Back when my husband and I visited NYC in January we stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton New York Midtown Fifth Avenue. Since it’s a recently refurbished and re-branded hotel, there aren’t many reviews available. I thought I would give anyone considering a stay here an overall review.
DoubleTree by Hilton New York Midtown
I had a really hard time picking a hotel for the NYC trip. Between high prices, not knowing the area, and lackluster reviews, it can be difficult to find the right hotel in NYC. Given its proximity to the things we wanted to visit, the recent refurbishment, and pricing we selected the DoubleTree by Hilton New York Midtown for our two night stay. I will admit that this was nowhere near a perfect stay. In fact, I will probably choose to stay elsewhere if I ever return to the city.
Room Options
Given that the hotel is centrally located and basically crammed in (like much of the rest of the city), there are loads of different room configurations available here. I booked a 1 King Bed in mid-October for early January using a Hilton Honors discount. Unfortunately, we received a queen. So, this review will be on a queen size bedroom.
I will say that the recent refurbishment is nice. The room looks sleek and clean when you first enter it. There’s also a good amount of plug ins here since they recently remodeled it. The bed was reasonably comfortable as well. Unfortunately, that’s where the good stuff ends.
It was a tiny room. I know that’s par for the course for a room in NYC though, so I can’t fault them too much for that. However, the heat was turned off when we arrived and we had to get someone to come to the room to turn it on. That took multiple trips down to the front desk to get fixed. I also was surprised to see people right outside our window doing construction. The construction crew got an early start each day. So, make sure you pull the blinds here.
The bathroom had several little issues. The shower door doesn’t properly latch close. The cabinet doors don’t have a hinge to keep them from slamming into the wall/picture. There’s no fan in the bathroom (which makes sharing a room a little awkward if nothing else). Lastly, the faucet was installed backwards. You have to turn it to the right for hot water, instead of the traditional left.
Pros
- Location – This hotel is right beside Radio City Music Hall. It was perfect for seeing the Rockettes and walking over to Rockefeller Center for the NBC Studios Tour.
- Recently refurbished – Rooms were remodeled in 2024.
- Good number of plugins – Older hotels tend to have an inadequate amount, so it’s nice to find a hotel with an ample amount.
- Italian restaurant – There’s an Italian restaurant housed in the top of the hotel. We had dessert here one night and it was good. The ambiance was nice and romantic. However, the menu was over-priced.
- Free cookie – Every DoubleTree by Hilton gives out free cookies upon checking in. We enjoyed ours immediately.
Cons
- Check in was a disaster – There’s no other way to say this. This was the worst check in experience I’ve ever had. The lobby is small with no seating. Plus, they store guest luggage here. To add insult to injury, we were told at check in that if our room wasn’t ready by check in time, we would receive an upgrade. A queen is certainly not an upgrade from a king. We ended up taking whatever we could get as we had dinner and show plans to get to. We (along with several others) waited 1.5 hours for a room.
- No real luggage storage – This is one of the biggest reasons I won’t be returning here. They appear to have one room for storing guest luggage (maybe?) that gets full immediately. We checked out of the room a little after 8 AM on a Saturday and we still had to stow our luggage in the lobby. They give out a luggage tag to retrieve your luggage. My husband ended up losing ours, but it didn’t matter since we were able to walk right up to take our luggage without anyone noticing or caring! Maybe if you travel light or don’t need luggage storage, this will be ok for you. However, you can expect to walk by lots of luggage in the lobby everyday of your stay.
- Room is small and wonky – As I noted above, there were lots of little mistakes in the bathroom.
- Long elevator waits – There’s definitely not enough elevators for a hotel with this many people.
- Fragrance in lobby – There’s a fragrance dispenser in the lobby of the hotel and of the restaurant. It puts out fragrance every few minutes. If you are sensitive to fragrance (I have a strong sense of smell) then this is a problem to walk by everyday.
Is the DoubleTree by Hilton New York Midtown worth it?
We paid $487.52 for two nights in early January here. I think that’s a cheap room in NYC. However, if I return to NYC I will probably look for something a little further away for better accommodations. It’s probably acceptable for a quick trip to see a show though.
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