Le Méridien New York, Fifth Avenue — Hotel in New York

We were traveling to New York and looked at hotels within NoMad and found the Le Meridien New York, Fifth Avenue. We booked the room through the Marriott website, and the hotel was one of the few that provided two double beds and advertised that it could fit up to 4 people.

The hotel is located on Fifth Avenue between 30th and 31st street in KoreaTown. there is a lot to do and the hotel is centrally located. The hotel itself does not look like much from the outside and does not really look like a hotel; the lobby also does not really look like a lobby and is very narrow. As you enter the door, you are facing the check-in desk, and its a tiny desk. Next to the check-in desks are the elevators and on the other side is the small seating area, the 'business center' which is a computer and printer, and the entrance to the restaurant.

The room had all the basic amenities but was in a narrow space with little extra room and was not spacious at all. As you entered, there was a small hallway which led into the room. In the hallway, on the left were coat hooks which was nice since there was limited closet and storage space. On the right side was the open bathroom in which the sink and tiny shower, with a clear door, was open to the room and hallway while the toilet was behind a sliding door; there was really no privacy and no space in the bathroom (there were tiny shelves up on the wall that barely had enough space for a toiletry bag). As you entered into the room, along the left side of the wall was a wooden shelf which was your storage/desk space and also contained the coffee maker. The shelf was long but was a bit narrow so difficult to add multiple items. Above the shelf was the TV and between the shelf and the window was the narrow closet which had a place to hang items on one side and pull out shelves on the other. There was not a lot of space in the room so when you pulled out the shelves in the closet you basically hit the bed. The beds were along the other side of the wall and they were full/double size beds and provided a decent nights sleep. There was one desk in between the two beds as one bed was basically next to the window and on the other side of the other bed was a small space with a chair and tiny table. There was a luggage rack in the closet and we set up that in this space to at least get the suitcases out of the way so you could walk and maneuver around the room. Again the room had all the basic amenities but 1) it was tight and narrow and 2) could barely accommodate 4 people or generally 2 people with luggage.

The hotel did have amenities including complimentary wifi, a restaurant, and a fitness center. The wifi was strong and you could connect as many devices as you wanted. The fitness center was located in the basement and was a decent size; next to the fitness was also a huge bathroom area with 6 stalls which seems like a wasted space. When we checked in, and we realized many other guests also received this as well, we were given credit at the hotel which could be used for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or cocktails at the restaurant. Most people used it for breakfast and it was a regular restaurant menu for breakfast, lunch or dinner and you ordered what you wanted and you could use the credit to cover the costs. The server at the restaurant was nice but they seemed understaffed given the amount of guests they had. Also the food was decent and they were accommodating to various dietary restrictions but the food did not have a lot of flavor and if we did not have the credit seemed wildly expensive for what it was.

Overall, the hotel was centrally located and provided easy access to many restaurants and attractions. The rooms were narrow and the bathroom was not well designed. The elevators were quick and spacious and there was not a lot of rush either in the lobby or in the elevators so it did not feel...

The absolute WORST hotel experience I have ever had.

My boyfriend and I have stayed at hundreds of hotels together all over the world and this has to be the worst one yet.

For starters, the size of the room was utterly shocking. We paid over $400 just to feel like prisoners stuck inside a jail cell. My boyfriend and I could not even walk past each other without bumping into each other. There must’ve been less than 2 feet between the sides of the bed and the walls. There was no microwave in the room so we called the front desk to see if one could be brought up or if we could go to the lobby to use a communal microwave, however we were informed there was absolutely no microwave for hotel customer use?

And now to get into the real story … around midnight we received a call from Wayne, one of the front desk employees, who notified us that our room fire detector signal was going off. We were very confused as we were laying in bed watching a movie. We told him there was nothing going on so we were unaware as to why it was going off and he simply replied, I apologize, just recognize this as a very friendly fair warning. We hung up the phone confused but just continued on with our night.

