Ace Hotel New York — Hotel in New York

Let’s start with the good things. The location is great in terms of convenience and I had a nice view from my rooms (yes, plural - more on that later.) Some staff were reasonably helpful and friendly (minimum you’d expect really). The beds were comfortable (tho the duvet cover in room 2 had a very obvious hole in it). I asked for some more hangers and to borrow a clothes steamer as mine wasn’t working and when I came back a few hours later they were in my room. That’s about it…||Now onto the bad. There’s lots of this. It’s not even two star standard for a supposed four star at nearly £200/night.||To start with, this hotel is DARK… everywhere. By the end it felt like a bit of a running joke. One of my rooms was L-shaped and the only light was in the corner (plus a bedside lamp). At the other end of the L was the dressing area, so I was literally getting dressed in the dark. There was a lamp on the fridge opposite (clearly an afterthought) which didn’t work. The lifts are dark (and you have to wait ages for one), the lobby is dark - god knows how/why people work from there. The lobby bar toilet was so dark it was ridiculous. This is supposedly a “concept” (see replies to other reviews about the wattage of the bulbs) but surely a basic rule of hospitality (a personal and professional interest of mine) is that guest comfort and convenience trumps any ridiculous “concept”. This seems to be a theme through this hotel actually… and yes I know the Ace approach, I lived round the corner from the London one for years, I wasn’t expecting a “traditional” hotel.||It’s also DIRTY. Both of my rooms had hair in the bathroom - one in the toiletries holder in the shower and the other on the bathroom wall opposite the toilet. Neither was removed during of the housekeeping visits. Room 1 also had black mould in the toiletries holder. Rooms were dusty, carpets were stained, it felt damp and dingy.||This hotel is also SO LOUD. I appreciate its in the middle of town (and I live in the middle of London so I know that cities are noisy) but the insulation is terrible and there is so much internal and external noise even 11/12 floors up. Doors slam loudly (yes, fire doors but other places manage), you can literally hear people in other rooms coughing, and it’s so hard to sleep with cars beeping and sirens etc). The second room I was moved to was right next to the elevator and the mechanism was so noisy (and it was being used all night) that I woke up every time and in the end had to pull out all the bedding and move to sleep at the foot of the bed to get at least 6ft away from it (this then meant I had to leave the “do not disturb” sign, or rather the obscure magnet saying “not now” on the door so housekeeping didn’t come and reverse it all).||Didn’t get a single good night’s sleep there out of 5 and that’s kind of a basic requirement for a hotel. ||To top it all off, the air con didn’t work properly in room 1 which is why I ended up moving room: It came on and off randomly no matter the setting. I asked twice for it to be looked at. The first time I came back to find it on so thought it was ok but then couldn’t turn it off. The second time I asked if someone could look again / did they know what happened the first time as I’d had no communications about it and was rudely told “it’s my Monday, I have no idea about your room”. I asked if there was a note on my booking and he acted like that was a novel concept. This guy treated me like an inconvenience from the second I approached the desk and suggested I moved room. He was reluctant to ask someone to look again and suggested I just move room which I didn’t want to do as I’d spend ages unpacking and hanging and steaming clothes. I suggested they try one more time and if it wasn’t sorted then I could move rooms. I ended up dealing with someone else later on and said I was going out for dinner but could I move when I came back and they were more helpful and said they would, shock horror, put a note on my booking (so it is possible!) in case it was someone else later. When I moved after dinner, I was told that using my new key would deactivate my old one which meant I had to take all my stuff and leave it outside my new room in multiple trips (to avoid packing and creasing everything). |||Staff really not bothered at all in general. I don’t think I got a single apology for the air con issues despite the huge inconvenience. A couple were fine, even good but not exceptional or anything. The only one who went remotely above and beyond was the lady who offered to help me move my stuff given I couldn’t access both rooms at once. In general they were very casual and not interested in providing a good experience. Maybe if I’d been more of a “difficult customer” someone would have pulled their finger out but working for a hospitality business myself I will never be that person. Guess this is what I get for being polite and friendly!|||Other stuff…||Rooms have a massive fridge of overpriced drinks and a big display of overpriced snacks. These take up space and the fridge is noisy (and obviously guzzles electricity so is terrible for the environment). Again, not prioritising guest comfort.||USB sockets on power block by bed didn’t work. ||Tap on both showers was a single tap for both pressure and temperature which is annoying and the head was a rain shower. Impossible not to get hair wet without using a shower cap (at least they supply these, but it’s annoying). First shower was in a weird shallow bathtub. Both had shower curtains which inevitably stick to you. Cant even remember the last time I stayed in a place with shower curtains. Both showers dripped for a while after being turned off and would occasionally start dropping a little while later (yes, fully off).||And it...

