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Image from GramercyParkHotel.com

Gramercy Park Hotel is one of the must-stay places for history, art, and music aficionados. Here we’ll discuss the hotel and put it head-to-head with other NYC hotels in its class to see how it compares.

What Is Gramercy Park Hotel?

Gramercy Park Hotel is a historic Renaissance revival luxury boutique hotel in the tranquil heart of Manhattan, New York City. More than a place to hang your hat for a night or two, Gramercy Park Hotel is an experience within itself.

Designed by the illustrious architect Robert T. Lyons and constructed by the notorious New York real estate investors Bing & Bing, Gramercy Park Hotel has been a Manhattan staple since 1925.

Famous Guests

light bulb ceiling at gramercy park hotel

Image via Flickr

Gramercy Park Hotel is a cultural icon and has boarded some of the biggest names in past and present pop culture. Just a year after the hotel opened its doors, Humphrey Bogart married his first wife Helen Menken on the hotel’s rooftop terrace. This event ushered in a stream of celebrity stays for the next century.
Among the most famous tenants once residing at Gramercy Park Hotel were former president John. F Kennedy, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Debbie Harries, and members of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Clash, and U2.

Art Collection

The hotel is filled with modern art from some of the biggest names. If you’ve ever dreamed about sleeping next to a Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, or Damian Hirst painting, book a room at the legendary Gramercy Park Hotel.

Design

From its opening to 2006, the hotel remained relatively preserved. In 2006, artist Julian Schnabel completely redesigned the hotel to improve upon the original design. From expanding the ceiling height on the main floor to adding lush and lavish decor and furnishings, the Gramercy Park Hotel went from amazing to out of this word.

Each of the 190 rooms in the Gramercy Park Hotel got a facelift and no detail or expense was spared. No two rooms are exactly alike in the hotel. Each room was given special attention to intensify the ambiance of the room. Design elements at Gramercy Park Hotel speak of its decadent history and mystique.

Nightlife

Hit up Gramercy Park Hotel’s Rose Bar for classy cocktails, music, film screenings, press events, and celebrity sightings. The adjoining Jade Bar is Rose Bar’s velvety sister, serving up coffees by day and cocktails by night.

The Neighborhood

Located in Manhattan’s Gramercy neighborhood, Gramercy Park Hotel is in one of the most centrally located hubs in downtown New York City.

By comparison, Gramercy has a calmer residential vibe than many of the other neighborhoods in chaotic Manhattan

Pricing

Pricing for rooms at Gramercy Park Hotel varies depending on the room and the time you visit NYC. Junior suites start around $500 per night. If you’re going all out, penthouse suites start around $4,700 per night.

How It Compares

We picked a few similar Manhattan hotels to see how they compare with Gramercy Park Hotel.  The hotels up for review are:

  • The Greenwich
  • Kimpton Ink48
  • The Mercer Hotel SoHo

Gramercy Park Hotel

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The Gramercy Park Hotel is a large historic luxury five-star hotel in Gramercy, directly north of Union Square. The hotel has 190 guest rooms.Services Facilities Foods & Drinks Nearby Attractions Services

Amenities offered at the Gramercy Park Hotel include room service, dry cleaning and laundry service, shoe shining, concierge, valet parking, babysitting services, excursions for children, and free high-speed wireless access.Facilities

Gramercy Park Hotel is a first class full-service hotel that offers imported Italian linens, a fitness center, non-smoking rooms, and wheelchair accessibility. Dog friends are permitted to stay in the hotel.

All the rooms are unique but have similar characteristics: feather beds, St. Laurent Marble fixtures, red oak flooring, and embroidered chairs.

Be the envy of all New Yorkers and take up Gramercy Park Hotel’s offer for exclusive access into the gorgeous, and gated, Gramercy Park.Foods & Drinks

Dining at Gramercy Park Hotel is a food connoisseurs’ delight. The hotel houses acclaimed USHG Danny Meyer restaurant Maialino. Lovers of fine Italian fare can enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus every day of the week. Brunch is served on weekends. The hotel has two exciting bars in the Rose Bar and Jade Bar.Nearby Attractions

Architecturally superior, lush, tree-covered streets take you to a variety of interesting NYC attractions within walking distance of the hotel.

A few blocks south of Gramercy Park Hotel is the bustling Union Square. Head five minutes West to check out the famed Flatiron Building. When a bibimbap craving overtakes you, take a short cab ride to Korea Town. It’s impossible to miss the Empire State Building once you’re there.

