The Greenwich Hotel

Since late 2022, I have stayed at the Greenwich Hotel five times. Those visits represent a total of 35 nights, and altogether they cost more than $50,000. So I think I’m in a pretty good position to review this hotel. In the beginning, I thought this hotel was heaven. I still feel it has some wonderful qualities. However, after recent hiccups with security, noise, and service, I’m not sure I will be back. First, I want to note the things that were more or less positive throughout all of my stays: * The hotel is beautiful. I love the vibe of the whole building: everything from the whimsical objects decorating the guest rooms to the bronze swans that rest on the floor near reception. I’ve stayed at the hotel twice during Christmas, and the lobby is especially stunning during this time. The rooms, though small and quirky, are unique and usually inviting. I like taking baths, so I always reserve the Superior King Soaking Tub room. (Note, however, that not all rooms of this class are as large and appealing as what the website shows; during one recent stay, we got a substantially smaller and more depressing room.) Usually, a soothing and distinct scent pervades the guest rooms. During the time I was happy with the hotel, this scent had the effect of instantly relaxing me. * The spa and gym are perfection. I’ve used the gym frequently, and I appreciate both the workout space and the careful way it’s maintained. The staff pop in regularly to make sure the space is orderly and that it’s stocked with apples, protein bars, and cold water. The spa is also wonderful. During my last visit, I had acupuncture and bodywork, and I really appreciate that they offer these services. Afterward, my husband and I swam in the spa’s indoor pool, which was incredibly relaxing. The atmosphere is so nice that, the next day, we decided to escape the relentless July heat by relaxing at the pool with our books. Also, unlike a lot of hotel pools, this one has an attendant on hand at all times, which I appreciate. The hotel also posts rules about when children can use the pool; I wish more hotels did that. * The hotel’s location in Tribeca is perfect for us. This tranquil neighborhood has several good breakfast spots. Also, if you need a bigger gym or pool, Asphalt Green Battery Park City is a short walk away, and they offer day passes for a reasonable price. * Whether it’s because the neighborhood is quiet or because the windows are soundproofed, we’ve never had any issues with street noise. And now for the bad: * Security problem #1: During our last visit, we came back from a day out and put our key in the lock. The little light did not turn green, and we didn’t hear a click indicating that the key had unlocked the door – and yet we were able to open the door. I wondered, had the door actually been locked? But I was tired and decided not to overthink it. The next night, the exact same thing happened. The following night, my husband got his key out, and I said, “Wait, let’s try something.” We did not put the key in the lock; we just pushed on the door, and… it swung open easily. It hadn’t been latched or locked. We went down to the front desk and told them. They said that they would ask housekeeping to make sure they are shutting the door properly. We came back up and experimented with the door, and we concluded that something was wrong with it. That is, we tried pulling the door shut and thought we’d done it successfully, only to test it and find that it wasn’t latched. We went back down and explained this, because we wanted to make sure they knew that this wasn’t solely a case of user error; there might actually be something wrong with the door. The desk clerk said that they would have an engineer look at the door the next morning. Unfortunately, with this new plan, they seemed to forget about talking to housekeeping – or at least that was my impression. As I thought about it later that night, this concerned me, because the problem seemed like it was multifaceted. (Because if one knows about the issue, it can be avoided by closing the door more firmly and then testing it to make sure it is in fact locked.) But I didn't want to go back down a third time, so I decided to trust that they would know how to handle it. The next day, I wondered when we would hear back about the engineering work. No one called us, so we called them. A desk clerk told us that engineering had fixed the door, but he was pretty vague about the details. We still felt uneasy, so we asked the desk clerk to please also remind housekeeping to pull the door shut firmly whenever they leave our room. After a bit of back and forth, the desk clerk agreed. The next day, everything was fine. But the following night, we got back, tapped on the door – and again it swung open without us putting our key in the lock. We