The Chatwal - The Unbound Collection by Hyatt — Hotel in New York

I want to love this hotel MORE than I do. The good stuff: great location, rooms are quiet and well furnished, beds (of course) incredibly comfortable. I also appreciate that they still do a turn down service nightly while many other hotels have eliminated that practice. Although it is a turn down service without a chocolate on your pillow but hand wipes instead. They also honored an early check in (the last two times my room was not ready even at the 4 pm check in time) but this time they let us check in at 2 when we arrived. But I had called two days before and re-confirmed that.

The not so good? Well, I don't think the service level is there (and I see others who stayed the same time period we did would disagree with that statement but this is the 2nd time I felt this way). This is a hotel with only 80 rooms and I would expect more. First of all, there is a butler (I meet him on our first stay) but he didn't come and introduce himself until the last night of our stay when they brought up a split of champagne for New Year's eve (nice touch). My first visit he was there and anticipated every need. The room also had complicated electronic system. This time and the last time I stayed there, the phone system (which has controls for the temperature, drapes and lighting) has been broken. It just kept re-booting rendering it pretty useless even after being fixed and replaced. Even dialing the phone is complicated. And to use the DVD in the room requires an engineer to come set it up. Both my husband and I are not idiots and use electronics daily but we needed the engineer to come back twice to get the DVD to play! It should not be that difficult. Better to not have one at all.

My other issue is the size of the rooms. My first stay was a standard room and it was roomy enough and had a great tub. So for my 2nd stay, we decided to get a junior suite. The first junior suite they showed us was HUGE but had no tub! Since a tub (whirlpool) is one of the features that made us choose this hotel, we asked to be switched. The next room was half the size. We didn't ask to change again. For this last visit, before i booked it, I called and spoke with the manager and discussed the rooms. I was assured I would be given a larger junior suite with a tub on my next visit. Well imagine my surprise when I get what seemed to be the exact same room. The room is long and narrow and barely 8 feet across. After discussing it with another manager, we came to the conclusion that all the junior suites that have tubs are the same size and there is no larger junior suite with a tub. I think my original standard room was larger (or at least squarer which might make it seem larger) and he was willing to let me switch to that but I choose to stick with the room we had. I thought the manager might have sent something up to make up for the misunderstanding but never did. A free drink or bottle of wine would have been nice. When I had a room problem with another SPG hotel a few trips back, the staff and the manager went completely overboard trying to make it right. They sent up wine and chocolates and even upgraded me to the Presidential suite. It was so incredible -- they really cared and wanted me to be happy. This time they were polite but not overly concerned. This trip the doormen seemed to be missing more than the last two. We had to carry our luggage ourselves into the hotel upon arrival and most times when we returned there was no doorman present. The staff also didn't know our names by site even thought many of them had met us a few times by now. Again, I think in a smaller hotel this should be something they do. I love the decor and I love staying in a Stanford White building with history. Next time we may try another hotel again and compare.

There is so much to love about this hotel, I just have had better experiences at other SPG hotels in the area so I...

Disappointing and Uninviting, the Chatwal "Luxury" Hotel deserves a 0. Aside of the beautifully decorated bathroom, the service received and lack of respect from staff makes this Chatwal Hotel one of the worst SPG hotels I've been to. Key points: Uninviting, Rude, Your24 not offered.

The reason why I decided this hotel: I wanted to take my elderly parents out to "the best hotel in NYC" that SPG can offer. So I preceded to speak with one of the SPG Platinum Concierges who recommended this hotel…

I was ignored by the Chatwal staff: No reply call. Prior to my check-in, I called to inform the hotel's front desk that my family and I would be arriving later. I also wanted to followup in regards to Your24 to see if would be honored. The front desk told me that they would call me back. I never received a call back that was promised to me.

I was ignored by the staff: Rude check-in service. The check-in experience was horrible and was well below what I was expecting from a "category 7 hotel". Apart of the uninviting hotel entrance, there was no valet person. Rather, when I started walking to the front door, one of the staff simply stared at me. He provided no greeting. Even more upsetting, he didn't care to assist my parents who already started taking luggage away from the car. Seeing my elderly parents taking their own bags to the hotel made me very upset. Instead, I briefly helped my parents and instructed the bell boy person to take over and do his job.

Uninviting front desk. When I went to the front desk, I felt uninvited, like I was wasting the person's time. Perhaps this is the normal "New York City" attitude as my sister, journalist, had said; but I did not choose this particular hotel to feel inconvenienced by staff nor do I think it is proper for any guest to feel uninvited, especially at a "luxury hotel". Regardless, I went on with my typical check-in routine.

