Hotel Seville NoMad - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt — Hotel in New York

I would like to start with how it’s unfortunate that this place has potential to be a 4 or 5 star hotel, but their fraudulent scam they’re running with charging hotel guests a $500-$600 smoking fee when people who don’t actually smoke of any kind, cigarettes, vaping, or weed is what ruined the quality of this hotel and its service. Our stay was exactly two weeks ago and checking in was smooth as they allowed us to check in earlier around noon, which was great. We showered, got ready, used the iron to iron our clothes, and used my hair blow dryer/curler to do my hair before going out to explore the city. We left the hotel around 1-1:30 pm to grab something to eat. The room itself was nice and the location was optimal. We didn’t come back to the room until 5:30 pm and they had a small window of “happy hour—wine” where they offered two bottles of wine in their lobby for their guests. We then grabbed dinner and spent only one night at this hotel, The James Nomad. When we checked out on Sunday around noon, it was then brought to our attention that they were charging us a $500-600 fine for smoking that was supposedly detected in the room between 1:25 pm all the way until 2:20 pm. This was baffling and shocking to hear as both my husband and I are non smokers of any kind. As well, we were not even in the room at that time as we had left the room around 1:30 pm so this was just impossible. After trying to discuss with the manager at the time of checkout, she said there was nothing they could do but for me to dispute with my credit card company. Our flight left late that Sunday night so they allowed us to store our luggage’s for that afternoon which was very kind, but when I spoke with their manager again, it was a different manager that evening called Chris B. He did not seem to reason or care from where we were coming from as this is inaccurate reading from their smoking detection as we again reemphasized we are not smokers for many reasons. If it came down to doing a drug test to show that we are not smokers, we would be happy to do so to proof that we are telling the truth. I also asked the manager, Chris if he could provide me with a new report of that Sunday morning to see if this “smoke sensor detector” is able to differentiate vapor from my hair dryer/curler and from the iron that we used on both days as these two tools can also emit smoke/vapor. Until this day, he has not responded to my emails for this request even though in person before we left, he had agreed he would be able to send us the new report. This was very disappointing and even more so after reading SIX other reviews of guest members on here on Google where they also were charged and accused wrongly. This is so wrong in many ways as you can clearly see how they’re trying to scam innocent people out of $500-600 for this fee. It makes me think they are either intentionally trying to scam a small percentage of guests this fee to get more money for their hotel, or the smoke sensor detection system is flawed and inaccurate. If that’s the case, then their system they’re using needs to be recalibrated as it can be machine-error and is falsely detecting these readings causing guests as myself and others to go through this unnecessary trouble. If this hotel has any integrity, James Hotel Nomad will do the right thing by investigating into this further and really seeing whether the smoking sensors are not calibrated or on how to differentiate between different types of tools used that can emit smoke/vapor and not just detect the smoke from vaping pens as it supposedly says it detects. It’s a shame that this hotel had great potential to be an upscale, high end hotel but this fraudulent scam is out of line. This is the main reason why this hotel deserves not even 1 star due to...

Visited NY from the UK with husband and 2 adult daughters and stayed in this hotel for 9 nights - Nov/Dec. We found the male receptionist (can't remember his name) very welcoming and helpful. We were upgraded from 2 queen rooms to 2 king rooms on the 6th floor and were also given a complimentary bottle of wine on arrival. |The rooms were a decent size with a large bathroom, although the wardrobe space was quite small. Our rooms were at the rear of the hotel so didn't have a view and unfortunately had some sort of air conditioning plant just outside which droned constantly. However, had we been at the front we would probably have been disturbed by sirens and horns as central NY is obviously noisy, so we put up with the 'white' droning noise. We were also missing the complimentary bathrobes/slippers from one room when we arrived.||We didn't have any meals at the hotel. They do offer 'complimentary' hot drinks and fruit (just oranges & apples when we stayed) in the reception/lounge area for breakfast and in the evening there was hot cider for a few nights, then wine, and finally a very thick hot chocolate. Of course there is quite a hefty hotel tax to pay at the end of the stay which must more than cover the complimentary items. There were no pastries (as advertised) at any point during our stay. |There are bakeries, Starbucks and a Whole Food Market all very nearby, so it is easy to buy something for breakfast. There was a minibar fridge in the room, so had a little space for anything we wanted to keep chilled.|The hotel was comfy and staff friendly. We only experienced our rooms and the reception/lounge area which was decorated festively but often busy. We did try to visit the Seville Bar a couple of times, but were turned away as there were private Christmas functions in there which was slightly annoying as we were paying guests.||We found the location of the hotel excellent. It was fairly central but not too busy. At the end of the road is 5th Ave and a great view of the Empire State Building. We would generally walk back that way at night and see it lit up. In fact, the top of the Empire State can be seen from the hotel lounge and presumably some of the front bedrooms. We arrived in time for Thanksgiving and were easily able to walk to 6th Ave to watch it. ||The Flatiron building and Madison Square Park were close by in the other direction which has an Eataly for cheaper bites or snacks. We found a good cafe opposite called Mangia for lunch on our last day. There is also a Lego store and Harry Potter store close by. The quieter end of Broadway was very near and has restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. It also wasn't too far to walk uptown to Herald Square or the major attractions around the Rockefeller Centre area.||There are a couple of subways very nearby in 28th St, so it was easy to go Uptown or Downtown from one or the other. (We just tapped in with out debit/credit cards - its capped at $34 for a week).||I have docked a star for the lack of pastries, droning noise, being unable to use the bar and also because the hotel debited my husband's account when we got home without notice, for a missing umbrella and a bottle of wine - neither of which we had used. Thankfully they did resolve this quickly when I complained, but I shouldn't have had to and it seems obvious that the housekeeping team haven't been properly checking rooms between guests. If you haven't got 2 bathrobes, 2 pairs of slippers AND an umbrella in your wardrobe, I would suggest telling reception immediately.||Overall we did enjoy our stay though and should we ever return to New York I would definitely consider...

