Four Seasons Hotel New York Downtown — Hotel in New York

I recently stayed at the Four Seasons New York Downtown for one night with my wife, infant, and dog, and we had a wonderful experience. While we didn’t get to enjoy all of the hotel amenities on such a short trip, we left with a great impression and desire to return. The staff service was top notch, and the hotel itself has a quiet, calm luxury that was a welcome retreat within New York City.||||Pre-Arrival:||||Prior to our stay, I had a bit of communication with the hotel using the Four Seasons app to plan our visit, since we have a new baby (just under 3 months old at the time of our stay), and this was our first time traveling with her. We were a little nervous about her first hotel stay, but it was ultimately seamless, and I appreciate how child-friendly Four Seasons hotels are. The hotel had cribs, diaper pails, baby robes, and sound machines available, which is a nice selection compared to what we’ve seen since then at some other hotels.||||Since we also had our dog, we inquired about amenities available for pets, and they had dog beds, bowls, poop bags, and treats available. While these were plenty of amenities, the hotel also advertises a cute dog toy that looks like a taxi. We were looking forward to one of those for our dog, but didn’t receive one.||||I also had communication via email with the concierge team about trying to plan some meals near the hotel that would ideally be both baby-friendly and dog-friendly with outdoor seating. The team was always very responsive, but I felt that some of their recommendations were a little generic. The list of potential restaurants just didn’t really feel customized to what I was asking for. For example, some places on their list, such as Nobu and some high-end steakhouses, really don’t feel like great baby-friendly choices. I also found it odd that when I specifically asked about restaurants with outdoor seating that would be good for a dog, the concierge team was unable to really assist with the request. They basically just said they didn’t know which nearby restaurants have outdoor seating that is dog-friendly, and didn’t really seem willing to figure it out. However, any minor frustration was quickly forgotten when the concierge team managed to get us a reservation for dinner at a restaurant I’ve been hoping to visit for a long time, but with no success myself. Reservations are always gone within seconds when released publicly, but the concierge team was able to get us in when there was otherwise no availability.||||The only thing I didn’t like when booking a dining reservation through the concierge was that the hotel noted that if we were to cancel the reservation too late and owe the restaurant a cancellation fee, the hotel would charge us a 20% surcharge on top of that fee. I understand that since the Four Seasons made the reservation, we’d owe them the cancellation fee if we cancelled too late. However, it wasn’t clear to me why exactly the Four Seasons needs to charge an extra 20% on top of that. We didn’t end up getting charged this fee or needing to cancel, but it struck me as odd and a bit tacky from a luxury hotel.||||Finally, I had some emails with the hotel manager, Pablo, and guest services team before our arrival, just to re-confirm the details of our stay and requests. They were all exceedingly gracious and helpful in assuring me everything was planned and ready for our stay, which turned out to be the case.||||Arrival:||||We arrived at the hotel on a Saturday morning around 10:30 am, and we felt incredibly welcome and well taken care of from the start. The valet team greeted us warmly and immediately started assisting with our bags while escorting us into the lobby for check-in. ||||The hotel makes a good impression upon entry, with a lobby décor that’s neutral and calm, but still feels sophisticated and modern. There weren’t a ton of seating areas in the lobby, but it was certainly a lighter, brighter, and just generally nicer lobby than you’d find in most city hotels. The hotel was built in 2016, and I was surprised at how fresh and new it still feels eight years later.||||Check-in was fine, and the front desk employee who assisted us was a little slow and forgot to go over the inclusions in our room rate (i.e., room upgrade, breakfast, and hotel credit). However, she was still nice enough, and was able to get us into our room right away, which was wonderful first thing in the morning. Alice, the Assistant Director of Rooms, also came out at check-in, and she really stood out for providing excellent service. Alice spent a lot of time with us, recognizing our loyalty to Four Seasons and welcoming us back for another stay, before personally accompanying us to our room to make sure it was to our satisfaction. She also gave both our baby and our dog a lot of attention, which we appreciated. ||||Alice also informed us that we had been given a complimentary upgrade to an Oculus Suite, which was an excellent surprise. Our room rate did include a room upgrade based on availability, and we had booked the highest-level standard room (the Hudson Corner Room), making the next room a suite. However, the Oculus Suite was more than one category up, and was definitely more than we were supposed to get as a complimentary upgrade. We really appreciated the gesture. ||||Room:||||Rooms are located on a variety of floors in the building (I believe from 7 to 20), and each floor is relatively small with only a handful of rooms on it. This makes the hotel almost have a slightly boutique feel, even though it’s not particularly small. Our floor was also very quiet, and we never heard another guest at all.