Review of City Club Hotel, by Emily Gerson

I arrived at City Club Hotel in New York in a frenzy. I had just finished attending an exhausting conference, and I arrived in a taxi whose driver was flying through Manhattan’s backstreets like a bat out of hell. I never get nauseous on car rides, but the way he careened through the narrow roads at high speeds left me feeling queasy and unnerved.

Once I walked into City Club Hotel, my tension subsided; I almost felt like I had walked into the entrance of a high-end spa. The concierge was incredibly helpful and friendly, especially when I lamented about my cab ride. I rode up in the dim elevator and emerged in a contemporary hallway decorated mostly in black. Once inside my cosy and well-lit guest room, it was easy to forget that the hectic streets of New York lied below.

City Club Hotel sits in the heart of Midtown Manhattan on the north side of 44th Street. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, making it a shopper’s paradise. It is also very close to Times Square, the theatre district and Bryant Park.

It’s no surprise that this 65-room luxury hotel feels classy; the literature states that the designers intended it to embody the aesthetic — both in spirit and architecture — of a New York private club. It was built in the New American Classical style, with a palette of beige, brown and pale blue.

While the hotel is primarily made of four standard guest room sizes, it offers three Grand Duplex Suites fit for royalty. These 750-square-foot accommodations are two stories; they have a living and dining area downstairs and a spiral staircase leading to the master bed upstairs. They feature 20-foot ceilings and private terraces.

I stayed in a King Luxe room on the seventh floor, and surprisingly, I heard no street noise from my room. Maybe this is because it was a Sunday or because I kept the air conditioner on, but it was wonderfully quiet and peaceful.

I have stayed in enough hotels in my lifetime that I’m impressed when I see something completely original. Like much of New York, the space here is used creatively. You wouldn’t even know the hidden closet was there if it wasn’t for that small sliver handle protruding from the wall.

The closet isn’t the only thing in disguise. Upon entering the room, it appears as if there is no television. On the wall across from the bed is a tall vertical modern painting. Swing it open, and voilà; there’s your television. I was surprised that it was an old-school square television rather than a new flat-screen television that most hotels have adopted, but the cubby for the television behind the painting is in a square, so it would probably take some major renovations to accommodate that type of update.

The television also has a speaker in the bathroom, which is an interesting touch. They have a free DVD player connected to the TV and a large DVD library you can rent from at no cost. I used the DVD player to do an exercise DVD, and it worked perfectly.

All guest rooms are outfitted with spacious regal marble bathrooms and a large, full-length mirror occupying one of the walls. The shower was very roomy; I found it a bit strange that it had a plastic curtain instead of a glass door, though it did make the space a little more flexible.

I slept like a baby in the plush king size, down feather bed. The headboard was padded, making it extra comfortable to sit up and read in bed.