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The Carlyle Review

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The Carlyle

Member Rating: ** 1.6 | Rate It
  • Address: 35 E. 76th St., between Madison and Park Aves., Upper East Side, New York, NY, 10021 | Map It
  • Phone: 212/744-1600
  • Fax: 212/717-4682
  • www.thecarlyle.com

Fodor's Review:

Can a hotel long to be a fashion brand? On the well-heeled corner of Madison Avenue and 75th Street, you enter this hotel's fusion of venerable elegance and Manhattan swank as you might enter a Chanel boutique: chin high, wallet out, ready to be impressed. As you might expect, everything about this Upper East Side landmark suggests refinement: rooms decorated with fine antique furniture, artfully framed Audubons and botanicals, custom Limoges ashtrays, vast Central Park views, white-gloved operators working the elevators 24 hours a day. Newly renovated suites, including one by Thierry Despont, offer the latest word in designer luxury. The range of the hotel's dining and entertainment options impresses. Cabaret luminaries take turns holding court at the newly refurbished Café Carlyle (and yes, Woody Allen still visits once a week). Bemelmans Bar may never lose its title as greatest in New York. The polished black key slots behind the reception desk are the old guest key deposits. Now they're a fashionable reminder of the hotel's storied history as host to presidents and celebrities. Pros : perhaps NYC's best Central Park views; refined service; delightful array of dining and bar options. Cons : removed from tourist Manhattan; the formal hotel may be inappropriate for families.

  • Hotel Details: 122 rooms, 57 suites
  • In-room: safe, kitchen, refrigerator, DVD, Internet.
  • In-hotel: restaurant, room service, bar, gym, spa, laundry service, parking (paid), some pets allowed, no-smoking rooms.
  • Credit Cards: AE, DC, MC, V
  • Subway: 6 to 77th St.
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Member Reviews & Ratings:

Dreadfully Overrated and Over-the-Hill

Posted by xglenndavis from Los Angeles, California on 12/21/06
Rosewood may have thrown millions at this old place, but they forgot to fix the basic underlying problems with infrastructure and staff. Or maybe they're trying to? It didn't work. For starters, booking directly with the hotel, they forgot to mention that it's under reconstruction. We awoke the first morning to what sounded like an airplane engine being revved up. Then jack-hammer noises, all in the room above us. When we were moved to a 'quieter' room, the staff stole the complimentary chocolates from our luggate originally provided by the hotel. The 'quieter' room had jack-hammers and airplane engine in the adjacent room. Plus, it also had graffiti carved into the antiquated night stand with the telephone numbers of local prostitutes. The shower stall leaked and routinely flooded the floor (we overheard another guest complaining about the same thing in her unit, so this isn't an isolated matter). The complimentary bathrobes were embarssingly frayed. We had to beg for the Kiehl amenities (shampoo, etc.), then realized that instead of replenishing them, the staff tops off the bottles with tap water! No bath mat was provided (would have helped sop up the daily flood in the tiny bathroom). The doormen are never at their post, so you get to hike out to Madison Avenue to hail taxis (when we insisted on help one time, a reluctant doorman summoned the taxi, snarled at us, and declined to open the taxi door). Of the 4 elevators, only 1 or 2 are ever in service, causing other guests to complain about the 15 minute waits. Was this worth the 'discounted' rate of $616 a night? Not even close. We routinely stay at the best hotels (e.g., Peninsulas, Four Seasons, Shangri-Las), and we can say without any hesitation that this was the worst 2 nights we ever stayed anywhere, and we were glad to escape to another Manhattan hotel to complete our week's stay in New York.

Room: 2.0 Atmosphere: 2.0 Service: 1.0 Value: 1.0 RATING: 1.6

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