Kixby hotel — Hotel in New York

So my wife and I arrived in mid July (18th to be precise) not knowing that there was a NYC Heatwave just around the corner... We stayed in 'midtown' for 9 nights and had an absolute blast - whilst getting a huge tan.

Upon arriving we had expected the renovation work to mostly be done (my fault for not checking beforehand!) but the front main doors to the hotel were sealed off due to the works. A temporary entrance had been setup to the right of the main doors.

The staff were wonderful in setting us up, despite the sweltering conditions and we were given the keycard to our room. We had booked our holiday through Virgin Holidays (Uk) and had chosen a Premier Queen Room. However upon walking into our room, it was a newer renovated Premier Plus King room. It was also either very, very new as or it was extremely well looked after by the staff.

The room was of a good size, with a large TV (couldn't work out how to get the tv guide!) and work desk dominating the right side of our room. On this was a Keurig Coffee & Tea machine and some helpful print outs from the hotel staff.

A very spacious closet housed an ironing board, iron and hairdryer along with hangers for your clothing. Our room had a fairly useless window view seeing as we were situated on the 6th floor facing the front street and only had the hotel opposite as our scenery. Again, not much of an issue given we'd not come for the window views.

The bathroom itself was rather small and the toilet situated too close to the shower screen door for my liking but it turned out not to be an issue over the course of our stay. I absolutely loved the walk in shower and it's water pressure!

Being from the UK, air conditioning units are magical to us and during our entire stay, our room unit kept us both sane. I wish it had a remote control for actuation though as I had to keep getting up at night to switch it on/off.

The only one complaint my wife could give about our lovely room was that it lacked a full height mirror. She was right truth be told but this could easily be implemented in future and since the hotel is undergoing renovations priorities can be askewed. We had to make do with an iPad screen and the bathroom mirror!

The bed I would have to say was the most comfortable we have ever slept on and this was a full size king bed. Overall the both of us loved (and miss!) our room. It was lovingly looked after by the hotel staff and the mini fridge was an absolute life saver for chilling bottles of mineral water, purchased round the corner at Toast! The room does lack any sort of sound proofing though and you can hear the midtown traffic to its full extent so bring some earplugs if you're easily woken up.

Due to the heatwave + humidity really limiting on how much we could do travel wise, we visited the Rooftop bar just once sadly and it was full and very lively at night with a lovely view of the Empire State building.

My only complaint was the two lifts in the building. They were in a right state and on a few occasions when we would step in, we'd notice a lift engineer inside monitoring the lift as it went about randomly from floor to floor. It was fairly common to see a large queue for the lift when we'd return from a days exploration and the excessive heat made this an uncomfortable experience when you just want to get to your room and it's aircon unit asap.

We departed the hotel on July 28th and as we went down to hand over the keycard, the protective sheets that was covering the new adjoining lobby area had come down and was viewable from the temporary lobby the staff were operating from.

We didn't really talk to the staff that much, but they did seem very friendly when we did have the odd conversation about the heat - when native New Yorkians are struggling, you know you're in trouble!

Overall, the both of us had a splendid time at the Hotel Metro. I'd recommend it to anyone but ensure you do check to see how the renovation work is proceeding and try to obtain a room on the higher floors for a better view if possible. I miss Midtown...

Great hotel!

an actual 4 star hotel living amongst many fraudulent 4 star NYC hotels which in reality are nothing but 2 star hotels sporting a nice flashy lobby. Kixby blows the other hotels out of the water, and manages to do so at a similar, if not better price point! Some NYC hotels lure you in with a lower price, and after arrival you are hit with the hotels "resort fee" driving your price way up. Not to mention the horrible feeling youbare given when you leave that hotels beautiful lobby and arrive to your outdated , and cramped room. Yeah, you got catfished, sorry 😔

Not at Kixby! What you see is what you get.

The accommodations remind you of what a 4 star hotel should be, things such as the the always awesome bellhop, the friendly staff that will greet you during arrival and departure in a Very professional manner, the branded Kixby Robe's in each bedrooms closet, or the beautiful Kixby umbrella in each room. Both items available for customer use during stay, and available for purchase - with the price listed for convenience on the product.