||||The Oculus Suite was wonderful. At 900 square feet, it was a great amount of space for us with all of our baby gear and our dog, and it felt more like having an apartment than a hotel room. The suite was impeccably decorated and in great condition. Although I don’t think it comes off as particularly exciting in pictures, the room décor at this hotel is restful and upscale, with a variety of neutral tones and grayish wood. It’s a quiet luxury feel, and we loved it. There was a large living room with a couch, armchair, desk, and dining table for four, as well as a separate bedroom with a king bed, walk-in closet, and huge bathroom. There was even a separate full bath when first entering the suite, which included a shower. ||||The primary bathroom was a highlight, with lovely tile covering the floors and all of the walls, a huge double vanity, a large free-standing tub, and separate shower with nice Frederic Malle Eau de Magnolia bath products. The bathroom was also huge, larger even than the adjacent bedroom. ||||It’s also nice that this hotel has some good views, since it’s one of the taller buildings in the immediate area. We were on the 20th floor, and in keeping with the name of our suite, we had a nice view of the nearby Oculus Building, as well as a view of One World Trade Center. There was even a glimpse of the Hudson River between buildings. Since the suite was in a corner, it was also just great to have natural light in multiple directions. I would recommend requesting a higher floor for the best chance of a good view.||||Everything else about the room was perfect, and totally in line with what you expect from a Four Seasons. I was impressed with how well-equipped the room was for our needs. The expected diaper pail and sound machine were waiting for us, along with a set of baby bath products and a stuffed animal to take home. For our dog, there were the expected dog bed and bowls, as well as a tennis ball and two separate sets of treats. The hotel also sent up a set of mini jelly donuts for us as a little treat shortly after we checked-in, which was a thoughtful amenity when arriving in the morning.||||We also really liked the disposable camera left in the room with a note to encourage us to use it to take photos during our trip. The idea is to leave the camera with the front desk at check-out, with the photos to be mailed to you after the trip. We did this, and look forward to receiving our photos. We haven’t received them yet, just under two weeks after our stay, and we’re not sure how long to expect it to take.||||The room was impeccably clean, and housekeeping did a nice job with turndown, including all the usual features like organizing my toiletries in the bathroom, and leaving water on the nightstand and slippers by the bed. We also liked the sleep mist that was left by the bed, which is another nice touch. There was just a lot of good attention to detail here, and we appreciated it.||||The only suggestion for improvement we had in regard to the room was to have more water available. We didn’t find any complimentary water in the room when we arrived (only paid water on the minibar), and the only time any was left was at turndown. There was sometimes (but not always) boxed water available by the front desk, and the valet staff was happy to provide waters when leaving the hotel. However, more complimentary water right in the room would have been nice, as well as more water sitting out in proactively in the lobby.||||Service:||||Even though our stay was only one night, we quickly noted that service at the Four Seasons New York City Downtown was a strong point. We really felt like staff members knew and recognized us throughout our stay, particularly at the front desk and concierge desk. When walking past those desks every time we entered or exited, there wasn’t a single time we weren’t greeted warmly, in most cases by name. I was surprised at how often we were personally recognized, including many staff members remembering either our daughter’s name, our dog’s name, or both. This was really exemplary service and made us feel so welcome and comfortable at this hotel.||||The only negative service experiences were a couple of blunders at times we needed to depart from the hotel. The valet and door staff were generally very nice, especially during our arrival, but they struggled with the house car and at departure (more detail below). In both cases, I’m wondering if there was actually some sort of breakdown in communication when making a request via phone, as the issues both occurred after making a request via phone call from our room. Although we were told the requests were being communicated to the staff at the front door, on both occasions, it was clear that something got lost along the way. We found these experiences frustrating, but easily fixable, and very minor in the overall scheme of our stay.||||Dining & Bars:||||The hotel’s only restaurant is CUT Steakhouse by Wolfgang Puck, which is off of the lobby. We didn’t get a chance to eat there, but it looks nice. This isn’t the only Four Seasons (or upscale hotel in general) to have CUT as the main restaurant, so I’d prefer a more unique dining option. It would also be nice to have a small coffee shop/counter inside the hotel.||||We ordered from in-room dining twice, and it was a positive experience both times. It was easy to order using the tablet in the room, and everything came in exactly the time period that was specified. In the evening, we ordered one of the special dog meals that are offered, which was a large bowl of cut-up chicken breast, rice, peas, and carrots. The price ($15) didn’t seem bad, but it ended up being quite pricey by the time the in-room dining fees were added. However, room service dog meals are meant to be a little bit of a frivolous luxury, so I didn’t mind paying. ||||We also had in-room dining breakfast, and I thought the food was pretty good, although not particularly remarkable. We tried the French toast and the smoked salmon plate. We didn’t love that the smoked salmon was brought deconstructed and you had to make the dish yourself. This was disclosed on the menu, so it wasn’t a shock, but it just would have been nice to have a nicely prepared bagel and lox in New York City of all places, rather than having to assemble it ourselves. ||||Other Amenities:||||The hotel amenities include a spa, fitness center, and indoor pool. We intended to go and look at this area, but just never had a chance to do so. The pool in particular looks like it would be a nice area to spend some time, and it’s always nice to have a pool as an amenity in a city hotel.