Review: the super luxe Park Hyatt New York hotel

This is our review of the Park Hyatt New York hotel. I stayed here using ‘purchased points’, saving 2/3rd on the cash rate, and this is a trick that anyone can use even if they don’t previously have any Hyatt points.

The reason I was in New York last week was to try out the astonishing Singapore Airlines A380 First Class Suite – the new version – from Frankfurt to New York. It’s going to take me a few days to get the flight review done so I’m running this part first.

Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Park Hyatt and I consider it the best hotel chain owned by a multi-group brand. This means that I would place its hotels above St Regis, Waldorf Astoria, Conrad and The Ritz Carlton.

I have been gifted a year of Hyatt Globalist status so I am trying it out at a few hotels this Summer. Park Hyatt New York is based in one of the new ‘super skinny’ skyscrapers overlooking Central Park on West 57th Street and I thought I would give it a go.

Before you get too excited about the views from the tower above, note that only the bottom third is the hotel. There are 210 rooms in total. This building was the first of the ‘super skinny’ towers near Central Park and, frankly, the ugliest.

The hotel website is here.

I stayed here on points that I bought

This is not a cheap hotel. It was $1,395 per night for a standard room when I booked, and had gone up to $1,995 per night a few days before I arrived. That said, compared to the $995 that a 3-star Hyatt Place was charging, a few blocks south, it was arguably a bargain ….

I bought 60,000 World of Hyatt points during a promotion in March for a total of £821. This was enough for two nights.

It meant I paid £410 per night vs £1,118 + taxes (13.75%) at the time I booked and £1,600 + taxes in the week I arrived. That is clearly a huge saving although, of course, still quite a lot of actual cash. I wouldn’t have got a lot elsewhere for £410 last week though, with prices especially high due to a number of college graduation ceremonies.

Since I booked, Hyatt has moved this hotel up a category. The cheapest reward night is now 35,000 points per night and you could also be charged 40,000 or 45,000 points. Clearly this is still far cheaper than paying cash.

You can get a 30% discount buying World of Hyatt points until 30th May – see our article here.

You won’t get a Globalist suite upgrade here

One of the key benefits of Hyatt Globalist is that you receive a ‘standard’ suite if one is available at check-in. I’m not sure if anyone actually does at Park Hyatt New York, albeit that this hotel will be very heavy on Globalist members. It won’t take many nights at $1,995 to rack up the required points …..

I got a pre-printed letter on arrival which explained what I getting (and therefore presumably what every other Globalist gets):

• upgrade to a King City View room
• 4pm late check-out (very important if you have a late flight back to the UK)
• free breakfast, via room service or in the restaurant, for up to four people in a room (one cooked item, one juice drink, one hot drink)
• free bottle water and premium internet

I would also have received free parking if I’d been crazy enough to drive. Globalist members don’t pay resort fees on redemptions, but this hotel does not charge them.

It was only whilst writing this review that I realised I’d been a little short changed on my upgrade. Standard King rooms – too low to see Central Park – are on floors 8 to 16. My room was on floor 17, so I gained about 30 feet of upgrade! That said, the hotel only goes up to floor 25 with the rest of the tower being residential.

It’s a bed factory, albeit a bed factory for the rich

The biggest difference between ‘historic’ hotels and modern ones is usually the lack of public space in the latter. Public space costs money – because it doesn’t make money – so building multiple lounges etc doesn’t happen.

This area:

….. is the full extent of the public space at Park Hyatt New York.

Even the bar and restaurant is small – I doubt it seats more than 50 people, hence the ability to have your elite member free breakfast via room service.

If you like to spend your time seeing and being seen, don’t stay here. You’ll have a lot more joy at The St Regis or, when it reopens, the Waldorf Astoria.

The rooms at Park Hyatt New York are huge

The rooms at Park Hyatt New York are bigger than many New York apartments, with standard rooms coming in at between 500 and 620 square feet according to the website. This is bigger than the ‘suite’ which disappointed me at The St Regis Venice two weeks earlier – review in the pipeline.

Not only are they large, they are beautifully designed. Park Hyatt hotels generally have oversized bathrooms and Park Hyatt New York does not disappoint.

