My husband and I stayed a the Hudson during September 2008, on my first trip to the states. We were away for 2 weeks, of which 5 nights were spent at the Hudson. This meant that we could compare this hotel to several others in the US, including one other in New York. Generally, the Hudson came out of this very well!
We booked the Hudson online, through
hotels.com, a procedure which was nice and simple and allowed us to look at several different hotels before making our choice. We were initially attracted to the Hudson because of it's easily accessible location and because the pictures we found on the internet made it look unlike anywhere we had stayed before!
The hotel is extremely image conscious, the website gave lots of information about the designer (Philippe Starck), loads of pictures and presented the hotel as a "cool" place to stay. I was slightly concerned after I looked at this that maybe my holiday wardrobe wouldn't be up to staying there!
Location
The Hudson is on west 58th street, which is about a
15 minute walk from
Broadway. It is just round the corner from the southern edge of central park.
Columbus circle
subway station is just on the corner of the street.
Arriving:
We flew into New York a week before we checked into the Hudson - due to a complicated itinerary not a cock up, thank god! - and so took the opportunity to test put their customer service to the test! As we were taking several internal flights in the week before check in we did not want to carry 2 weeks worth of baggage around, when only a week of it would get worn. J phoned the hotel and asked if it would be possible to store 2 small bags with them, explaining the situation. The reception desk were extremely helpful, and when we arrived, sweaty and tired after a cross town trek with cases, were just as helpful. The porters told us that they were not meant to accept luggage if you weren't in residence (not sure how that works with checking out...) but did it anyway, and took excellent care of it!
When we arrived back at the hotel, we got a bit better chance to have a look at the place and assess the area. The hotel is very close to the southern end of central park, and there is a big subway station just at the corner of the street, making it easy to get to from anywhere in town (including
JFK airport). The outside of the hotel is more impressive by night, when the grey outside is lit up by a yellowy-green strip of light and a glow from the doorway. There are always porters at the doorway, and although there is no sign outside, the topiary trees outside make it pretty distinctive!
The entrance is double glass doors, with two escalators straight in front of you to take you straight to reception, on the first floor. From this level you can access the luggage storage area. The escalators are also lit in the yellow-green colour and feel a little bit space age!
===The reception===
The reception is enormous, with exposed brick walls and a covering of ivy above the extremely high glass ceilings.
There are plenty of wooden stools, chairs and the odd armchair around the edge of the room so any wait is pretty comfortable. All the chairs have an antique or vintage feel to them, but none of them match, giving the reception quite a casual feel. Lighting is provided by a crystal chandelier, with pictures of light bulbs hiding the real thing!
Both the concierge and the reception staff proved to be very helpful, with rapid service and nothing too much bother. They held keys for us when we went out, showed us to taxis in the rain (whilst carrying our luggage and an umbrella!) and rapidly replaced the key-card for our room when it stopped working.
After check in (fairly standard, included giving a
credit card number for extras) we were directed to the lifts, to the right of reception. In the daytime these are unstaffed, but at night you need to show a room key to be allowed into a lift, as so many non-residents use the bars (more about them later!). The lifts are metal on the inside, with a textured finish and
music playing.
The Corridors
I know, not the most exciting section! Each floor has it's own cafe style area, with vending machines and ice machines, and a small seating area. The corridors themselves are painted dark grey, with a light over every room. It may be that I am just not cool enough to "get it" but to me the corridors were too dark and pretty depressing!
Bedroom
Before we travelled, I read a lot of things about how small the rooms were, and so I was not expecting a mansion! However the room was perfectly adequate, considering we had 2 weeks luggage with us. If you were planning on spending a lot of time in the room, or working from it then a larger room may be better, but as a base for seeing the city it is perfectly adequate. The room comes with the standard bed, cupboard desk, chair and
bedside tables. The bed is comfortable with head board that wraps round to stop your pillows falling off the bed! The wardrobe contains a set of shelves, a small
mini bar/ souvenir box (to purchase) guide to the hotel and area and a coded safe. There is also an area to rail to hang clothes on in the way into the room. The desk is small, but adequate for shopping bags and the like! The
TV is
flat screen and wall mounted. There is also a
radio/cd player (hidden in the wardrobe) a
telephone and a
iPod dock. There are large wall mounted mirrors at either end of the bed .
