotel. Why else would he be working in the Carlton carrying my bags and booking my airport car? Either that or he has a brother who has fallen on hard times!
The rooms are serviced twice a day with new towels being provided every time you so much as wash your hands. We were seriously impressed with this when we returned home to find a spangly clean bathroom after our first night on the tiles. We were less than impressed to discover that they had kindly made our beds, but then carefully thrown all our clothes, toiletries and snack wrappers back on the beds exactly where we had left them - bastards!
We were all ready to complain about their mean spiritedness until it occurred to one of us in the early hours of the morning that they had made up the beds during the day and only been in to clean the bathroom in the evening. It's amazing what a few cosmopolitans can do to your powers of reasoning!
Check in and out were both swift and painless. The hotel retains its' own driver with a spacious Lincoln Towncar, which is useful if there are more than two of you to get to the airport.
We paid less than $100 a night for a triple room, including New Years Eve, when most comparable rooms locally were going for well over $400.
I'd recommend The Carlton as an excellent, safe, great value hotel, right up until its' address changes, when I fear it will bounce out of my budget. Until then, don't book a night in New York without checking out:
The Carlton on Madison
22 East 29th Street New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 532-4100 or (800) 542-1502
Fax: (212) 889-8683
http://carltonhotel-ny.com/index.html
