Executive Hotel Le Soleil New York — Hotel in New York

Firstly, do I recommend the hotel to potential visitors to NY? Yes, definitely. However, this is absolutely not a Holiday Inn Express, this is a hotel that bills itself as executive, and solidly upscale, and so my review that follows will be calibrated accordingly.

The staff both in the lobby and restaurant, and even waitstaff in the halls were invariably polite, accommodating, and eager to please - a complete pleasure to interact with regardless of whether it was a factotum in the elevator, or the lobby desk night clerk (we were even offered champagne on check-in, gratis). The rooms were extremely clean and tidy, and the bathroom in particular was spotless. The bed linens and pillows were exceptionally clean and crisp, a pleasure and ease to sleep on. The decor of the halls, lobby, and rooms was understated and tasteful, and the elevators were quick in spite of the 20 stories they were tasked to service (we were on the 7th floor). The room was also remarkably quiet, owing presumably to thick walls and quality insulated windows shutting out practically all street noise below. The ground floor restaurant was fantastic, classy with delicious food and attentive service, and we had breakfast there both days of our stay.

Now for the missed marks, there was not one or two, but no less than three towels supplied for the bathroom which had noticeable stains from previous guests' use on them. At a hotel of this caliber and cost of stay, there is simply no excuse for that number being anything other than exactly zero.

Strangely, both the end table lamps and the alarm clock were all wired to the same light switch on the wall at the entrance, and so when I flipped it off for the night with my phone plugged into the alarm clock socket to charge overnight, it didn't and the phone was dead when I woke up the next morning. I eventually found a USB connector on the desk phone which charged my phone adequately while the lights to the room were off. The alarm clock was also about half an hour slow, with seemingly no way for the resident to easily adjust it.

The hot water for the shower varied from adequate to merely tepid depending I suspect on whether adjacent rooms were using theirs, but was generally sufficient. Unfortunately there appeared to be no operable bathroom air vent in either of our two rooms, and so the use of the shower inevitably led to the windows (which are not able to be opened) heavily fogging over every morning and use of the facilities presented, shall we say, certain odor issues throughout the rest of the small room for a time after.

The rooms did have a good and working mini-fridge in them, but no microwave for reheating leftovers. When I called the front desk (the concierge and room service buttons on the phone received no response) to ask if I could use a microwave in the downstairs restaurant to reheat a meal from a Korean restaurant down the street the night before, they said they didn't have one for guest use, but offered to "find a microwave to bring up to my room"!! While the effort was definitely nice, I politely demurred, I suspect to the relief of both of us.

Overall, I was very pleased with my stay at the hotel and absolutely would stay again and recommend to others thinking of staying in midtown, but for the price (about $450 per night) there are a few notable shortcomings that should be addressed before I could confidently give my stay a rating of 5 rather...

We stayed here for 4 days for the Rockefeller tree lighting. Overall, it was a great location for sightseeing, but the hotel didn't seem worth the high price point compared to the other hotels we stayed at on this trip. For a standard room it might be worth the price, but the rooms with a view seem to be hit or miss. For the price, I don't think it was worth it, but I would stay again in the cheaper standard room and without breakfast.

Pros: THE LOCATION. The hotel was close to times square, Rockefeller Center, and the subway. The hotel lobby was nice, it felt cozy and secure, but a bit crowded during busy check-in times. The workers (for the luggage holding especially, but also front desk) were incredibly friendly and helpful. The breakfast was delicious. The room itself was clean, and housekeeping did a great job at keeping it clean and stocked without disturbing us when we were in the room. They hold your luggage for free both before you check in and after you check out, which is such a convenient offering when you're exploring the city.

Cons: The empire state view rooms (we were on floor 15) only have a view on the top-most floors of the hotel, from the other floors you're looking directly inside someone's offices (their desk and computer were literally directly across from our window) and at rooftop water towers with glimpses of parts of the empire state building inbetween them, which was disappointing because it looked nothing like the website pictures for the room, but also for the price point which was the most expensive hotel of our entire trip. The rooms also got a lot of noise from the room adjacent to it because the doors are 3 feet apart and they share a wall where the bed/TV is. The windows do seem soundproof though, so you don't get a lot of outside noise. They overcharged me for this stay, and haven't resolved it more than 6 weeks later. I told the front desk when checking out, who said it would be refunded to my card. When it wasn't, I reached out to the hotel, who said I needed to email the manager. I did, but never received a response of any sort. So keep in mind that you might end up paying more money than expected, and it might take a very long time, if ever, to get it back. The breakfast setup was odd since there were no explanations about how it worked. Essentially, they give you a $35 credit for the onsite restaurant per person per day that you have breakfast included. If you don't use it all, then it's lost, BUT there is also a 20% gratuity automatically included on your bill, which means you might go over if you don't account for that. This was just an annoying side note, both of the rooms were setup on a master switch where the lights were plugged into an outlet that could only be shutoff by turning off power in the whole room (so no charging phones or setting alarms). We only realized this when we went to go to bed, and spent about 30 minutes trying various combinations of switches trying to get just the lights off. Eventually, we had to call the front desk and someone had to come up and rearrange the way the outlets were setup. It wasn't a huge issue and they were quick to resolve it, but I don't get why you would do it that way in the...

I booked this hotel for a short business trip. It was my first time in New York & first time using this hotel chain & my experience was great!

The rooms are very clean and comfortable. You have the option of doing contactless check out on your mobile phone as well. The hotel rooms were spacious enough for my liking, and seemed bigger than your average NY Hotel room which was nice. Although my company paid for my stay, if you’re planning on staying for a personal trip, the hotel price per night wasn’t crazy expensive.

On the first night I was placed in a room on a lower level, and when I asked for a room on a higher floor with a better view, luckily there were rooms available on a higher floor & the staff was able to accommodate me, which I really appreciated. If you want a room on a higher floor with a nice view, I’d recommend calling ahead of time to request it. The walls aren’t thin, so you don’t hear people in other rooms or hear the city noise, so that was nice. The shower is a European Style Shower and it was really nice, however I do wish that there was shelving in the shower to place personal bathroom items like bath soap, shampoo, etc; (I had to place them on the shower floor) but they do provide you with bottles of soap & shampoo & conditioner in the shower. There was a robe they provide you with that you’re able to use during your stay. The bed & pillows were really comfortable and the couch was comfortable as well.

The Empire State Building is across the street. Times Square is not too far and is only about a 10 to 15 minute walk away. There’s a pizza place around the corner called “Little Italy” and it’s really good. The hotel is close by to lots of nice restaurants, shopping stores, corner stores, etc. within walking distance. During my stay, I went to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theater & it was only a 20 minute walk away from the hotel.

I felt safe when I was in the hotel and didn’t have any safety concerns at all during my stay. You have to scan your room key in the elevator in order to go to the floor that you want, so that gave me some peace of mind.

The staff was amazing! I needed a microwave to heat up my food & they brought one up to my room. Room Service was great & the room was cleaned everyday, unless you put the sign on the door handle & choose not to have it cleaned. I was able to hold my luggage at the front of the hotel temporarily while I ventured out in the city for a couple of hours before my return flight home. The staff was also able to get me a ride to the airport & it was cheaper than an Uber ride would cost.

Overall, I would recommend staying at this hotel, and I’ll definitely be staying at this hotel in the future the next time I...