||||There is also a house car offered to take guests anywhere lower than 14th Street in Manhattan. We did end up using this once, but it was unfortunately one of the only poor service experiences we had at this hotel. This is not the first Four Seasons where I’ve had issues trying to use a house car, and it was frustrating. The main issue with these often seems to relate to the first-come, first-served nature of the service and poor communication among hotel staff when a guest wants to use it.||||In this case, prior to the dinner reservation that the hotel had made for us, I called to see if the house car might be available so we could avoid calling an Uber. The front desk asked where we were going (the restaurant was on 22nd Street), and then confirmed that the car was available to take us there and would be waiting for us when we came down. We left our room immediately after that and were in the lobby a couple minutes later, only to find that the car wasn’t there and had been given to someone else. It was not actually being held for us for those couple minutes like we were promised, and I’m not sure it was ever actually at the hotel at the time. Either way, we were told that it wasn’t far from the hotel, and that it should be back within five minutes and would be ours to use. This sounded fine, so we waited in the lobby. It ended up being more than ten more minutes beyond that before the car arrived, which was really frustrating, since it was now making us very tight for our dinner reservation. We would have just called an Uber if we knew we’d be waiting so long. When the car did come, they asked again where we were going, and when I initially gave the address, I was told they couldn’t take us there, since it was above 14th Street. I understand that there is a radius for the car, but we hadn’t actually been told what it was, and had previously been told our destination was fine. When I said this, the valet staff member relented and let us use the car, but I didn’t like the general attitude, or just simply the multiple layers of difficulty involved with using the car. ||||The car itself was a nicely appointed Lucid, but the driver was also just simply not great. The staff seemed to have difficulty communicating amongst themselves, and I was again asked where we were going for the third time, and had to go through that whole process again. The driver also seemed unfamiliar with the area (or simply following the GPS he had running), since he missed the turn for our restaurant, which added several minutes to the ride, further pushing us past our dinner reservation time. It was stressful and embarrassing when we arrived at the restaurant very late, all with an infant in tow. We had tried to leave the hotel in plenty of time, but the hotel’s numerous blunders with the house car created delays.||||I totally understand that the house car is meant to be first-come, first-served and can’t be reserved (although I think guest satisfaction would be higher if you could reserve it). However, if I call down to the front desk to ask about its availability, there’s no reason it can’t be held for at least a few minutes until we get there. Additionally, just better communication among the hotel staff when coordinating the car and destination would be helpful. As much as I love the idea of a complimentary car to take us nearby, it should be pretty seamless at a luxury hotel, which wasn’t the case here. ||||Location:||||In such a large market as New York City, a “good location” is highly context-specific. However, if you’re going to be Downtown in Manhattan, such as in Tribeca or the Financial District, this hotel has a particularly strong location. We like that area in general since it’s a little quieter than some other parts of the city, and we enjoyed taking walks to local parks and the waterfront. The hotel is just a couple blocks from the World Trade Center (and the interesting 9/11 Museum and Memorial), and is close to City Hall, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Seaport area in the other direction. ||||Departure Experience:||||Our departure experience was also a little rockier than I would have hoped. We were leaving the hotel in the morning to continue driving north into New England, and we had some time constraints on when we needed to leave so we could arrive where we needed to be on time. We called for our car from the valet about 15 minutes before we needed it, as we had been instructed at check-in, and I also asked if someone could assist with luggage. I was told someone would be right up. After 15 minutes had passed, no one had arrived to help with our luggage, so I ended up going down to the lobby just to check on things, and since I wanted to grab a copy of our final folio from the front desk anyway.||||When I was down there, I looked outside and noticed that our car was nowhere to be seen. The very friendly and helpful front desk clerk apologized, offered to help, and got everything into motion immediately at that point. By the time our car was brought up and someone had actually come to assist with bags, it was at least a half hour after we had originally called. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was frustrating to call, wait, and find out nothing was being done to handle our request, especially when it was hard enough on our end to get everything just right to depart with our baby and dog. It was also not busy at all at that time, so it seemed like a result of poor communication among staff members.||||Overall:||||The Four Seasons New York Downtown really impressed us and allowed us to relax and enjoy our first hotel night away from home with our infant. The staff was incredibly attentive to our needs, and the wonderful suite upgrade that they provided really made the stay top notch. The beautiful accommodations, when coupled with the personalized attention, were perfect. The couple service issues that we had ultimately felt minor compared to the rest of the otherwise great experience. Our night here was just a stopover to start a trip to New England, and we were surprised to find that this ended up being the standout part of our trip and the part we loved and talked about the most. This is a great Four Seasons and one that we would love...