The next morning around 11am, my boyfriend and I were in bed sleeping. We ended up waking up to knocking on the door and heard someone who was repeatedly saying “front desk staff”. I looked through the peep hole and saw three men standing outside of our hotel door asking to be let in. I was very disgusted and surprised that three men could just show up and ask to be let in while my boyfriend and I were just trying to sleep. After my boyfriend let them in, they were saying our smoke alarm went off and they were here to perform a room check. Despite our privacy being interrupted yet again by the hotel staff, we let the three men walk around our tiny room as they pleased. They stated that everything looked normal and we were all set. They left our room, leaving my boyfriend and I confused yet again. We proceeded to pack our things and check out of the hotel as planned.

The next day while checking our credit card statement, we noticed an additional $250 charge on top of the nightly hotel fee, AND the $150 incidental hold they place on your account. We called the hotel and were told that we were charged a $250 smoking fee. Smoking fee?! We never smoked! Even the three men who interrupted our stay to check our room (we could have even denied their entrance) said the room was clear. We were absolutely shocked. We proceeded to ask why we were charged a smoking fee and Wayne stated that it was because they found evidence of smoking. He said that after we checked out they found ashes next to the trash can in the bathroom. ASHES?! My boyfriend and I were laughing at this point. My boyfriend uses a black hair pomade, so they may have mistaken his hair product for some sort of smoking product, but ashes, really? It made absolutely no sense. After discussing the matter with Wayne, he kept dismissing us, made us feel worthless, and like nobody’s. He kept insisting they found ashes and that we neglected policy and that’s why we were charged the smoking fee. There was nothing we could say to make him hear our side. We also later found out that we were banned from that hotel. Honestly at this point, we thought we were involved in some sort of joke.

Between the jail cell sized room, being interrupted multiple times by hotel staff during our stay, the horrendous customer service, and the unforeseen $250 charge, my boyfriend and I were absolutely disgusted. Banning us from this hotel is a blessing as we would never ever return, and would rather sleep on the streets of New York than in one of Le Meridien’s beds.

I CANNOT ADVISE YOU ENOUGH TO SAVE YOUR MONEY AND GO TO ANOTHER HOTEL. THE ABSOLUTE WORST HOTEL EXPERIENCE MY BOYFRIEND AND I HAVE EVER HAD. Marriott has some...

just want to begin this review by saying overall we did enjoy our stay here and could possibly return to this hotel again but most likely not with other new options opening up in the area. but i also must point out a few particulars we noticed with this hotel for future guests to be aware of and also for the hotel to possibly improve on for future guests since not many reviews are out there since it is a new hotel.

PROS

brand spanking new so it's very clean which is the main reason why we chose this hotel especially in NYC.

love, love the sensor lighting underneath the bed which turns on with gentle lighting in the middle of the night when going to use the bathroom. great idea and please keep this feature as i haven't seen this at other hotels before. we may even add this to our bedroom at home.

the front bell man was super super friendly and nice. i believe his name is gary but it could be wrong. either way, very friendly and helpful.

mini-fridge is included in the rooms but not noted anywhere on the website which was a pleasant surprise but slightly disappointing that we were not informed of this previously to plan to better. so future guest be aware of this.

separate service and guest elevators which is SOOO important in NYC where other hotels don't have this which creates a real headache waiting for elevators. Great job here guys!

CONS

it's NYC so obviously very small. but i did want to point out that we didn't feel like the room had the space that was listed on the hotel website for this room. [NOTE: i am attaching a professional photo from the hotel and one we took to give a feel how different the space was. my suggestion to the hotel is maybe exchange that large desk table with a smaller normal desk which will open up more space especially for a king size bed as ours]

although there is a sliding door to close the toilet room, there isn't an additional sliding door to close off the shower area which is not very private. we were fine with it but future guests should be aware of this in case they wish more privacy.

no coffee makers in the room but they do offer one complimentary coffee/tea in the hotel lobby cafe. i think it's petty not to have coffee makers in the room for a hotel chain of this prestige. [NOTE: when we checked in, we were not informed of the complimentary drinks which i thought was typical so-so NYC service as usual unfortunately]

underwhelming hotel lobby and hallways. although everything is brand new and great, doesn't look that interesting or design friendly for the nightly price. almost has a business hotel feel to it where the outer entrance looks more grand especially for Le Meridien which has amazing locations elsewhere around the world that we've been too.

location is so-so

So overall, we give it 4 stars but with many areas for potential improvements to...