PROS

  • Luxury furnishings
  • Excellent and safe location
  • 190 room options
  • Spacious rooms (for NYC)

CONS

  • Dark corridors
  • Rooms could use some soundproofing
  • Could use cleaning

The Greenwich Hotel

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The Greenwich Hotel is a multi-culturally designed downtown five-star luxury hotel in TriBeCa. The hotel blends styles from around the world to give its cozy, rustic yet still modern ambiance. The modern hotel has 75 guest rooms and 13 suites.

Greenwich Hotel is owned by the Taxi Driver star himself, Robert De Niro who opened it as partners with Tribeca Film Center and Locanda Verde in 2008. Staying true to its roots, the Greenwich Hotel is a hotspot for celebrity sightings.

Since its opening, the Greenwich Hotel has packed on the accolades having recently achieved Travel + Leisure’s 2017 prestigious To 10 Hotels in New York City award as well as the Condé Nast Traveler Reader’s Choice award in 2018.Services Facilities Foods & Drinks Nearby Attractions Services

Services at the Greenwich Hotel include private or group yoga and pilates sessions, massages, bodywork sessions, facials, waxing, room service, a restaurant, a bar, laundry, and dry cleaning services, babysitting, non-smoking rooms, and wheelchair access. Greenwich Hotel is pet-friendly and suitable for meetings and conferences.

The Greenwich Hotel staff is top tier in the industry. Every member has received formal butler training. Expect quality in the large-portioned toiletries. Everything about the hotel is above and beyond. From newspaper delivery to organic pet food, the Greenwich Hotel has you covered.

Kids can enjoy Wii gaming systems and the hotel provides comfortable rollaway beds and children’s beds.Facilities

The Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca has a variety of opulent facilities for guests to enjoy. These facilities include a fitness center, swimming pools, and a full-service private spa.

Rooms are large even for standard and come with a free minibar, WiFi, and DVD access.

The immaculate Shibui Spa at the Greenwich Hotel offers private treatment services,  a relaxation lounge, heated swimming pool, steam and rain showers, tradition Japanese soaking tubs, complimentary drinks and snack, Lulitonix Juice, Yukata robes, and redFlower shower products.

Enjoy privacy in your stay at Greenwich Hotel by accessing the drawing room and courtyard.Foods & Drinks

TimeOut New York named the Greenwich Hotel’s resident restaurant Locanda Verde the Best New Restaurant in New York in 2010. Locanda Verde serves casual Italian style soul cousins dreamed up by esteemed chef Andrew Carmellini.

Locanda Verde serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner by reservation every day. Weekend brunch service is from 10 am to 3 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.Nearby Attractions

Tribeca is one of the more family-friendly yet still irresistibly hip neighborhoods in Manhattan. This area of Tribeca is filled with cafes and restaurants to get your local food fix.

Standing in Tribeca, the contemporary classic that is Greenwich Hotel is close to Manhattan’s most vibrant shopping districts. The long stretch of Canal Street in China Town and shopping on Broadway in SoHo are both a short skip away.

Head downtown from the hotel to visit the One World Observatory and the World Trade Center Memorial. Watch boats sail by on the Hudson River just a few short blocks away from this hotel.

For all the film buffs, the Tribeca Film Center is in the direct vicinity.

PROS

  • Bliss-inducing and serene environment
  • Superior amenities
  • Extraordinarily friendly and knowledgeable staff

CONS

  • No valet parking
  • Big variance in room quality

Kimpton Ink48 Hotel

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Kimpton Ink48 is a hip and artistic boutique hotel in authentically fast-paced Midtown Manhattan. The hotel has 222 guestrooms and suites mostly overlooking the Hudson River. Near Hell’s Kitchen in Midtown West, the hotel is close enough to catch a Broadway show in Times Square while avoiding the chaos and traffic of that area.

Kimpton Ink48 welcomes creative types in their 1930s building that hosts a variety of exclusive events and features.

Rooms in the Kimpton Ink48 are modern, clean, and sophisticated. Standard rooms come with king-size beds in the small (but large for NYC) room.Services Facilities Foods & Drinks Nearby Attractions Services

Kimpton Ink48 offers a variety of services including complimentary shoe shining, laundry services, valet, and access to custom-made bicycles to cruise around Manhattan. Pets are always welcome at Kimpton Ink48.Facilities

Facilities at the Kimpton Ink48 are small but mighty. They feature a 24-hour fitness center with cardio equipment and free weights. The in-house full-service InkSpa offers massages, facials, and body treatments in the spa or in-room.