Four Seasons NY downtown is a relatively new hotel in lower manhattan and this can definitely be seen in its interior design. The interior is beautiful (see images) with a very clean and modern design. One small complaint with the bathroom design is that the faucet is on the right side of the bathtub, so you can not sit on that side (which had the better view). The facilities such as the pool are also quite good, but this is expected with such a price tag.

The 3/5 rating is based on multiple stays and having more 5-star hotel experiences such as the other Four Seasons hotel in NYC and Mandarin Oriental (three different properties). At each of those properties our overall experience has been better.

The front desk staff is generally very nice in FS downtown, although it is hard to beat the concierges in FS midtown (which take a lot of pride in what they do). Our best experience in the downtown hotel was with Marisa, who I believe recently joined from Mandarin Oriental. She helped us multiple times and when she helped new guests to the elevator, kindly asked if she could show the room. This generally did not happen in Four Seasons, but it always done in Mandarin Oriental. Overall, our staff experiences have been good however.

The last stay at FS downtown was the worst experience, with a few things going wrong during our stay. We had ordered a breakfast package and ordered breakfast the night before around 10PM. However, the breakfast never showed up and one of us had to leave for an important meeting. When informing the front desk, they said the order was never put in but we recalled that the gentleman the night before even repeated our entire order on the phone. It isn't great to leave on an empty stomach. The breakfast had to be re-ordered for a single person and eventually FS got rid of the breakfast fee of around $100. This is an expected solution but the situation shouldn't happen at these hotel rates.