All fixtures and fittings in our bedroom were well maintained and clean, and kept that way for all of our stay. The air conditioner/ heater was quiet and efficient and everything worked as it should. The only problem I came across with the room was the mirrors. The lighting in the room was too dark to use the mirrors for putting on make up, and the mirrors were too high to use as full length mirrors without standing on the bed! I am sure that this was all part of the design of the room (meant to resemble a ship's cabin according to the brochure) but when two people want to get ready at the same time it is not very practical!
Bathroom
The most important thing to mention about the bathroom is the full length window between the bathroom and bedroom! This does work in it's aim of making the two rooms appear more spacious, but I can't imagine there are many people who leave the curtain open! The free toiletries were good quality and plentiful (my husband's qualification of a good hotel!) and the bathroom was clean. In general there was more signs of wear in the bathroom than the bedroom, with a few scratches and chips on the furniture, which I suppose is inevitable.
Bars, restaurants and other facilities
The Hudson has several meeting rooms and a gym, though I didn't visit any of these (well I was on holiday!) Having sent J on a visit to check out the gym, he said it was more than good enough for tiding you over whilst away, but he couldn't see why you would bother when central park was so close for running in.
Roof Terrace: Located on the 15th floor, and takes a bit of finding! Once you get there this is a lovely space for relaxing in, with
sun loungers and chairs and a bar which does cocktails. The room guide says it also serves snacks, but when we asked about this they said that this doesn't happen any more. The roof terrace is very popular, but feels quite private as the areas are all screened from one another by plants and by putting the chairs round the edge of the floor.
Library: To the left of reception. This is a much quieter bar than any of the others, with a more of a "pub" feel to it. It is ideal for relaxing in, either alone or as a small group. Again, the bar serves mainly cocktails. Many of the tables are set up with chess pieces on them and there are several comfortable sofas. The room doesn't quite give the "college library" feel they are aiming for, it is a bit more upmarket drawing room, but is a nice place for a quite drink.
Hudson Bar: This is up a little ramp, behind the escalators that bring you up into reception. It is this bar and the Private Park that draw in visitors for the evening. It is quite a bright, playful bar, which seems to have music and dancing occasionally (the two nights we saw this we were going somewhere else!) The bar does not tend to be too busy after dinner time, and is a nice place to sit for a drink after a meal. It is designed to look a bit space age (the brochure says like people in the 60s imagined the future), and with its clear perspex
tables and chairs, it achieves this. I found the large number of reserved but unused tables in this bar quite annoying, but quite liked the bar itself.
Private Park: This is situated behind the reception, and can be seen through big windows. It is open April - October, with lots of heaters so it is used for all this time! This is a large outdoor space, somewhere between a pub and a beer garden which seems to be full at all hours of the day and night. It is a lovely place to sit, but really difficult to get a seat unless you are in really early.
Hudson Cafeteria: The hotel
restaurant. We ate here on our last night, and it was quite reasonably priced (approximately the same as a moderate resterant
in the UK.
) The food was good, as was the
service. It is designed to look like an American
university eating club. I may not be the best person to comment on if they achieved this or not! The tables are long communal benches, but there are enough of them that you do not feel like you are sharing when you rarely have to. The kitchen is central and the chefs are very impressive and efficient to watch.
Overall Impression
All the staff at the Hudson were extremely helpful and therefore the standard of customer care was very high. The rooms were adequate for our needs, but quite small. However, I think without breaking the bank this is to be expected in New York. All the bars and the restaurant were nice, although the fact that all served different cocktail menus was a little annoying! The location of the hotel was convenient for the theatre district, the subway and plenty of shopping and restaurants. I would definitely return if I went back to New York, but maybe with a better class of holiday wardrobe!
Hudson Hotel, New York 