went back downstairs and explained the situation to yet another desk clerk. (During all of this, no one had introduced themselves to us or volunteered to be our point of contact on the problem – so whenever we talked to someone, we had to start from scratch explaining it.) The clerk seemed unsure how to handle it but told us he would speak with the director of housekeeping for our floor. Then someone else jumped in and assured us emphatically that no one has access to our room except other guests on our floor (which, honestly, was not that reassuring). He also said he would discuss the problem with – dramatic pause – the director of all housekeeping. I was a little underwhelmed, as I’d been hoping for “manager of the hotel.” That said, we never found the door unlocked again, so this approach must have worked. On the downside, our trip was almost over at this point, so this problem had been ongoing during most of our eight-night stay, and I worried about it until we left. Maybe others are better at compartmentalizing but, for me, problems like this can taint an entire trip. For example, at a performance of “Just In Time,” I suddenly found myself worrying about the door to our hotel room when I should have been focusing on Jonathan Groff. In my eyes, the problem wasn’t just that our room was repeatedly left unsecured; it was also that the hotel didn’t seem to take the problem very seriously, or at least not seriously enough. To put in context what I mean: As I've recently learned, the Greenwich Hotel apparently hosts a lot of celebrities. I can’t help thinking that if someone like Jennifer Lawrence had reported this type of problem, it simply would have been fixed. When we checked out, yet another hotel employee who didn’t introduce himself apologized for the problem and removed two of our laundry charges, a total of about $250, from the bill. To put this in context, the full cost of our stay ended up being $11,500, so this reduction was not the most dramatic gesture. (In fact, it wasn’t even all of our laundry charges.) However, the issue here is not money. When I choose to stay someplace like the Greenwich Hotel, I want to feel like I’m indulging myself. When the hotel can’t even provide me with a door that locks properly, that is the opposite of indulgence. * Security problem #2: On the second night of our most recent stay (before we discovered that our door was getting left unlocked), my husband lost his key. We stopped by the front desk to ask if the room could be rekeyed. The desk clerk said, “Sure – what room?” We told him, and he gave us new keys. As we rode up in the elevator, I found myself feeling unsettled that the clerk hadn't asked for our names, and he'd obviously had no idea what room we were in, yet he gave us keys to the room that we'd specified. What if we had been scammers? Perhaps the desk clerk had recognized our faces from us having been in and out during that first day, but the behavior still seemed sloppy, since we could have been hotel guests trying to get into someone else’s room. (If you ever listen to podcasts about scamming, then you know that things like this happen; it's called social engineering.) You might wonder if the staff know us because we’ve stayed at the hotel so often. However, there was a large gap between some of our visits. We don’t know anyone who works there, and I've never had the impression that any of them knows us. * Noise: During all of our visits, we've had more noise from other guests than I would have liked. With our last two visits, there was a noticeable uptick in this noise, but – surprisingly – the biggest problem during these last two visits was early-morning noise from hotel staff. I repeatedly was awakened by the sounds of hotel staff moving about and doing things early in the morning. For example, one time I was deep in a dream when the roar of a vacuum cleaner jolted me awake. I looked at my watch and was dismayed to see that it was about 8 a.m. (It was a very thorough cleaning, too. I actually was able to go back to sleep and was awakened again when the vacuum cleaning restarted.) Another time, I was awakened around 9 a.m. by a staff member right outside our door barking into and listening to a screeching walking talkie. On several other mornings, I was awakened by the sounds of staff knocking on doors and yelling “IN-ROOM DINING!!!" and "HOUSEKEEPING!!!”, sometimes followed by the sounds of slamming doors. Of course, I understand that housekeepers have to announce themselves. What I criticize is that housekeeping service has to start so early. During our last visit, weekday service typically seemed to be in full swing by 9:30 a.m. Also, if they absolutely have to start that early, it would be nice if they could try to be quieter and/or avoid rooms that display a Do Not Disturb ribbon (for example, they