I stayed at the ACE Hotel in Manhattan for the first time in 2014 and I had absolutely loved it. I recently visited the city again, 10 years later this past June and decided to stay with them again, but unfortunately this time I experienced a number of issues with my stay. The wear and tear and lack of maintenance has really taken a toll on the hotel. Regardless of the sketchy customer service that I received, the primary reason that I would suggest NOT staying here is simply that for the price and supposed caliber of the hotel— the spaces simply do not merit the cost. The spaces are dark and run down and the basic infrastructure of the hotel such as the plumbing and elevators feel sketchy at best. The dark black and grey finishes and linens always left me with doubt as to their true cleanliness. The room layouts are not convenient nor comfortable. (For example, a single night stand and path of circulation, and no where to put a suitcase in extremely small rooms with small windows). The neighborhood is touristic, and so it makes it hard to find any quaint or local restaurants or shops. Towards the end of my stay, I moved to another hotel and even though moving was an undue burden— I could not be happier with that decision.

Due to issues with the water pressure, lack of hot water and water spilling over from the shower basin, I asked to change rooms. I was promptly offered another room with a bathtub, unfortunately this room looked onto a white brick wall, 3ft away from the window. I returned to the front desk and asked if they had anything else available. They offered to have me switch rooms once again, but not until the following day when one became available. I went back to the first room which I had been assigned. As I was on a work trip I mentioned that moving would be difficult on my tight schedule. To resolve this they offered to have someone move my things. When I arrived back to the hotel, my things had not been moved, but I was given a new room on the top floor— which I moved to with no assistance from the hotel staff after a long day of work. Upon moving to the 3rd room option, again the room was inadequate — extremely high water pressure, yet the water was barely warm, the room finishes were very worn, the view was dark and small, and the room and bathroom were crammed.

I finally decided that I could not continue to stay at the hotel. I called Chase Travel who I had booked the hotel through and they called the hotel to receive approval for an early departure, which the ACE hotel granted. I checked out the following morning and a female employee working at the front desk mentioned she was familiar with my case. I asked about compensation and she mentioned that they would be refunding the property tax that was mandatory in the city for hotel stays. I asked for a receipt and she replied that it would be emailed to me. I did not receive an email, but as I was traveling it was not top of mind. I recently followed up on this after noting that I had been charged the full amount and after 2 hours on the phone with them I realized that they had simply lied to me. The front desk clerks are appeasing in person, but when it came to refunding me and coming through with their compensation we had agreed to they have actually refused to provide me with the appropriate refund. I am still awaiting resolution on this issue almost a month...

Both of my grandmothers loved antiques and sentimental trinkets—earth pottery, crystal-wares, milky globe lights. I recognized them in the lobby at the Ace, while I was waiting for my coffee, when I noticed a backlit display above the backbar: little crystal vases, each holding a single dried rose. How beautiful; but up until that point, I’d been confused by my experience here. It opened… what? 15 years ago? To me, the hotel has a worn-down feel—the rooms feel a little grimy. The desk is covered in smudges and nicks. Is it cared-for charm, or is it the rub of rough years—a lost founder, a pandemic, a fling with mergers & acquisitions, new leadership? Maybe the tiles and carpet were meant to be moody or ironic, but they make the room feel a bit like a cheap motel chain. Is the rug warped? Are the tiles cracked? Wear and tear on doors and walls? The elevator smells like beer, but with my grandmothers in mind, I think of my grandfather’s long nights and quiet mornings. Bathroom supplies are stocked in a thick canvas pouch on the wall that is a little discolored on the edges and stained from old toothpaste. I can’t quite tell whether it feels like the place is tired or has a petina. The lights are so low it’s hard to see, and I give the benefit of the doubt that what is out of sight is not out of mind.

I guess I would also call it hipster eclectic, which wasn’t hitting for me at first. The refrigerator is inside a road case, everything feels thrifted, like military surplus. There is graffiti hanging on a giant canvas over the bed, and I love graffiti, but why does it feel out of place? The hipster vibe reminds me of Portland, OR in the early 2000’s when the original Ace was a cultural whale: culinary ethical puritanism, social innovation, earnest heavy metal, psychedelic mushrooms, coffee and whiskey. I think of Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49, a muted postal horn and the underground, Duane Sorenson, steakhouse strip-clubs, which were cool for a time among hip young people in the Pacific Northwest. Are they still? I never understood it, the whole aesthetic was overly masculine for me—hyperbolic, compensatory. The NoMad Ace is nostalgic for those years, and perhaps a bit outdated for them, too. Have I grown old? Am I bitter? For a time, I cannot understand this place. TS Eliot says, “I grow old ... I grow old ... / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.”

But I admit that the botanicals in their Uka bath products sent me back through time to old-growth Northwest forests, cedar and wildflower always blooming, stream of rain in a fern’s coil; and farther, still, to the rooms of my grandmothers.

Eliot says, “We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown”—I left loving the Ace, whatever they’re trying to do. It was a slip of time away from Broadway, and its charm is not found in high fashion theory but the presence and place, when I allowed myself to fully experience it, of purely creative and totally singular eclecticism—“ / Till human voices wake us,...