THE LOWELL HOTEL

esta muy padre y la comida riquisima

Outstanding staff, service and rooms. The place where they know how to do it best and keep getting better. I have stayed here for years and they have always exceeded my best recollection.

We were a bit disappointed by our New Year’s Eve stay at the Lowell. The hotel is gorgeous and the room was beautiful and clean, no complaints there. We loved the wood burning fireplace, that was very special. There were also some nice touches like welcome champagne and wine. That said, there were also some things that felt like we were being nickel and dimed at every turn. For example there’s a 35 dollar fee for someone to come help start a fire in the room (there’s no option to do it yourself for safety reasons). That in itself is pretty absurd and not anything I’ve encountered at other luxury hotels with in room fireplaces, but fine. We went out for about an hour and the fire was left untended so it of course died out. We called to ask if they could restart it with the wood we had purchased. Someone came up to help. We found out when looking over the bill that they charged us a SECOND 35 dollar fireplace fee for having someone restart it, which feels obnoxious when the rooms themselves are very expensive and it’s a feature of the room, plus in theory we already paid for the wood with the first fee. There were also little things like they came for turn down service at literally 5 pm when we were relaxing by the 70 dollar fire and when we said we weren’t ready right then they never came back. Not a big deal but a 5 pm turn down service or bust is not expected from a luxury hotel. We also were charged a 200 dollar pet fee which we weren’t aware of (maybe it’s hidden somewhere on the website and we missed it) and there was no bed or food bowls or anything in the room for our dog, even though we had mentioned a couple times he was coming. Again, not a huge deal, but for hotels at this price point who charge a high pet fee there is usually some gesture done to show the room was made “dog friendly”. Finally, when we got our folio there were a number of added fees (which happens with nyc hotels) but one random extra 200 dollar charge which there was no explanation for. Overall, it’s a beautiful hotel, the service is mostly friendly, and the rooms/fireplaces really are special but I found the level of nickle and diming outside of the realm of normal for this type of “5 star” experience, and it really detracted from our enjoyment of the stay.

Wonderful experience with a terrific staff located in a great location on the East Side which was both quiet yet close to Central Park and Madison Avenue. The two restaurants were superb. Our suite had a fireplace, facing 63rd street, a little tight for size.

The staff did everything possible to make our stay incredible.

Home away from home.