could come back and clean the rooms in those areas later). The staff seems to show more respect for quiet during the evenings and during weekends. That is, during the weekends, housekeeping seems to start much later in the morning or perhaps even early afternoon. Meanwhile, at night, I notice that the staff takes care to be as silent as possible when they’re in the hallways or if they have to deliver something, like in-room dining. In those cases, they knock softly and speak softly. But during weekday mornings, all of these safeguards fly out the window. I can only assume that they think that everyone should be getting up early Monday through Friday, even though at least some of us are on vacation. Staff are not the only disturbance. Unfortunately, the walls at the Greenwich Hotel are thin, the floors are creaky, and this relatively small hotel is quite compact – a perfect storm for hearing others. For example, during our most recent visit, I was trying to fall back asleep around 7:30 a.m. when I heard someone speaking emphatically about ROI and quarterly results. I laid there a while hoping it would stop. It didn’t. Finally I put on a robe and stepped into the hall, where the sound was louder. So I did something I have never done at a hotel; I knocked on my neighbor's doctor, apologized for bothering him, and asked if he could please speak more quietly. I suppose I could have called the front desk instead, but given the way things were going with our door lock, I had little confidence that they would fix the problem. Anyway, the other guest kindly agreed to lower his voice, and, after that, I didn't hear him. The incident left me thinking somewhat longingly back to recent stays at two different Four Seasons. The Four Seasons is able to create tranquility by using soundproofing between rooms. (Granted, they are more expensive, though.) I travel a lot, so I have to add that, in my experience, the Greenwich Hotel seems to attract families with unruly children who do things like bang on other guests’ doors late at night. Of course, unfortunate guests like this can show up at any hotel. Still, I can't help but draw a contrast between how the hotel manages its spa compared with the corridors of regular guest rooms. The spa is set up with rules and an attendant to ensure that children don't terrorize other guests or disrupt the space. It would be nice if they could do something similar for the areas where quiet is arguably more important – where people sleep. Perhaps it would help to publish a code of conduct or have an attendant check in on each floor every now and then, especially on floors where children are staying, to make sure that nothing too disruptive is happening. I'm sure it wouldn't solve every problem, but it couldn't hurt. Unfortunately, I am a light sleeper, so even if everything else had been perfect, the noise problems alone are probably reason enough for me not to come back. By the end of our most recent stay, I was exhausted and felt a great sense of relief when I got on the plane to come home. * Staff friendliness: One of the things I used to love about the Greenwich Hotel was the five-star service, which seemed both effective and friendly. Obviously, the problems I've already described include situations where the service wasn't really very effective (the door lock) or considerate (staff making a lot of noise at 8 a.m.). Unfortunately, recently we've also had a few incidents of staff being unfriendly. Here are two examples: After one of our recent check-ins, as we looked for our room, the person helping us with our bags trailed after us in a manner that seemed petulant. When I approached the wrong room, he got irritated, asked to see my key, and then chastised me for going the wrong way. It seemed unprofessional, and I wondered why he hadn't just led the way in the first place. During that same visit, my husband and I went down to the courtyard and asked the attendant if it would be possible to have breakfast there. By this point, we'd stayed in the hotel many times, but we usually went out for breakfast or had in-room dining, so we weren't sure how it worked. The attendant gave us a withering look and informed us icily that the courtyard was for hotel guests only. We clarified that we were guests, and he said that, yes, in that case, we could. But notably, he did not become friendlier or apologize for clearly having mistaken us for… tourists, I guess? It left me wondering why we looked like we didn’t belong. It also made me want to leave the beautiful courtyard and not return. * Laundry: This is probably the least important problem, but we’ve noticed a decline in the quality of the laundry service. As just one example, I sent a shirt out for pressing. This shirt had never been worn and was 100% pristine. It came back with an ugly mark on the shoulder