Aman New York — Hotel in New York

I have been a hotel guest at Aman twice in the past two months.|The hotel is stunning and understated at once. The décor and mood are soothing and details are attended to as expected in a hotel of this caliber.||After two stays I have a few notes that would make the guest experience even more superb.||We booked our stays using Amex Platinum (Fine Hotels + Resorts) which guarantees a 4pm late checkout amongst other perks.||These were not reviewed nor discussed with us at our first stay. We were surprised by a phone call at noon on checkout day asking if we needed assistance with our luggage. The Amex perks had not been applied.||To Aman’s credit, during our second stay, they reviewed these perks specifically and adhered to them.||We experienced the omakase at Nama which was fabulous. We wished there was a sake pairing, but none is offered.||The iPad in the room doesn’t display the menus at Nama or Arva nor does it allow for reservations to be made from the device. This would be useful.||The brunch/lunch menu at Arva was hit or miss and the menu had strong breakfast or dinner-ish options but skips over good lunch options (wraps, salads, sandwiches)||I had a fabulous spa treatment. However, once changing into a robe and leaving the ladies’ locker room, usually there is a relaxation area to wait for your therapist to take you to the treatment room. There is not a dedicated area for this, I could either wait in the sauna/steam room, in nice seating outside the locker room in the hallway, or inside the pool area. Then my therapist had to walk us downstairs to the treatment rooms. I’d much prefer to go to a pre-treatment area near the treatment rooms to relax with some hot tea.||For some reason we had issues during both stays getting items delivered to the room.||During our first stay, we were met in our room by our butler, who asked how we take our coffee in the morning (there is a Nespresso in the room and sugar). I said milk, which wasn’t brought. We went out for the evening and forgot. I called again in the morning for milk, and after about 30 minutes I just had black coffee. The milk was never delivered.||During our first and second stay, I called for a bucket of ice since we’d brought our own bottle of scotch. The first stay I had to call twice. On the first night of our second stay I had to call 3 times over an hour and a half before the ice was delivered. On the second night, I called and asked for ice again, but after 45 minutes it hadn’t arrived. My husband got frustrated and went looking for an ice machine (about 11pm). He saw a staff member and explained the problem, the staff member was very concerned and we had a bucket of ice delivered in about 5 minutes. Of note, upon our arrival the second stay I asked the butler for milk and it was delivered very promptly. The takeaway here is there is there seems to be a defect in the communication/execution process for these small but meaningful requests.||When we checked in for stay 2 we noticed the room was cold and used the IPad to adjust it to 70 degrees. After dinner we came back and it was still cold, however we went to bed. In the morning we addressed the concern with maintenance who promptly troubleshooted the issue. The temperature control was locked to 60 degrees due to a prior guest's request.||We received the wrong room on our second stay. We booked the 56th street Premier Suite for the floor to ceiling windows and different layout, however after our stay we realized our room was a Sanctuary Suite facing 57th, which was smaller and lacked the floor plan we were expecting.||None of these should deter any sane person from staying at Aman, these observations are constructive feedback to an otherwise outstanding property.||Update 8/24 we received our folio after 5 days (!) and we were charged for an open bottle of whiskey, which was open when we arrived. We brought to the attention of both the staff who came to restock the minibar and the front desk during our stay. This is annoying. The service is broadly good but...

I have been a hotel guest at Aman twice in the past two months. The hotel is stunning and understated at once. The décor and mood are soothing and details are attended to as expected in a hotel of this caliber.

After two stays I have a few notes that would make the guest experience even more superb.

We booked our stays using Amex Platinum (Fine Hotels + Resorts) which guarantees a 4pm late checkout amongst other perks.

These were not reviewed nor discussed with us at our first stay. We were surprised by a phone call at noon on checkout day asking if we needed assistance with our luggage. The Amex perks had not been applied.

To Aman’s credit, during our second stay, they reviewed these perks specifically and adhered to them.

We experienced the omakase at Nama which was fabulous. We wished there was a sake pairing, but none is offered.

The iPad in the room doesn’t display the menus at Nama or Arva nor does it allow for reservations to be made from the device. This would be useful.

The brunch/lunch menu at Arva was hit or miss and the menu had strong breakfast or dinner-ish options but skips over good lunch options (wraps, salads, sandwiches)

I had a fabulous spa treatment. However, once changing into a robe and leaving the ladies’ locker room, usually there is a relaxation area to wait for your therapist to take you to the treatment room. There is not a dedicated area for this, I could either wait in the sauna/steam room, in nice seating outside the locker room in the hallway, or inside the pool area. Then my therapist had to walk us downstairs to the treatment rooms. I’d much prefer to go to a pre-treatment area near the treatment rooms to relax with some hot tea.

For some reason we had issues during both stays getting items delivered to the room.

