I stayed the new 48 Lex Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan last weekend. It was a free stay, just using Gold Passport points. The hotel is good value on points in comparison to others in Manhattan.

Location

On the corner of Lexington Avenue and 48th in Manhattan. Whilst the cab driver from JFK had no idea about the hotel, once I have him the address he felt comfortable. In a two block radius are a Marriott, an Intercontinental and a Radisson. This means that cabs were easy to come by, even when the weather was poor. There is a Starbucks one block away South, and a Duane Reade two blocks South.

Arrival

There was no doorman when I arrived, and the double doors, whilst heavy were able to be opened with ease. You next see a wide corridor, leading uphill slightly to some lifts. The Reception desk is to the left of the lifts and not visible when you want in the door.

The entrance and corridor are pretty stylish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Room

I was given a nice room on the 17th floor, 1701. There are only a small number of rooms on each floor (6) which makes it very quiet at night as there are only a few other guests who could bang their doors. This contrasts with the huge Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street where I seem to get awoken regularly by doors banging in the early hours. The TV was a nice HD  version, with plenty of HD channels. The WiFi ($19 per day if you pay) was reliable but often cut you off if you were downloading large files. Diamond Gold Passport members just enter their name and room number and it removed from the bill before check-out. There is a slightly odd ‘kitchen’ area with a sink, dishwasher, mini-bar and coffee maker. The mini-bar had more than a dozen 1/4 bottles of wine, plus snacks, cold drinks. You can move the contents of the fridge around to create space for your own items. However, there are no plates, cutlery etc, so I had to buy plastic cutlery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bed and Bathroom

The bed was very comfortable and the desk was at a workable height. If there was a complaints, it was just that there was only one armchair which made relaxing slightly difficult. The bathroom was spacious but only had a shower – being British I do like the odd bath!. The shower temperature took a few minutes to get hot and the sink drained very slowly. There was a Black bathrobe in the bathroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diamond Gold Passport Recognition

The hotel recognised me at Check-in as a Diamond Gold Passport member and offered me an amenity  or points. I chose the points, as normal! There was a letter supplied at check-in which explained the other benefits:

• Free Internet
• Free Breakfast – two eggs, hash browns, toast and bacon or sausage plus coffee or juice
• 4pm Late checkout – which I used and worked fine

I have to say that Diamonds at Milepoint and Flyertalk complain about the Free Breakfast and I have some sympathy. It does get pretty boring after three days of the same food and I would prefer that they adopt the Andaz method of giving a daily $ credit.

Lexicon Lounge (2nd floor).

The lounge serves pastries in the morning, and is manned with Concierge staff who were very friendly. I didn’t really use it very much and so cannot comment on the evening arrangements. There is a computer with printer on this floor for boarding passes etc.

Overall.

I enjoyed the stay; the room nice, the staff friendly and a good location.