540

When it comes to hotel points, I’m generally an earn-and-burn type. Except for Hyatt points, where I’ll save points for a stay at a fancy resort, I’ll use hotel points whenever I think I’m getting a good value. However, I somehow ended up with a stash of Hilton Honors points from my work trips in 2019, which I had kept in my account for several years. Fortunately, Hilton had been very lenient about extending the expiration on their loyalty points, but that gravy train eventually ran out. I found myself in a place where I either had to keep my Hilton account active or use the points.

I burned the points on a two-night stay in New York City. In retrospect, this was probably not the best use of my points. I spent 160,000 Hilton Honors points to stay at The Draper, which is part of The Tapestry Collection.

THE DRAPER NEW YORK TAPESTRY COLLECTION BY HILTON
4-6 West 37th Street
New York, New York 

We were staying in New York to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, so I looked for a hotel within walking distance. While this property was a few avenue blocks from MSG, it wasn’t that bad of a trek. Since the hotel charged $882 for the two nights of our stay, I was getting 0.55 cents per Hilton Honors point. I view anything over 1/2 cent as a decent value. However, this hotel didn’t feel like it was worth what they charged.

Arriving at The Draper, the first thing you notice is that it’s very narrow. It feels like something from Harry Potter, magically squeezed between two other buildings.

Lobby

The lobby is admittedly very nice, albeit not large. The hotel staff work behind the desk which takes up the entire side of the room. At the back of the room is Pleat, the Cafe & Bar, where you can try to spend your Hilton Honors food and beverage credit. Well, if you’re there when it’s open – good luck with that. The hotel’s two elevators are at the back of the lobby.

Hotel Floors

Exiting the elevator, you get a sense of the vibe the hotel is going for. The earth tones and patterned carpet are matched with the art and photographs on the walls. If you were wondering, this was the size of the entire floor, which consisted of 8 rooms, four on each side of the hotel.

Rooms

To be honest, this was one of the smallest hotel rooms we’ve ever stayed in, only rivaled by our discount stay at a Motel One in Munich, Germany. We know that hotels in New York can be tight but this was pushing it to the max.

We never figured out the reason for the photographs behind the bed, all of which had a line painted over their eyes. The bed was the focal point of the room, taking up most of the space. There was barely enough room to walk around the bed, not to mention if you had any luggage.

This was also the first time that I’ve seen a combination clothes hanger, coffee set, and fridge.

Once you removed the tissue box, the desk was large enough to work on. It also doubled as a nightstand. 

It wasn’t until I read more reviews of the hotel that I learned there were goodies hidden under the foot of the bed. That’s where I found the luggage rack, safe and iron and ironing board—because that’s where everyone looks for amenities, right?

Bathroom

The bathroom was as compact as the rest of the room. The toilet was shrunk to about 3/4 of normal size.

The shower was narrow, and you ended up hitting the wall whenever you moved around. In addition, the controls were on the far wall so you needed to be in the shower to turn it on. One positive was the quality of the soap and shampoo.

Hotel Amenities

I would like to inform you about the hotel’s services, but unfortunately, they don’t provide any. There’s no breakfast, gym, valet parking, self-parking, or pet accommodations. Additionally, if you need to store your luggage at the hotel for a few hours, guess what? They’re also a Luggage Hero luggage storage location. So even if you’re scheduled to check in in a few hours, or just checked out and have a late flight, and want to leave your luggage AT YOUR HOTEL, you still have to make a reservation with via Luggage Hero and pay for it. Nice touch, huh?

Final Thought

After staying at a hotel, my wife Sharon and I always have a quick discussion about our experience. We decide whether we would like to stay at the hotel again, if we would consider staying there but would explore other options first, or if we definitely won’t be returning. After considering the high prices at The Draper and what we got for the cost, we’ve decided that it’s a place we won’t be returning to. While the fancy design may impress some guests, we’ve stayed at enough other hotels in New York City to know that for $400 a night, we can get much better accommodations with more space.

Not recommended, unless you’re into spending a lot of money for not a whole helluva lot.

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