Location: safe, relatively quiet neighborhood right by the 28th St subway stop for the 6 trains. Also by the New York Life Building bus stops for some bus companies. Very Nearby: Bagels & Schmear [try the House Special on a toasted bagel and the coffee cake], Seven Grams Caffe [great flat whites, their exceptional Classic chocolate chip cookie], the James’ very excellent and highly popular upscale Italian restaurant Scarpetta [make a reservation] Pretty nearby: Eataly [Italian food hall good for impromptu bites until 10 pm], JONGRO Korean BBQ [feels like a meat speakeasy, assorted beef and assorted pork, the kimchi pancake], Allora [bland-nice decor in a hotel atmosphere but extremely excellent and satisfying Italian food], Tondo [quick pizza in 3 styles: petite individual sourdough crust, crispy dough medium size where you can get a half or whole, and NYC slice styles - all go in the oven once ordered]. The Empire State Building is an easy walk away. The style: a lovely Beaux Arts building in excellent condition, a chic lobby/lounge with gorgeous ambient mood lighting, rooms with a nice balance of simplicity versus luxury with some Art Deco references. The whole place smells delightful, like cleanliness with a hint of essential oils. The quality: extremely clean. Such a comfortable mattress and pillows. Good room lighting pretty much all on dimmers. Plenty of power plugs. Excellent thick and absorbent luxury bath towels. Fantastic smelling shampoo/conditioner/body wash in side by side shower pump dispensers. The room had sensible amounts of drawers/hooks/ledges to charge devices. The lobby coffee was very tasty, included with room rate, 7-10 am. The daily included wine hour 5-6 pm offers a very drinkable red wine, and many nights out of the week there will be a DJ or singer during the wine social hour, and they were great. There was always spa ice water in a dispenser in the lobby. The TV allow you to login to your Netflix and YouTube accounts, then automatically logs you back out at your checkout. The staff: very sweet and professional. I liked the friendly nature and helpfulness of everyone I spoke to. This nourished the sense that the people employed at The James NoMad are proud of where they work and care very much about making it a good guest experience. Hopefully the staff's positive attitudes also means that this nice group of people are being treated right by upper management. Any possible cons: not for me, really. I was delighted with the place. I guess some coffee guzzlers might prefer to bring their own big coffee mug since the paper cups they provide are small. And some people might want the bedroom part of their room to be bigger - but then they would be people who neither have a realistic appreciation of how valuable a square foot is in NYC nor an awareness how it works with a historic building. Bigger rooms would equal a way higher price point. And as it was: the layout was done so wisely that we were totally happy with the exact room we had. There is a room safe. There is a fridge in the minibar, but I think it is meant for minibar stuff. I’d ask at the front desk before I’d try to jam some leftovers in there. As this is a historic building, your clothes go into a wardrobe. It was large enough for 2 adults to stow a week’s worth of clothing. For me, the James NoMad hit the sweet spot of price point for quality with an excellent location working like a convenient nexus point to so many places worth visiting. I’m definitely staying here again, it suited me really well. Good job, whomever is...