Travel Casserole: Review: The London NYC (New York)

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Review: The London NYC (New York)

Note: this also appears with my reviews over on Yelp

Bottom line: stylish place, but may not be the best option if you need to spend significant time trying to get some work done, so be clear about what you need in your room because there can be significant differences in layout and features.

Also, I have no idea what the usual rates are here, but wow, if you can avoid staying here during Internet Week, or any other high occupancy week, I'd recommend it. Base rate was $760. Yes, $760. Add tax, internet and one $40 (!) breakfast of granola, berries and coffee and you quickly get to an $881 final bill. WTF?

(Quick tangential rant: My wife put the full outrageousness of this in perspective for me when she noted that the $881 paid for this one night's accommodation is roughly equivalent to the full year supplies allowance of 9 classrooms in the elementary school where she teaches.)

Back to the review ...

Pros of room 3214:
(1) Nice layout for a leisure stay, with separate living area

(2) Funky mini-bar with an upscale retro feel, like if Dick Van Dyke's living room were redone in 2008, the mini bar and mirror above it might be prominently featured there.

(3) Also, it has windows that open a bit and you can even get a nice cross breeze going b/c there are windows on opposite walls.

Note the glimpse of Central Park

Cons of room 3214:
(1) No functional work area(!) Wow. See picture below. I had to create an ad hoc work station, sitting on the leather trunk and propping up my laptop on the foot of the bed. Sub-optimal, to say the least. My colleague's room, though had a regular work station. He also had two twin beds that resembled a summer camp set up, albeit a wicked fancy summer camp, so there are trade offs. All in all, I'd probably take my layout w/ the king size bed, but it really depends upon the nature of your trip.