"Chatwal does not offer Your24" I asked the front desk, if he had any updates regarding my prior call about my late check in and Your24 request. He started by saying he could not honor my Platinum SPG upgrade, so there was no room upgrade. I inquired about the Your24 and he literally said that Chatwal does not offer Your24, at which point I had wished that I was told about this via my expected return phone call.

Dismissed complaint. Later on I decided to confront the front desk about my initial check in experience. I found one of the member's comments in this forum true and similar to what I observed: "The staff was not friendly or helpful, unwilling and unable to address the issue." Instead of asking more questions about my statements, the person explained that if I had called in earlier, the hotel could have better prepared for my visit.

Phone hang up when dialing "0". The operator hung up on me twice during my stay and on my second call, corrected my speech in a rude, dismissive way. This was the first time I have ever felt inconvenienced by any SPG hotel operator.

No space for gym, spa, pool For this type of hotel, I was surprised and disappointed to see how small the gym, spa, and pool were. More upsettingly, these three facilities aren't architecturally separated. If you visit, you'll notice that you have to pass the spa front desk to enter in the very small gym (having very little equipment). From the gym, you can easily see the pool, which is pretty much a slightly enlarged jacuzzis.

This hotel made me feel cheated. This is not a "Category 7" nor a "Luxury" hotel, at least based on my experience and perspective. I hope whoever reads this post becomes aware of the potential disappointments with this hotel and reconsiders going somewhere else. For me, the experience was so bad that I've decided to never come to this property again. It was bad enough to even make me reconsider being an SPG Platinum Member (already 150+ hotel...

My husband and I were very excited to stay at Chatwal as we live at a luxury collection hotel at home. Additionally, we have stayed at many luxury collection hotels around the world. This, is not a luxury collection hotel.

We arrived at 12:30. As I’d booked with fine hotels and resorts I had requested a 12:00 checkin. This was not available. In fact, we were unable to check in until 3:30. We were offered to relax at the spa, which since I was traveling for the prior 10 days, sounded lovely. The front desk called the spa and they said no, they were unable to accommodate this. So we sat in the lobby for a while and then I asked the concierge, Juan, who was the only staff member who seemed to care, where we could have lunch. We left to do so and returned later a few hours later. We were told we’d be contacted when our room was available. This never occurred. I returned and inquired to the status of our room, “oh, your room is available,” I was told. Confusing, but ok. I said could we please have our luggage brought up I’d really like to take a shower. No problem, right away. We proceed to the room.

Now, I forgot to mention that upon arrival we were not offered an upgrade for our gold status, or fine hotels, we were offered a terrace suite, for $800 additional a night. We had been booked to a 200sq ft queen room. I said that’s nearly impossible for us. Then we were offered a room for $50 more per night. I was unsure why I was paying anything more, as at any other hotels I’ve stayed, they simply upgrade based on status.

Upon entering the room it was very, very small. This is NYC, but this has never been an issue at the Palace or St Regis. We were exhausted however, so a bed was my only requirement at that moment. I waited for my bag, and after exactly 45 minutes, I went down to the desk myself as no one would answer the phones after 3 or 4 attempts, calling any and all of the lines on the phone. I saw my luggage sitting right in the middle of the lobby unattended. No one had any concern for it. I grabbed it, and was approached by a bellman who said allow me, to which I replied, you had 45 minutes. I need my things.

The next event was our bathroom. Which smelled of mold. The furniture through was scratched and edges were chipped. The overall room aesthetics were abysmal. This is not how my property at Home is maintained whatsoever. I finally called the front desk to express my feelings on these matters, I was told the manager is on vacation. I said of course he is.

The next day we went for cocktails with friends upper east. When we returned, we couldn’t enter through the lobby as no one felt the need to communicate a photo shoot was being held in the lobby, effectively blocking all access to the lobby and hotel elevators. No communication, no apologies. Nothing.

Room service, which did not have the items on the menu, which I finally settled for a cheese sandwich, quoted 30 minutes and showed up over an hour later after we’d fallen asleep. I woke up and received it, but the bread was stale and the entire thing was terrible. They were aware as they’d charged me 1/2 for the inconvenience of being late.

Overall, I’m a very understanding person. The team where I live is impeccable, so maybe I’m just spoiled, but the level of service, upkeep, etc. at this property, is absolutely not conducive to a luxury collection, or SPG 7 property. I would highly recommend this rating be lowered and someone seek out this property immediately for evaluation....