in a very visible place. I worked on the spot with a damp cloth and got most of it out, but the process made the shirt wrinkled (thereby defeating the point of having had it pressed). Another time, they “corrected” my count of the laundry but did so in a way that was actually incorrect (and a little more costly). In fact, they made several odd adjustments to our tally of the clothes we'd sent out. For example, would you think that a bikini is the equivalent of one ladies' bathing suit? Or is it more than one? The Greenwich Hotel apparently thinks that it's more, so they crossed out where I'd written "1" and wrote something like "1.5," with the helpful explanation, "two piece." Yes, I'm being a little picky, but to be nickel-and-dimed while paying four figures a night and dealing with other issues – it left a bad taste in my mouth. I probably should have said something, at least about the stain on my shirt, but at the time, I wanted them to focus on our door lock, and I didn't want to get labeled as a difficult guest. (Obviously, at this point, I don't care anymore.) I want to add that many hotels send a post-visit survey asking for feedback. I’ve never gotten one from the Greenwich Hotel. In the past, that didn't bother me. Now, however, it reinforces my impression that they don’t particularly value me as a client. And why would they, if, as other reviews here indicate, the hotel is also catering to A-list celebrities like Bradley Cooper and Ted Danson? Next to clients like these, I'm guessing that me and my $50,000 are nothing. It’s hard to overstate how much I used to love the Greenwich Hotel. It was actually a reason to go to New York – as in, “Hey, if we were to get tickets to Sweeney Todd, we’d get to stay in the Greenwich Hotel again!” Now I’m having the exact opposite problem – as in, “It would be great to see Chess in October, but now we don’t have a go-to hotel, so should we bother?” I guess maybe it’s finally time to check out San Diego, Yosemite, or the Outer Banks.

Hubby and I stayed here for our 14 year anniversary weekend and we enjoyed it so much! The staff are all so nice and so helpful! The location is fantastic and the attached restaurant is very good. There are also so many great restaurants walking distance from it. The hotel is owned by Robert Deniro and he was actually in the lobby bar the first night we were there. They supply two baskets of snacks- one with small candies and the other with large snacks. They are free and replenished daily. Also all the non-alcoholic beverages are complimentary- so nice!! We have stayed in several nice hotels over the years and this was definitely one of the best overall. We will definitely stay here again next time we come to New York!

An understated exterior, a calm vibe inside, staffed with friendly, helpful people, located close to the financial district as well as the Hudson River. We walked from the hotel all the way to The Vessel on day one. Our 7th floor room opened up to the interior courtyard which was wonderful because we didn’t hear any street noise and when we went to bed it was almost silent in our room, perfect sleeping conditions. After hours of walking outside it was nice to return to our made up room and enjoy the complimentary treats/snacks and non-alcoholic drinks in our mini bar. We enjoyed dinner in the interior courtyard two nights in a row. The menu is from the restaurant next door, Locanda Verde Tribeca and the food is very good, especially the Frico Potatoes. The courtyard is decorated with numerous tall plants giving privacy and coziness. It’s a wonderful place to have dinner because it’s quieter than many NYC restaurants, allowing diners to have conversations without having to raise their voices to be heard. Two inviting lounges on the main floor of the hotel are well used and we will look forward to enjoying them on a future visit.

Finally hit a home run in NYC. I’ve basically stayed at every hotel in the city and finally found my spot. I wrote this poolside in the kyotoesque pool area. The rooms are great: spacious comfortable bedding nice bathrooms and lots of small touches. What stands out, though, is the service. They’re nice, they care and they go out of their way to accommodate with zero attitude. Tribeca of course is fantastic. I will be back and back and back ….

This is a fabulous hotel. They have paid attention to all the details in the rooms, and the common areas are welcoming and comfortable. It is relatively expensive, but you will see why when you check in, see the amenities, feel the warmth of the staff, and settle in to a lovely room. The furniture is like what you might have at home - if your home were a farmhouse in France. We didn’t have dinner here, but breakfast was delicious, and the service first rate. There is nothing pretentious here, it’s all just good.