Even I couldn’t resist having my first bath of the year when I got to have it here:

The rest of the bathroom is equally lovely, including a h-u-g-e shower of around 25 sq ft. Everything you want is here – two sinks, lots of toiletries (you even get bath salts and a loofah!) and a box containing all the bits you might have forgotten such as a toothbrush and toothpaste.

The bathroom is on the left as you enter the room. To your right is this spacious sleeping and work area:

It’s the little things that stand out. Electrically powered curtains and shades, a B&O speaker system, a huge desk with all the sockets you need, fast wi-fi etc. Everything just works, in sharp contrast to my Venice stay.

It’s hard to describe how much money has been spent on this hotel. Everything – every piece of flooring, every piece of art, every cabinet – feels expensive and classy.

This chest contains the safe, laundry bags etc for example:

What I liked – although this may be down to graduation week – is that the hotel wasn’t exclusively filled with bankers and their clients. There were a lot of families with young children too.

Here’s is the little bit of Central Park I could see. The building to the left in the picture is the JW Marriott Essex House hotel.

The stunning pool at Park Hyatt New York

If the hotel has one stand-out feature, it is the swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna on the 25th floor. It is on the wrong side of the building to see Central Park, but it is still a great experience spending time here.

When I arrived I was totally alone …. apart from a lifeguard. This felt a little weird and self concious, and I found myself taking a bench behind a pillar which blocked our views of each other! The silence was soon broken by the invasion of one of the family groups in the hotel, however. (No complaints from me – my kids have done the same in many hotels over the years!)

Breakfast

Breakfast is served in The Living Room, which is basicaly an all-day eatery. It starts at 7am.

It’s an impressively decorated space but small – the bar is also part of this area – which is probably why the hotel encourages you to have your breakfast via room service.

If you’re not getting free breakfast, you may prefer to give it a miss.

1 croissant – 1 single croissant, or pain au chocolat – is $11 + 18% service charge + 8% city tax. It’s crazy.

I took what I was allowed to order under the Globalist benefits – 1 hot item (scrambled egg with lobster, a bargain at $38 + 18% + 8%, picture below), a coffee and an orange juice. The bill came to $80. If my wife and kids were there and we were paying, we definitely wouldn’t have got change from $250. We’d have hit $100 purely on pastries …..

Conclusion

Park Hyatt New York is a supremely classy hotel which oozes wealth from every pore.

That said, it is – still – a bed factory. If it wasn’t for the pool, jacuzzi and sauna (there is also a gym and a spa), there would be virtually nothing to do in the hotel.

Would I stay here again? Absolutely. When you can buy Hyatt points cheaply in a promotion, why would you book a far inferior hotel for cash and pay the same?

The World of Hyatt loyalty scheme has two great benefits. Unlike Marriott, Hilton and IHG, it guarantees that you can book a reward night as long as standard rooms are bookable for cash. World of Hyatt is also retaining its award chart so there is always a cap on the points cost even when cash rates hit, in my case, $1,995 per night plus taxes.

My next New York stay in July will actually be back at The St Regis. I wanted to have one last stay on points before Marriott Bonvoy removes all points pricing caps next year.

The current offer for buying World of Hyatt points is outlined here – it ends on 30th May.

The Park Hyatt New York website is here.

(In terms of other New York recommendations, the two Conrad hotels are a great use of Hilton Honors points because they are mainly ‘all suite’. No tiny rooms there. The new Conrad New York Midtown is very close to the Park Hyatt – this hotels has a handful of standard rooms so be wary – whilst the other is down by the World Trade Center and is 100% ‘all suite’. I also had a soft spot for the Waldorf Astoria and am keen to see how it looks when it returns. Soho House has its great rooftop pool but you now need to be a ‘social’ member, paying a nominal annual fee, to book its rooms. InterContinental Times Square also suffers from ‘bed factory’ syndrome but the higher floors have great views. My one stay at the refurbished InterContinental Barclay was middling but it hadn’t fully reopened and I’d be prepared to give it another go. Whilst a sweeping generalisation, you can get good deals in Jersey City across the Hudson – just be sure you are walkable to the PATH train or similar.)

---

World of Hyatt update – September 2023:

Get bonus points: Our article on Hyatt’s new ‘double base points’ promotion, valid at all hotels outside the Americas, is here. It runs to 15th September 2023. Registration is now closed.

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

World of Hyatt is offering a 25% discount, equivalent to a 33% bonus, when you buy points by 10th October. Click here to buy.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.