During our first stay, we were met in our room by our butler, who asked how we take our coffee in the morning (there is a Nespresso in the room and sugar). I said milk, which wasn’t brought. We went out for the evening and forgot. I called again in the morning for milk, and after about 30 minutes I just had black coffee. The milk was never delivered.

During our first and second stay, I called for a bucket of ice since we’d brought our own bottle of scotch. The first stay I had to call twice. On the first night of our second stay I had to call 3 times over an hour and a half before the ice was delivered. On the second night, I called and asked for ice again, but after 45 minutes it hadn’t arrived. My husband got frustrated and went looking for an ice machine (about 11pm). He saw a staff member and explained the problem, the staff member was very concerned and we had a bucket of ice delivered in about 5 minutes. Of note, upon our arrival the second stay I asked the butler for milk and it was delivered very promptly. The takeaway here is there is there seems to be a defect in the communication/execution process for these small but meaningful requests.

When we checked in for stay 2 we noticed the room was cold and used the IPad to adjust it to 70 degrees. After dinner we came back and it was still cold, however we went to bed. In the morning we addressed the concern with maintenance who promptly troubleshooted the issue. The temperature control was locked to 60 degrees due to a prior guest's request.

We received the wrong room on our second stay. We booked the 56th street Premier Suite for the floor to ceiling windows and different layout, however after our stay we realized our room was a Sanctuary Suite facing 57th, which was smaller and lacked the floor plan we were expecting.

None of these should deter any sane person from staying at Aman, these observations are constructive feedback to an otherwise outstanding property.

Update 8/24 we received our folio after 5 days (!) and we were charged for an open bottle of whiskey, which was open when we arrived. We brought to the attention of both the staff who came to restock the minibar and the front desk during our stay. This is annoying. The service is broadly good but...

Pros:|- Very strategic location with convenient walking distance to the central park, tiffany & co, Moma, etc|- Gorgeous historic building|- Arguably the best soundproofing in any high-end hotel we ever stayed at. This is something that all other high-end hotel brands never think through properly|- Generous size of room which basically justifies the high nightly price if we see it purely from room size point of view|- Convenient bathroom with warm floor and flawless ergonomics|- The food at Arva was nice and the staff here are the best group of staff in the entire hotel area|- The Jazz club is hosted by some of the best jazz club musicians we've ever seen||Cons:|- Me and my friends stayed at so many other Amans in the past 20 years. In Amanjiwo and Amandari (probably still the best of all Amans in terms of service), Amanjena, Amanyangyung, Amanoi, Amangani, Amanbagh, Amanpuri, Aman Canal Grande (also top service here), Aman Sveti, Amangalla, Aman Tokyo, Le Melezin, etc. And for the very fist time we see an Aman that takes aesthetic cues not from its surrounding location. Instead of accepting its art deco and gilded era history, this Aman New York is highlighting everything Japan, which makes it feels like Aman Tokyo in New York instead of Aman New York|- The entire hotel interior looks fantastic but we really felt like it's an expensive version of Rosewood, Four Seasons, or Regent, but the Aman feeling is not there at all. Every single details are of high quality and looks expensive, but it didn't really invite us to touch and use it because it looks like expensive contemporary museum stuff and doesn't radiate the historical and majestic aura of the Crown building|- We were told that the hotel was busy with higher occupancy, and we can definitely see it, but we and some other hotel guests felt like we were treated like a 2nd class Aman guests. The staff spent most of their attention attending outside guests, which I assume, are the new Aman club members. In the old days of Aman, every single guest was a member and was a VIP. Aman itself was an elite club without creating a membership club! The service at the Garden terrace was literally non existent unless you really walk around the beautiful space to find the staff to really talk and offer you at least the menu|- The pool area could be more beautiful if they use dark brown tile or something darker like in Amanpuri or Aman Tokyo, but that is not a very bad thing. The bad thing was the fact that the pool area felt like a ghost town with no staff. As far as I can remember, Aman means peace, not empty|- The pool is part of a vast wellness facilities but we didn't bother trying the spa or any wellness treatment because the pool situation really switched off our interest|- The phone's wait / hold music was of a church or monastery which sounds a bit intimidating and out of place. Better use a cool jazz sound from Miles davis or anything that really reflects New York|- The food at Anama was very basic and uninspiring||Conclusion:|- Aman New York is a physically beautiful hotel but it offers zero sense of place (except the Jazz Club). One sentence to describe Aman New York is "an expensive version of Edition with inverted colour (white/bright to dark)"|- While the price is justifiable from room size perspective, from overall service and brand promise, it is way above the roof|- The service is really nothing compared to the Peninsula or even FS downtown|- Aman New York miserably failed to match the success of Aman Tokyo in offering and showacsing the best of the destination / location. But even Aman Tokyo is not a very good Aman anyway as they almost never greet its guests by name (unlike in any other...