In the Middle of the Known Universe
Choosing a hotel in THE capital city of the world can be pretty daunting. With all the big names there, Sheraton, Hilton etc. you can be left scratching your head as to which one to go for. When it came down to it, the deciding factors for me were location, quality and price. If you are going to stay in NY for a few days you want it to be good and the wrong choice of hotel can take the shine of your time there. Having scooted through the myriad of options on Expedia.co.uk, I finally plumped for the Park Central. What persuaded me was the fact that it appeared to be in the middle of everything, it claimed to have soundproofing in the bedrooms (I'm a light sleeper) and the price was reasonable.
First Impressions
Our first impressions of Park Central were good. We arrived in the middle of the night (5am UK time to be exact) having been in awe at the skyscraper-laden streets we'd been led through by our taxi. That first excursion through the empty streets of the Big Apple will stay with me always as I craned my neck to look up at the room-lit monoliths that straddle the streets of NY. Park Central is an impressive site what with the concrete canapé lit along the top making it look like any one of those quality hotels you would find in the West End of London. The reception desk is huge and is preceded by a large expanse of chequered, marble floor that gives an immediate feel of wide-open space. You couldn’t help but notice the austere waiting areas in the main lobby complete with Period furniture, Persian rugs and classical paintings adorning the walls. The low lamp-lights added an ambience that oozed class and lived up to the hotel’s website claim of first class luxury with a 5-star rating. The receptionist was polite if looking a little weary and off we went to our room. Somewhat bizarrely, the lifts are segregated by a wall that houses a separate reception area and even has its own door to the street. This appeared to be for members of a club that we hadn't been given the option of joining. This became more important as time went by.
Park Central
The Park Central has 25 floors and 935 rooms so it is big even by New York standards. Sadly for us we ended up on the fourth floor so our soundproofing from the noises of New York wasn't as good as I'd hoped. The hotel has recently undergone a $65 million renovation although you wouldn't have thought so looking at the room we were allocated. As we popped the electronic lock and wandered in, we were greeted by a large room with 2 beds, a chest of drawers with a TV on it and a small table and lamp. Needless to say, we headed straight for the windows to check out the view. We could see Carnegie Hall through one window whilst the other gave us a good view of Hooters! My wife’s first complaint was the..erm…soundproofing. This amounted to cellotape thrown along the seals of the window panes!! Next up was the fact that small strips of wallpaper were missing from the wall making the décor look very untidy.
The bathroom itself was fine with marble sink, bath, shower and a toilet. Unfortunately, the toilet became blocked on 3 different occasions during our stay, each time requiring a visit from an onsite plumber. Sadly, one of those occasions was during that initial inspection of the room. By now I was wondering what I’d done. The last thing I needed was general disappointment in the room but we did come to realise that at least it was a spacious room with TV (and Internet access if we wanted) and we wouldn’t be spending that much time in there after all.
American hotels don’t usually come with dining facilities. However, the Park Central does have its own bistro-style affair capturing a sidewalk café atmosphere with a renowned chef to cook the meals. To tell you the truth, we were never gonna try the hotel food. At something like $25 each for a basic breakfast I’d already decided to go with the many options to eat available in the city. I was disappointed that there were no coffee/tea making facilities in our room but, on reflection, this may be a standard in the UK rather than the US remembering our other stays in the States. Still, I do like making my own coffee in my room.
One of the charming features of New York hotels is their door men. It’s somewhat endearing to see a man dressed in a large overcoat and peaked cap, clapping his hands together housed in heavy gloves to stay warm whilst walking up and down flagging down taxis and helping guests with their luggage for a tip of $5 upwards. Of course, I'm sure he's paid a good basic wage on top. We did use the hotel concierge to nail down a time for our return shuttle to the airport. This wheeler and dealer of an individual can do lots of things to help guests including booking theatre tickets which are made available via a broker. However, at $300 a throw for “Beauty and the Beast” I decided to run without it.
Location and Missed Opportunity
The biggest asset the hotel has is location. With Central Park just a 5 minute walk and Times Square a few blocks in the other direction, we found that we could walk to most places in mid-town Manhattan. We were right opposite Carnegie Hall and the Radio City Music Hall whilst all of the attractions associated with Times Square were reachable within about 10 minutes on foot. There were lots of aspects of the hotel we simply didn’t try. Corporate clients are invaluable to the hotel business and Park Central caters for them with a Mezzanine Level, with 6,000 square feet of event space, consisting of 12 meeting rooms, three boardrooms, and exhibition space, a Ballroom & Forum, offering a combined space of 8,500 square feet, designed to accommodate up to 800 people and an Empire Boardroom which is a tastefully-furnished room for small meetings and conferences, with seating for 12 to 14 people. We never tried the Private Health Club either with the usual treadmills, bikes, free-weights and the like but would you if you were in New York on holiday for a few days?
In the time we stayed the service was OK....
just O....K.... Apart from having to complain about the toilet being blocked, we also had a problem with getting enough towels. There were only 2 towels when we arrived so I had to call the maid service to get extra towels for the kids and this was repeated on a couple of occasions after they had swapped the used towels for fresh ones. The hotel staff were polite and smiled a lot although, occasionally, we did have problems with some staff understanding English which is a feature of that particular labour market in the States. We got there in the end and, as I say, they were polite and helpful on the whole.
Conclusion and Recommendation
We booked the Park Central as part of a package through Expedia so the breakdown of the price of the hotel as opposed to the flights etc. wasn’t clear. A search on the hotel site comes up with a 1-night stay for an adult costing from $327 according to the size of room although this will be more than the cost broken down as part of a deal through someone like Expedia. It is possible to book online via the hotel web site. We never did find what the club idea was all about but the service did appear to be differentiated so if we stayed here again I would enquire about it. All in all, I would recommend the Park Central but I couldn’t give it 5-stars based on our room and the service at times. To be honest, 3-stars would be more like it but the location is top dog so for that we will always be grateful.
Try http://parkcentralny.com for more details and a photo gallery of the rooms.
Park Central Hotel
870 Seventh Avenue at 56th Street
New York, NY US 10019-4038
Brummie699
A similar review appears on Dooyoo under my username marandina. This review was originally posted in 2005. Prices have been updated. Facilities may have improved since I wrote this
Location, Location, Location But NOT 5-Stars 
Nicely reviewed =]