Two stars feels generous, but I have a bit of a soft spot since we used The Hotel at Midtown for our wedding.
Positive:
We booked the penthouse suite for our wedding – it is two floors, so that was helpful since our wedding party was 22 people. There was plenty of space for the girls to get ready on the first floor while the guys hung out on the second floor. We also did our first look on the second-floor balcony, which had a view of the skyline. The front desk was helpful in providing a mirror and glam chairs upon request.
Negative:
If I knew then what I know now, we never would have considered The Hotel at Midtown.
For starters, on the day of our wedding: we left the hotel around 2 pm to go to the venue and had room service come in to make the bed, etc. When we returned around midnight, we were shocked to find that the room was unlocked and the door was literally wide open for the entire 10 hours we were gone. Thankfully, most of the floor consisted of guests from our wedding, so nothing was taken, but it was extremely unsettling to come back to that and then have to check if anything was stolen after such a long day of celebration. Honestly, we probably wouldn’t have even noticed the room had been cleaned if the door hadn’t been left open, if they hadn’t picked up a random pair of eyelashes in the shower that I found the day before, or if they hadn’t left a cleaning bottle on our dresser.
When booking, keep in mind that the hotel considers any group larger than four people a “party,” meaning you are only permitted to use their catering – which, of course, is not reasonable. If you brought in outside food or drinks, you were told there would be a fine. So, we went with the catering, which charges per person instead of per item ordered. The bagels were completely stale, so no one ate them, and the food and drinks were removed within a couple of hours of being delivered. This meant that those who were getting glammed up for 1-2 hours didn’t have a chance to eat or drink anything. We naively assumed that since we paid per person, at the very least the soft drinks and non-perishables would be left behind. Based on the layout of the penthouse, many of us didn’t even see staff come in to remove the food and drinks, nor did they ask if we were finished.
If you are considering a hotel block, note that The Hotel at Midtown closes their block 60 days before the event. This made things especially complicated since our wedding was on 12/12 and the block closed on 10/11 – just one week after we sent out invitations. While Midtown did extend the cutoff by a week, we had no control over when guests chose to book. As a result, many people were unable to book within the block and ended up staying elsewhere.
Lastly, the noise. We personally didn’t experience this issue because the penthouse is somewhat tucked away, but nearly all of our guests complained about how loud the hotel was. Many were woken up early by weights slamming in the gym or fitness classes taking place. Others mentioned the walls were so thin that they could hear guests in the neighboring rooms having phone conversations word for word.
Overall, I would avoid booking at this hotel and stick to using Midtown solely for the gym (if you’re a member). It’s painfully obvious that they do not care about their hotel guests, and the view and location are simply not worth the headache.
