Artezen Hotel — Hotel in New York

Update to the below: We were contacted by Erica in management at the Artezen. She was very professional - apologetic, understanding and wanted to do everything to put things right. She appropriately dealt with our concerns and we would be very happy to consider staying at the Artezen again in future! Thank you Erica.

We are disappointed to have to provide this review about the Artezen hotel as we had such high expectations for the hotel in light of the other positive reviews. We recently stayed at the hotel for 9 nights. Overall, we were left dissatisfied by our stay at this hotel. We were on a trip in the US for a very special wedding anniversary. Whilst we informed the hotel of this, staff did not take the time to wish us nor do anything remotely special to help us celebrate.

We stayed in a room that had a balcony. It was lovely having the balcony as it was a reprieve from the lack of space we had in the room. The balcony was clean and well maintained and it was a great opportunity to hear the buzz of the city. The bed was very comfortable and the pillows were adequate, although it would have been helpful to have a pillow menu to accommodate people who preferred more firmer pillows. The bedding was sufficient but it would have been good if the hotel had used summer bedding as it was still quite warm in September. It was helpful to have aircon and a fridge in the room. The amenities such as the body lotion was of good quality. The cleaners did an excellent job in keeping the room clean.

Whilst the room was very small, we were anticipating this. However, the room was unfortunately set out in a way that made it difficult to move around. We often ended up bumping ourselves against furniture because there was such little space to move around. There was insufficient storage space. The shower itself was spacious and was a lovely power shower. However, the entire bathroom was tiny and could at most accommodate one person in there at a time.

I think what we were most disappointed by was the customer service which unfortunately was hit and miss depending on whom you encountered. One of the main reasons that we chose this hotel was because it was stated that the rooms were sound proof. Unfortunately, this was not our experience. When we raised this with the morning staff, they were dismissive and defensive. We were told that another room may potentially be available but it would have been right next to the elevator. This clearly would have made the situation worse as we could hear the elevator in our allocated room despite not being in the same corridor as the elevator, so how would being nearer to it help us? This encounter with the staff left us feeling let down. We were never contacted by management to discuss our complaint and literally nothing was done about it.

At the same time, we asked for an additional gown for the room. We were told that one would be left in our room. This never materialised and we didn’t bother to make the request again. On one occasion we asked if they had any cutlery or plates we could use. We were provided with plastic despite there being a rooftop bar in the hotel that served food. When we checked out, all we were told was everything is settled. We were not thanked for choosing to stay at the hotel, thanked in anyway, or asked about our stay – basic etiquette in a service environment. This was generally our experience with the staff that were present in the morning.

On the contrary most of the staff we encountered during the evening/night were substantially different. They were friendly, welcoming, knowledgeable about the area, happy to make recommendations for restaurants and just generally happy to see us each day after a long day of sight-seeing. They were an absolute pleasure to deal with. We would suggest peer to peer training from a customer service perspective. The hotel is well situated to the subway, Wall Street and many shopping...

I loved everything about this hotel. The subway station for uptown is literally right across the street, the café downstairs had breakfast, dinner, and lunch at great prices, the staff were excellent. The lobby of the hotel is small but beautiful, and staff members greeted us upon entrance and exit every time. They allowed us to store our luggage and use the bathroom before check-in so that we could do some exploring in the city without having to lug our suitcases around. The security of the hotel is fantastic. Key cards are required to use the elevators, and the staff ensures that anyone entering or exiting the hotel is accounted for. The first day, we came back from exploring and the concierge didn’t recognize us (I believe they were different from the staff members who checked us in), and politely asked us how they could help us when we made our way toward the elevators.

We used the hotel’s black car service to take us to and from LaGuardia, and the first time was a very easy experience, but the second time was not. The second time, the driver was pulled over by NYPD for “parking on the sidewalk.” We did not blame the driver at all. He was only waiting for us in front of the hotel. Luckily, our flight was delayed anyway so the additional time it took us to get to the airport did not affect us.

The rooms were very clean and the beds were SO comfortable. The view from our window was not anything to write home about, but it was also not a foot from a tall building like I’ve seen in some of the hotels in midtown and Chelsea. We had a view of the street below and a skyscraper across the way, but it didn’t feel like we were trapped in an alleyway if that makes any sense. The room itself was on the smaller side, but more spacious than a lot of the hotel rooms in midtown. We had enough walking distance between and in front of the beds.

The only things I wasn’t crazy about were just a couple of minor things. For instance, there was a crack in the bathroom sink. This was just a cosmetic flaw and didn’t affect the usability of the sink in any way. The bath and shower faucets were confusing and definitely had a learning curve. We scalded ourselves a couple of times before finally getting the hang of them.

One thing that I did find a bit frustrating was that the tub drain didn’t seem to close all the way so I couldn’t take a bath. It wasn’t a huge deal for me, since I didn’t really feel like I needed to take a bath anyway, and so I didn’t feel the need to put it in a complaint or ask for it to be fixed.

All of the staff were friendly and helpful, but Daniel really went above and beyond to ensure we had an enjoyable stay. He made suggestions for dining and entertainment, and even subway directions for the places we planned on visiting. His knowledge of manhattan made us feel like we were in good hands...

We spend the next 3 days here in this hotel and were then here for almost 2 weeks. First of all we have to apologize for not being the easiest guests. We have high demands on the quietness in a hotel room. Of course we are aware that we are in New York and not in a country hotel. Nevertheless, I spent hours trying to find a New York hotel where not every second review says that the hotel is noisy. In fact, this hotel has very good windows, unlike many other hotels in New York. You hear very little of the traffic noise. Anyway, it was the case that we changed the hotel room twice, as the neighbours were quite noisy. How this works is really a mystery to us, as the hotel rooms are actually very well isolated and also the carpet should actually dampen the steps very well. We can only guess how the guests walked over us in their room, specially at the nights and unfortunately we have a light sleep. But here it really shows what a good hotel is. We travel a lot and have been around a lot (and yes, we were also fussy there most of the time considering the neighboring noises), but as good as in this hotel this problem was not managed anywhere else. The whole hotel crew was always very courteous, took care of everything and was always very polite and professional. In 2 weeks you can actually see everyone working at the front desk and in the lobby and without exception they were all absolutely friendly and kind. We would like to emphasize this especially, because it is not a matter of course to always be welcomed with a smile. We appreciate that very much. These people really try to give the guest a great experience. And they are really good at it. I hope that we didn't get on your nerves too much with our room changes (at least they didn't let us feel it :) ). I also hope that the management appreciates its employees, because these are real jewels and they make the hotel a great one. Thanks a lot for that! The only 2 suggestions for improvement would be: First, felt stoppers would be great for the closet in the room, so the door doesn't close so hard. Second, it would be better for the environment to have one glass bottle of water per day in the room instead of 3 smaller plastic bottles. There is also the possibility to distribute water dispensers on 2 or 3 floors where you can fill up (tap) water. We have seen this several times in Europe and it worked very well...