Rooms at the Kimpton Ink48 have closets which are a rarity in the all of Manhattan. Turn down the ambient lighting, slip into an animal print bathrobe, and luxuriate on the pillow-top mattresses atop Zen platform beds in the Ink48 rooms.

Rooms include yoga mats, stocked minibars, and 37-inch TV. Coffee makers are available upon request.

The guest favorite at Kimpton Ink48 is the to-die-for rooftop bar and lounge. The towering terrace offers stellar views of the city and Hudson River. Enjoy the scenery from leather sofas overlooking the sprawling reflective pool.   Foods & Drinks

Kimpton Ink48 homes PRINT, a restaurant dedicated to serving foods with in-season ingredients taken from sustainable sources. Guests never get bored with the PRINT menu because it changes daily. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner. Reservations are accepted in person or online.Nearby Attractions

What’s not around Kimpton Ink48? This hotel is in a hotspot of NYC activity. If you’ve got 15 minutes to spare, walk to Times Square for shopping, dining, Broadway shows, concerts, museums, and tons of people watching. From this convenient location, you can reach most areas of Manhattan by foot, taxi, or train in 20 minutes or less.

PROS

  • Near many attractions
  • Large choice in dining areas and bars
  • Valet parking

CONS

  • Free WiFi for IHG® Rewards Club Members Only
  • Rooms could use soundproofing

The Mercer Hotel SoHo

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The Mercer Hotel SoHo is one of the most famous luxury hotels in all of NYC. It’s the second of André Balazs prized accommodation plazas. The Mercer Hotel opened in 1997 in a 75 guest room Romanesque revival building originally contracted in 1890 by John Jacob Astor II.

If you’ve ever wondered what loft living feels like, the Mercer Hotel SoHo aims to answer your question… or prayers. Interiors for the Mercer SoHo were designed by Christian Liagigre updated the original aesthetic without removing any of the classic furnishings.Services Facilities Foods & Drinks Nearby Attractions Services

Guest services at the Mercer Hotel SoHo are outstanding. The 24-hour concierge services can help guests with trip details including currency exchange, translation services, and car rentals. Babysitting, dog walking, in-room spa treatments, yoga classes, packing, laundry, shoe shining, and dry cleaning are among the many services offered at the Mercer SoHo.Facilities

Guest services at the Mercer Hotel SoHo are outstanding. The 24-hour concierge services can help guests with trip details including currency exchange, translation services, and car rentals. Babysitting, dog walking, in-room spa treatments, yoga classes, packing, laundry, shoe shining, and dry cleaning are among the many services offered at the Mercer SoHo.Foods & Drinks

Even if you haven’t heard of the Mercer Hotel SoHo, you might have heard of its on-site restaurant Mercer Kitchen headed by celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Mercer Kitchen serves American cuisine and takes reservations. On holidays they offer a prix fixe menu.

The Mercer SoHo also has a cafe that is open 24 hours a day.Nearby Attractions

SoHo is THE place for shopping, dining, and staying out past bedtime. Connection to the rest of the city is simple with millions of cabs and access to 7 separate subway lines located a few blocks from the Mercer SoHo.

PROS

  • Big lofted guest rooms
  • Free WiFi
  • Free Equinox gym day passes

CONS

  • Smoking allowed
  • Valet parking is far away
  • No pool or spa

Conclusion

Gramercy Park Hotel is one of those places art lovers and music history fans have to stay in at least once. Its rich and elusive history draw us in to feel the energy trapped within its walls.

Overall, it’s not the best boutique hotel to choose for an NYC getaway. The facilities are less cared for than other properties. Unlike staff at other hotels who pride themselves in exceptional guest services, the Gramercy Park Hotel focuses more on its unique experience of history and art.

Gramercy Park Hotel gets a solid four stars as a Lower Manhattan hotel. The neighborhood, on-site Danny Meyer restaurant, and access to Rose Bar help bring Gramercy Park Hotel rating up from where it lags behind other hotels in its class. It is still a luxurious experience, as well as a far more fascinating place to stay than other contenders.

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