CIVILIAN Hotel — Hotel in New York

The Civilian is a stylish hotel with a good location for tourists, but it lacks the necessities for a perfectly comfortable holiday and left us with some significant concerns.

We stayed on the 21st floor, in a fairly small but nicely decorated room for two. You'll get an impressive view of residential Hell's Kitchen here. However, there wasn't much storage for our eight night stay, especially when you factor in the amount of shopping we intended to do. And with limited space to move around, rubbish would also pile up, too, as the hotel only offers a very limited room cleaning service on the Basic Package we booked...

Included in your Basic stay is trash collection, replenishment of towels and fresh toilet paper - upon request only. Your room will only get a full clean for an additional $20 fee, per cleaning.

We decided to request fresh goods as often as needed and only have the full paid service in the middle of our trip. But, unfortunately, each time we requested trash collection, towels and toilet roll, it wouldn't get done. We'd return from a day out to find nothing replenished and need to ask staff again for the limited service. This happened about four times during our stay, and the one day we did request the full $20 clean, we were told it wasn't available. Meaning, our room didn't receive a full clean once during our trip.

This was a general irritation but not the most concerning issue of the holiday - One night, there was a fire alarm. At roughly 3am we were woken up by the alarm and rushed down 21 flights along with many other guests, with nothing but our pyjamas. Once at the bottom, the alarm stopped and it became pretty apparent there was no fire, except no one from Civilian actually told us that. We were only asked to sit in the breakfast bar, and that was it. There was no formal response to the fire alarm, no headcount, no reassurance, no information at all. I overheard a member of staff mumble to another guest that it was safe to return to our rooms ... and that was all we ever found out about it. It isn't the hotel's fault this happened, but the lack of preparedness from staff was frankly shocking - some guests even took the elevator down to the ground floor during the alarm, but that's a separate issue. Had it been a real fire, I dread to think what Civilian would've been able to do to help us.

It left us with a very uneasy feeling. And this was compounded a few days later while we were waiting to speak to staff about our room service and overheard another guest complaining money had been stolen from their room. This aligns with another review of the hotel we have read where a guest complains they lost $1000 while at Civilian. We used the safe in our room for all our valuables, but as mentioned, we also bought a lot of expensive souvenirs that could not be protected. This actually made us thankful that our trash, towels and toilet roll needs had been neglected previously, but definitely left us feeling a little sick that people around us were being taken advantage of.

Overall, I would say staff are friendly face-to-face and the hotel has a great aesthetic - the elevator music is especially boppin'. But I could never recommend this as a place to stay due to the subpar service in both day to day needs and more unusual situations.

To us, it fails to offer some of the basics any hotel should aspire to, most of...

This review is based on a stay in late February 2024.

I always try and give a fair review, so let’s start with what this hotel does right.

Positives Beautiful styled building in a fabulous location in the city. Walkable to Broadway, Times Square and the Garden, close to central metro lines and Hells Kitchen with everything you would want to eat and drink at your door.

The room was small, but this is New York. The room was plenty big enough for a couple and the bathroom had a good shower and nice toiletries. The room and communal areas were clean and welcoming and the bed and room was clean and comfortable with a hairdryer, clothes streamer and glasses and ice bucket.

The BIG issue The big issue and the reason for the low rating, is that this hotel is ruled by the nightclub upstairs. The bar manager decides if and when you sleep. The bar closes at midnight, but only if they want it too. For two night the bass from the club traveled down 8 floors to our room making sleeping impossible. Our final night it didn’t stop until well after 1.30am absolutely ruined our final morning in the city as we were exhausted. The night front desk staff tried their best to help but it was obvious they had no power to change anything. The morning at check out, the staff member did compensate us a nights stay, but never offered a simple apology, just saying the bar was “doing its thing”. This is a massive impact on your hotel guests enjoyment and comfort and a decision needs to be made by management. Are you a nightclub or hotel?

Housekeeping. It doesn’t come with your rate. It’s additional. Yes you can get the basic for free (clean towels and emptying of trash) but it’s on request on an app that does not work meaning you have to ask reception every time. Fine if you are there one or two night, but anything longer it is frustrating and the room starts to feel unclean.

Room for improvement Room facilities are mostly there, but no tea/coffee or water in the room. We found out on checkout that there was free coffee available but no one told us that in check in or about the water facility by the lifts. We found that out ourselves.

The one hook in the bathroom for two towels is a bit of an odd design choice, especially when the towels are wet? Small detail but we always had one wet towel with no where to hang to dry.

Eight hangers on a large open wardrobe is also frustrating in its execution, especially in a small room. Why have such large piece of storage with limited use? More hangers would have made this so much better and more practical.

Overall if it had not been for the terrible nights of bass thumping down the floors, this would have been a easy 4 star reviewed hotel for the location alone, but due to the experience we had on that noisey nights, I had to give it 1 star. At least say sorry for the disturbance when a guest is checking out, but maybe that is admitting fault. Who knows, but when we return to NY, it will not be to the...

If a hotel shows up on Mr. & Mrs.Smith website I will try it and I’m rarely disappointed. However, the Civilian had a few disappointments. Although very clean, there was hair on the shower wall that didn’t belong to me or my h. I told the front desk. It was late so I asked for room service for the next day to have hair removed. Although we were out most the next day and had the nifty room service dial positioned correctly, no room service came and still - hair was on shower wall. I hate to fuss because the standards for cleanliness, otherwise was stellar!! The following day, we had room service but by that time, my kind h had removed hair from shower wall so I didn’t have to look at it (it was eye level for me not him). I opted for breakfast the first day and for $30 thought it was not impressive. It was mediocre at best, notably the bagels. me-gads! We were in the theater district in NYC and the bagels were no better than the kind we get at home from the frozen section of the grocer. Fruit was fresh though but coffee was ho-hum. I didn’t risk breakfast again but had ho-hum coffee every day to go because it was free and one day it came with half and half and another day there were lids for the to go cups which proves a level of inconsistency with the breakfast service. As for dinner, I’m smitten because I’ve never in my life had a more divine Matzoh Ball soup. It is served at ones table without the broth and then the server pours the steaming broth out of a teapot onto the matzoh that has bits of freshly diced carrots and pieces of chicken, just a dreamy presentation, I was in heaven. Then, for the Florida girl in me, they had a yummy cocktail in a flamingo stemware glass and I was quite happy because the restaurant is perfectly designed and comfortable reminding one that yes, we are in the heart of broadway. One thing I wanted to see was the blue room. I thought it would be more like a lounge for reading but it’s tucked away as part of the upstairs bar experience. Despite that, my h and I hung out in there talking one afternoon when a manager came in with a client ( they rent out these spaces so they’re not always available to guests) and gave us the side- eye. How dare we guests of hotel sit in the blue room without a reservation. I didn’t appreciate bald man ruining our vibe so we left. I found front desk people exceptionally nice and friendly- bald man needs to stay hidden perhaps. So, about the cozy queen- we were warned. It is small but well designed enough to accommodate one or two people just not an overpacked clothes buying maniac such as myself. The closet is teeny tiny but for sparse travelers who don’t accessorize the cozy queen is perfect. It even has a safe that’s tucked inside a drawer under the bed. Bath/shower products I give a B minus but decor...