I have my list of hotels where I usually stay in New York. This stay was different. I was going to see the screening of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the only idea I had of the location was “Lincoln Center,” which is not an area where we usually stay. So I needed to go back to my hotel searching roots. I went to TripAdvisor and it turned out there were actually very few places within walking distance of Lincoln Center. One hotel, the Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan/Central Park, did show up but had very few reviews – turns out that was because it had just opened this past October. I figured since it was a new place, it would still be in relatively good shape, so I took a chance and booked a room there. It was in the area we needed and the price was good – only $175 a night after taxes (which is a really decent price for a NYC hotel).
Exterior of Fairfield Inn & Suites
We arrived for our first evening after a late flight into Newark and didn’t get to the hotel until around 11PM. The front desk staff were very nice, thanked me for being a Gold Member of Marriott, gave us our room keys and even provided special gifts for Valentines Day to my father and I.
Valentines Day Gift from Fairfield Inn. How sweet.
When checking in, we were given a room facing the front of the hotel on the 12th floor, which only had 6 rooms on it. It appears the higher floors are up on the tower to the right of the hotel while the lower floors have more rooms on them.
Now, while searching for hotels, I had to find a room with 2 double or queen size beds since I was would be sharing the room with my dad. This was harder to find in Manhattan than you would think it would be. When we opened the door to the room, it seemed that it was quite a tight fit to put two beds into this room. The door just cleared the bed when going into the room.
Yes, that is the door just clearing the end of the bed when going into the room.
It was a nicely appointed room, with just not that much room. However we hardly spent much time there over our 2 days and agreed that it was fine for our stay. If we were staying any longer, had any significant luggage, or just wanted to walk past one another, it was a bit lacking in space. Here are some more pictures of the room for your perusal.
The one thing I did find interesting for a new hotel was the design choice of putting on a plastic lampshade by just cracking a hole in the top of it.
One thing I did mention to the hotel staff was that our hotel thermostat was set to 90 degrees when we returned to our room in the afternoon. I figured it was payback for my article about how to hack your thermostat. The front desk suggested that the housekeeper must have been cool while making up the room so she turned the heat up and then forgot to turn it back down when she left. We opened the windows of the room to cool it off (it was only 35 degrees outside) but it took a while for the room to get comfortable again.
Another issue we had with this hotel was that they kept changing which door you used to enter and exit the building. This sign moved 3 times during our 2 night stay. We were told they were having problems with the automatic doors.
We played a game of musical doors during our stay.
Another thing which was slightly odd was the stairs leading down to the lobby level. As the hotel is located on a bit of a hill, you have to walk down a flight of stairs to get to the check in doors from street level. The stairs have a very odd angle, where you walked towards what I suppose would be a small garden when winter was over, instead of towards the doors. It always made me feel like I was walking into an Escher painting.
Angled stairway down to the lobby
Now, I don’t want it to seem like I’m totally negative about the place. We had a fine stay here but it was by no means a luxury hotel. They did have free wi-fi in the room which worked reasonably well. This was also the first hotel I’ve stayed in that gave you the ability to log into Netflix and watch your own movies. The hotel also did have a breakfast buffet room with a full spread that included with waffles, eggs, bacon, pastries, etc. The only problem with it was that they stopped serving at 9AM on weekdays. After attending a MST3K afterparty until 1AM, we did not make breakfast the next morning and ended up hitting a nearby diner for omelets.
So what did I think of the Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan/Central Park? Well, I would totally stay here again for the price we paid if I needed to primarily be in the Lincoln Center area again. But I think I would generally still go to my regular hotels in midtown Manhattan, if that was the area in which I was generally going to be, as it wouldn’t be worth going out of my way to stay here.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
