After years of being one of my favorite midtown hotels, The Benjamin is undergoing a full renovation. What used to be a lovely retreat where details were attended to and the staff exhibited professionalism on par with that taught at the Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration is now an exercise in amateurishness, negligence, and rudeness. We arrived on a Thursday evening. At the reception desk, we were greeted by an eager young woman who spoke loudly and didactically, as if I were either in kindergarten or had never stayed in a hotel before. I softened my voice to signal that, perhaps, the whole lobby did not need to hear every detail of our conversation. But she was not a student of the art of subtlety. Upon accepting my credit card to pay for the room, she announced the total amount of my bill to any and all who were within extended earshot. Apparently, the Benjamin’s renovation also includes removing all tact and discretion from the front desk. We were given two room keys and cautioned to keep them away from vital organs or they would become demagnetized. Perhaps, that’s an exaggeration. But cell phones, Apple Watches, AirPods, and all manner of personal technology. Effectively, vital organs. How is this even a reasonable expectation in 2024? Needless to say, in less than 24 hours I had accidentally demagnetized one of our keys and advised another guest, who was not sufficiently warned, why he could not enter his room. The Benjamin’s lobby is a mess, with most of its space closed off to visitors, and the rooms are being transformed from well appointed spaces in calming neutrals to dark hipster spaces with hard surfaces and a spartan vibe. After riding up in the one working elevator, we opened the door to a renovated suite with a queen bed. Since we had reserved a king suite, we returned frustrated to the lobby and were redirected to an older room. While its decoration matched our expectations and our preferences (The Benjamin’s website still shows pictures of the old rooms), its readiness for any guest’s arrival did not. No wash cloths, no hand soap, no bottle opener/corkscrew in the kitchenette… for that matter, no coffee table in the middle of a generously sized living room, which is standard in the floor plan. Broken window treatments, stained furniture, and crumbs on the couch. I understand that some of this is attributable to a room awaiting renovation. However much is due to the negligence and inattentiveness of staff. Underwhelmed but tired from a long day of work and travel, we decided to accept. The room would have sufficed with some sense of compromise and disappointment on our part, but only 24 hours into our stay, our refrigerator failed, taking with it to its grave the contents we had purchased. When it could not be fixed, the staff offered us another room down the hall. At 10:00 pm while on vacation, there is nothing I’d rather do than move the entirety of my belongings from one hotel room to another. It’s truly the height of any luxury experience. While the new room came with washcloths and a coffee table, we discovered an assortment of new shortcomings that confirm The Benjamin’s standards for the guest experience are sorely inconsistent and lacking. Long gone, and perhaps not returning… I don’t know, is the delightful cafe and bar that used to warm and enliven the lobby. That unscrupulous “resort fee” that NYC hotels use to camouflage higher room rates would get you a cocktail each afternoon at the bar. No more. Now, you are obliged to choose $10 of snacks from a case in the lobby if you want to enjoy the value of the amenities supported by your $50 per day resort fee. The staff are almost giddy with disproportionate enthusiasm as you “shop” from the snack armoire in the lobby. Their emotions might be better suited for children choosing a trinket gift during their annual holiday visit to Santa’s Workshop at Bloomingdale’s. After all, these are Pringles and Swedish Fish that are you encouraged to think of as free and exotic. I’ve enjoyed more extravagant yields from vending machines and could recommend any number of gourmet options were I named snack bar tsar, but why lose $10 when you could have overpriced rest stop food from the lobby of a luxury boutique hotel in the heart of midtown? Pringles, please. On the last evening of our stay, we returned to our room to find a memo slipped under our door. Buried in paragraphs of awkward and profuse marketing lingo that described the luxury we used to enjoy during our stays at The Benjamin was notice that the hotel would not have water the next day between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Dear Lord. At $600 a night after fees and taxes, one would think the availability of running water could be presumed. Our check-out experience the next morning only reinforced the shortcomings that plague The Benjamin these days. When I visited the front desk to check out, the manager on duty asked my room number, handed me my bill, and only uttered another word when I thanked him and he replied, “You’re welcome.” No “thank you for staying with us.” No “how was your stay?” No hospitality. What The Benjamin is attempting with the renovation of its physical space… presumably to remain relevant as a luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan… is undermined by the lack of professionalism, warmth, and precision of its staff and by the hotel’s insistence on continuing to charge fees for amenities that are undermined or unavailable in light of the current state of the hotel. When guests are predictably inconvenienced by construction in progress, continued assessment of a resort fee shows an unbecoming crassness and lack of self awareness that are incongruent with the vision and hospitality of a legitimate luxury hotel. As does a proctored snack armoire in place of a proper cafe. Recently, I recommended The Benjamin to my father for his next stay in New York. Today, I retracted that recommendation and offered a different one. There are simply too many wonderful places to stay in midtown to stay at The Benjamin. I don’t expect I’ll ever return.