The second issue was that the complimentary shoe shine had damaged the leather of my shoes. I showed this to the front desk and FS proposed to get these shoes repaired nearby. This meant I had to stay in the hotel for a few hours because I had no other shoes with me. When the shoes returned, I noticed the paper inside my shoe had paint marks on it. The shoes were slightly darker, meaning the shoes had been painted over. At first they looked fine, but after wearing them for a few minutes, it was clear the paint was slowly coming off again making the shoes look horrible. At check-out, the manager (although I believe not the general manager) was called and after expressing my concerns, shrugged off the issue and said the shoes looked great. I didn't want to argue much so decided to e-mail my complaint after leaving.

FS later called me to talk about the issues and wanted me to send in my shoes, but I was leaving the country soon. In later e-mail contact they also proposed that the shoe manufacturer's "unlimited warranty" (which clearly does not exist) could pay for the damage. We went to the shoe store and they laughed at the idea of unlimited warranty. I think it was inappropriate to suggest this solution. If I would damage something in the hotel, FS would clearly bill me for it and not the manufacturer of the thing I damaged. It took about 25 e-mails and a month to get money for new shoes.

Overall, the facilities and service are good. I think the 5-star service, however, is only tested when not so common issues arise. I think at the level of Four Seasons this should be improved and we did not receive 5-star service from those in charge of finding a resolution. The issue that we had could have been resolved much quicker, but it seems FS did not want to take its responsibility...

The FIRST REAL 7 STAR HOTEL IN NYC…the location is perfect, the food is delicious, the hotel and decor are Beautiful, the service is Divine and WOWWWWW, the staff are beyond Phenomenol and I mean Absolutely Extraordinarily Over the Top Phenomenal♥️. We checked in for an Anniversary Celebration and were Blessed to meet a very Kind Caring Gracious front desk Host that greeted us with a Big Smile, “how are you today” and saw our Anniversary note in the reservation… he said “we are going to make your Anniversary very SPECIAL”. The sweetest person we ever met at any hotel in the world and we stay at the finest hotels in the World. He looked at my wife and promised to create an extraordinary day for her❤️. He upgraded our room, send Champagne and cake to the room and called later to see if we were Happy… WOW, he’s AMAZING. He went above and beyond and was so Professional then pointed out that his manager was the one who had to approve such lovely treats AND upgrades for guests, he said his manager smiled and said “let’s make their Anniversary, EXTRAORDINARY”. “Min” also said his manager always loves to give guests AMAZING SERVICE…I made sure to find out the managers name :) Jessica has the sweetest soul, she loves her job and her staff adore her and now I know why… she’s an Angel and will go far in the luxury Hotel business so I will thank her and her team for making my wife so HAPPY. The fantastic service didn’t end ther, the 2 front doormen were the sweetest too, they smiled, offered the house car, wouldn’t let my wife carry anything and stood outside with us like protective bodyguards as we waited for our limousine to arrive, we love those guys and front desk “Min” too and as our trip was ending… we met the sweetest room service man. Monaj, who brought breakfast in bed service to the room and didn’t just drop off our breakfast cart/table, he asked my wife if he could serve her coffee in bed as it’s where we set up the table in the suite… he handed her coffee, then poured her cream and stirred it for her like she was the Queen of Manhattan. I told Monaj that this was the kindest sweetest act of Grace and Kindness I’ve ever seen in any Hotel around the World.❤️ To say that The Four Season Downtown NYC IS GREAT, doesn’t capture how much we Love it and her staff. The management team deserves kudos and gratitude from us because this Hotel is Spectacular and so well run that we extended another night and canceled our other hotel reservation :). We officially adopterd the Staff because we LOVE THEM AND THEIR MANAGERS. The Warnest Regards from Jack and Alicia❤️🙏😇 EDIT: we extended our stay online and called the front desk to let them know we canceled our next hotel to stay here with these adorable kind staff members and say we’re ready to move rooms and thanked them for the Anniversary suite… Ashley sweetly said “we saw your new reservation and extended your stay in their Penthouse Suite, I didn’t want to take advantage of their kindness but she insisted that they wanted to extend the Anniversary Celebration… I was shocked how absolutely sweet and caring Ashley was… her voice and tone were so genuine, I was in Awee of her sweet GRACE. WE LOVE JESSICA AND ASHLEY TOO, the team were absolutely BEYOND...