January 03, 2007

Biz traveler at the Giraffe: comfortable and formal

Alex Salkever today adds another installment to NewYorkology's series of business-class hotel reviews. Alex, a former resident of NYC while an editor at BusinessWeek.com, now runs Hawaiirama.com, a Hawaii travel blog.

Alex recently checked into the Hotel Giraffe, located at 365 Park Avenue South at 26th St., map. Rooms currently start at $269.

Pros: This brick-façade boutique hotel of 73 rooms (including 21 suites) sits just northeast of Madison Square Park in the Curry Hill area. At opening several years back the Giraffe was among a raft of chic, sleek new entrants to the upscale New York City boutique hotel scene. Thankfully, the Giraffe has aged quite well.

The hotel offers free to guests a daily Continental breakfast in the large lobby with plenty of pastries and whole fruits to grab and grind. Likewise, the Giraffe runs for guests a nightly free wine and cheese hour with a lounge singer tinkling the ivories.

The rooms are fairly large. Suites have a good-sized sitting rooms with couches that fold-out to accommodate multiples. Single rooms have sufficiently large bathrooms with big, comforting clunky modern Euro-style fixtures and heavy doors. The bedchambers, which are high-ceilinged and have a spare amount of dark furniture, open out onto the street. Heavy blackout curtains block out the light quite well. French doors opening to the street for air and onto teeny, tiny balconies are a nice touch. Despite the placement of an easy chair or two along the window-side of the room, the bedchamber did not feel crowded.

The rooms have free Internet access and they also come equipped with DVD players. Guests also have access to a DVD library. The hotel has a rooftop open-air bar which is a nice place to have a quick quaff in warm weather. The on-premises restaurant, Barna, has a reputation for competent food and a lively bar scene.

The surrounding neighborhood has a wide variety of top-notch eateries, such as Tabla, Eleven Madison Park, Blue Smoke and Beppe. The proximity of the park is wonderful during the warmer months, with wide walkways, an inviting lawn, and a crazy good playground. Also located in the park is Danny Meyer's noteworthy Shake Shack, a foodie Mecca for burgers, fries and shakes. The subway stop is two blocks away, an easy walk, and cabs congregate in Curry Hill so flagging one is rarely a problem.

Cons: Street noise in this hotel can be intense, particularly in the early morning hours during commute times. The hotel does have a wireless access point, which has weak coverage but you can also plug in directly to broadband ethernet jacks in each room.

The configuration of the suites is somewhat akward with door opening directly into the sitting room/second bedroom from the hotel hallway with no ante-chamber. The rooftop bar works better in theory than in practice, as it's a bit cramped and has an inferior city view. Rooms are showing a little bit of wear and tear with some of the wood furniture, chairs and curtains starting to look a tiny bit frayed and tired. The lack of a fitness center on premises means you have to go out to work out. But they do offer free passes to NY Sports Clubs. Services from the young desk staff can be a bit haphazard.

The Bottom Line: This is one of my favorite New York hotels. The rooms feel both comfortable and formal, with places to sit and excellent bathrooms. The spaces are generous, in booth the lobbies and the rooms. A family, single businessperson, or couple could stay here with equal ease. I like the neighborhood. This is one of the hotels I recommend, providing you don't have to do business on the West Side, which takes a bit of doing to reach either via subway or cab.

January 3, 2007 05:00 PM in Hotelology

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