Additional amenities include a convenience room (where coffee, breakfast and snacks are served), a functional gym, and an entire rooftop for customers to enjoy - it is a great place to hangout with friends. The indoor section offers tasteful decor, comfortable seating and two bathrooms for use. The outdoor area is the real gem however, with a fully functional bar, gazebo offering shade, bench style seating, couches, tables etc. All offered with that Kixby design in mind, a very beautiful one in my opinion.

What makes this rooftop patio and bar so special compared to others? It's right there in the name! It's named "the lookup", and for good reason. When you set foot on the rooftop you are hit with a truly breathtaking view of the empire state building! Located on W35th street, Kixby is just one block away from the empire state building, and world famous Macy's herald square. There are 1000s of stores, restaurants and bars within walking distance to check out. I'd say it is basically impossible to not enjoy this location.

So why did I give a 4/5 star review and not a 5/5? Four reasons.

#1- The security deposit is steep compared to its competitors, at $250/stay it is not ideal for some.

#2- the hotel is still under construction in some areas, so you may be awoken by the sweet sounds of construction if you are a light sleeper 🙄

#3- although my interactions with the staff here have been lovely, the gentleman who works the overnight shift seems to be working the late shift for a reason. He is not as friendly or personable with the customers as the rest of the staff. When I presented him with an issue I was having with my room, he reluctantly agreed to help me. He was very unapologetic and gave off the vibe that he did not really care at all. This was after 10 minutes or so of me standing at the front desk, searching for him, shouting "hello??!!".

#4 the doors at the Kixby do not have peepholes. I've always taken for granted the peace of mind I get just by having this peep hole in the door, as with basically every other hotel in the world this is installed as a standard feature. Not sure why this is, or if they will be installed at a later time, but it is certainly an uneasy feeling when you do not have the ability to see who is outside of your door prior to opening.

With all this in mind, I give Kixby a 4/5 rating, and I'm sure with these slight adjustments they will be a 5 star in my eyes and yours very shortly !

I HIGHLY recommend checking out this Hotel ! You will not be...

We stayed here for 3 nights in January 2025. I don’t love leaving a negative review but for what we paid and this being advertised as a 4 star hotel, I don’t feel the value, comfort, or amenities were there.

TLDR: We did not sleep well at all. Street noise is incredibly loud. Thin windows, no black out curtains. Light coming in from the street all night. Uncomfortable pillows and bed. No kettles, microwave, or room service available.

Pros: The hotel is in a great location, walking distance to a few holiday markets (Herald Square and Bryant Park), Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and lots of restaurants. They give you a refillable water bottle and there’s a nice area in the hotel with machines for both regular and sparkling water. There’s hot water available in that room as well but they don’t offer any kettles to guests for the hotel rooms. Rooms seemed pretty clean!

Cons: I did not sleep for the three nights we were there. The noise from the street is incredibly loud at all hours of the night. Horns honking almost constantly, sirens often, garbage pickups, people yelling—we could hear this from our room on the 7th floor. There are thin windows and no black out curtains. Our blinds didn’t close all the way either so light from the office building across the street was coming into our windows nonstop (they left their lights on even at night). There obviously wasn’t a nice view from the hotel room either, just the office building. The pillows were so uncomfortable. They were very lumpy, stiff, and seemed old. The mattress was okay—it was pretty hard if you like that.

The heater wasn’t working when we got to our room so it was very cold initially. Maintenance showed up quickly and we actually fixed it ourselves before they got there (the test/reset button on the outlet had to be reset so power could get to the heating unit which is something they could’ve checked before we got there).

The rooms are small but probably pretty standard for NYC. They don’t list their room size but we got a “Lux King” room and I’d guess it was at most 175 square feet.

Room amenities were lacking. No microwave, kettle, or room service available. No streaming/casting capability on the TV, just cable channels. There was a Keurig coffee maker though and a safe in the room. They also provide an umbrella which is nice.

You need to use key cards for the elevators to access the guest rooms and they were comically difficult to use. Not only for us but for the 10 or so other people we shared elevators with during our stay. It took many tries to scan before they worked and I even saw a few people just give up because they couldn’t get them working. Not sure what’s going on there but I hope they fix this!

Not one person asked us how our stay was going either, not even when checking out. A small thing, but I feel like it matters. I was really hoping to like Hotel Kixby, but I wouldn’t stay here again. If quality sleep and comfortable rooms are what you’re looking for, I’d suggest looking...