It is a shame I’m writing this review as this was the first hotel we visited in New York in 2005 and we actually got married in this Hotel during that stay we loved it that much. We decided to bring our 10 year old daughter for Christmas and New Year to NYC and thought it would be a lovely idea to stay at the hotel we loved to show her where we got married and to experience the quality hotel as it was - Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore……. 1) The staff on reception were very abrupt, had an attitude problem and they seemed like they didn’t want to be there. 2) Previous visits, there was always 1 and sometimes 2 very helpful doormen on shift who would open the door on your way into the hotel and on your way out. This time we visited most times there wasn’t anybody on the door and when there was, there was no good morning or good evening and they just stood at the door and waited for the door sensor to do its job. 3) Our room was on a high floor which was great but I can honestly say the decor is probably the same as it was in 2005 and looks very very dated. Two of the window blinds were broken and couldn’t be closed fully or opened in a straight line and one of the windows wouldn’t open. 4) The toilet had a bad leak where we would leave the trash can underneath so that the water would drip into that instead of onto the floor - we didn’t report this as we really liked the high floor we were on but regardless, the cleaner emptied the bin on a couple of occasions and then put the bin back under the leak. On the same issue, one day we flushed the toilet and it just filled up with water and wouldn’t drain. We went downstairs to inform reception as the phone in the room didn’t work and the ignorant woman said “what have you done to it!!!!” “You must have done something to it???” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing?? And then, when I told her we had simply flushed the toilet and it didn’t empty, she didn’t send maintenance, she sent a door man up to have look who then sent a maintenance man????? 5) We stayed 11 nights at this hotel and spent over $5800 which I’m not complaining about as we chose to stay here expecting it to be like it used to be but during those 11 nights we only had a cleaner 6 of the 11 days and on previous visits you would always get a turn down service at approx 6pm where they would lower the blinds and turn the lights on but that doesn’t happen anymore. The hotel is very very dated, the staff (the ones we dealt with) were horrible, the restaurant doesn't exist anymore and the nice lounge that used to be on the 2nd floor is now meeting rooms. It just doesn’t feel like a luxury hotel anymore. I can honestly say that I don’t think we will ever return to this hotel which makes me sad as we always used to try and visit on our anniversary as a nice memory of our wedding in that hotel. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel anymore

OMG! I can not say enough about this hotel. It was amazing! Elias went above and beyond to make our 1st stay at this hotel and visit to New York Amazing. From his first introduction to suggestion the best Italian restaurant to eat you are lucky to have him apart of your team. Not to mention the 1st face that your guests are greeted with.

My four-night stay at Benjamin Sonesta in New York was largely positive. Currently under renovation, the hotel’s aged look is being refreshed. The highlight was the spacious one-bedroom suite with a functional kitchenette, accommodating four but equipped for two. Customer service was excellent, though the front desk staff, while efficient, lacked a personal touch and occasionally engaged in laughter post-guest interactions, which could be off-putting. The room’s design had its quirks, like a toilet flush hidden under the countertop and a toilet seat that wouldn’t stay up, minor yet noticeable. Despite being on the 9th floor, noise was minimal, although water pipes showed signs of air bubbles and noise. The gym was well-equipped, a plus point. The daily $10 snack and water allowance was appreciated, but the $50 daily resort charge felt excessive given the absence of typical resort amenities like a restaurant or pool. In essence, Benjamin Sonesta offers a comfortable, if not luxurious, stay in a spacious setting. It’s suitable for those looking for ample room space and a central location, though some aspects, like certain customer service elements, could be improved.

Be warned. This hotel is in dire need of a total revamp. It’s undergoing renovations to the restaurant but needs to shut down and remodel the entire property. The only good thing I can say is that the sheets were clean. From there it goes downhill. The room was filthy. Every single item was stained: lampshades, bed head, chairs, carpet (see pics). There were used ear buds in the bathroom windowsill. The elevator was scratched, dented and stained. There is no restaurant on site so no food/breakfast options. The room itself is old: the air conditioning is a window unit that is extremely loud. The heating from the bathroom is not controllable so the room is either boiling hot or you have to crank up the air con to compensate? I could not sleep due to the noise of the air con and so had to leave the bathroom window open to try and cool the room - in NYC in Jan. Absurd. I was here for business and relied on the listing. Be warned. This property needs serious investment and the brand/franchise owner needs to do much better. Extremely disappointing.