The Andaz 5th Ave is something of a flagship Hyatt property in the middle of Midtown Manhattan (New York City). We stay there almost every year, sometimes multiple times, because of the combination of location, ability to use a suite upgrade in New York City, and Globalist benefits (free parking for our minivan is huge and free breakfast is nice). We always get those things that primarily matter to us, which is why we keep coming back even though there are a lot of things that I just don’t love about this property. This time was no different, although I’ll give management credit in being proactive and eager to address a problem that, in fairness, was out of their control.
Andaz 5th Ave Bottom Line Review
The Andaz 5th Ave is an upper-end Hyatt property in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, just a few blocks from Times Square and directly across the street from the impressive-looking New York Public Library. I’ve reviewed it before, but it’s seven years since my last review, so I thought it worth a fresh look.
We applied a Suite Upgrade award to one room and a Guest of Honor certificate to a second room to enjoy Globalist-level benefits for ourselves and friends joining us for the trip into the city. The suite upgrade award confirmed an upgrade at the time of booking to an Andaz Suite, which is the standard suite at this property.
I should note that the “Andaz Suite” is the standard suite at this property, but it is really important to know that not all Andaz Suites are created equally. There is considerable variance from one to another — we’ve used suite upgrades here many times before and out of probably 8 or more stays with a suite upgrade applied, I think this may have been the first time getting a layout that we’ve had before. Thankfully, this was probably our favorite or second-favorite layout, so that worked out great.
At a base level, I got the things I came for: Top-tier Hyatt Globalists enjoy free parking on an award stay, which meant free parking both for our room and for the Guest of Honor booking. Free parking for two minivans for two nights in New York City is a great value and among our reasons for choosing a Hyatt property (the hotel valet rate would have been $95 + tax). Although our breakfast checks ran $150+ for each room, they were of course complimentary as a Globalist (Globalists technically get 1 entrée, 1 coffee/tea, and 1 juice, but we almost always end up ordering a side of fruit for one son and we’ve never been charged for it here). The Andaz Suite we were assigned (Room 1413) was spacious. The living room had two sofas (one of them a pull-out) and one sofa had a long table in front of it and two chairs on the other side. We had our friends over for dinner both nights (take out) and had plenty of space for 5 adults and 3 kids to hang out comfortably.
All that said, the property continues to have its drawbacks. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a worse shower design; there isn’t even a half shower door — it’s more like a third of the way covered with glass and then it’s just open to the entire room in this suite. If you don’t have the shades drawn, folks across the way can get a view into the shower. The hotel has apparently addressed this with a privacy screen, which is a great idea except that I didn’t find it until after everyone had showered on the day of checkout. The touch controls are really difficult to see (especially when it’s dark) and didn’t function well (we had a very hard time getting the light on in the toilet area). None of that is new and we decided to stay despite knowing those shortcomings, but it’s worth knowing them if you aren’t familiar with the Andaz 5th Ave.
The room itself was in pretty good condition overall apart from a missing outlet cover. The fridge and common areas were clean and Lili from housekeeping was friendly and helpful and did a great job when she stopped by to clean the room while we were in it.
The more annoying issue this time was that it took a very long time to get our car back from the valet at checkout. We requested our car 30 minutes before we needed it (as they always suggest), but it took 1hr and 34min to actually get the car. Thankfully, the impact on our plans for the day was minimal, but sitting in the lobby with two kids for an hour waiting (after waiting 30min in the room) was unideal. The manager clearly recognized this and was pacing the curb and lobby making phone calls trying to impress a sense of urgency upon the folks at the garage (a number of other folks in the lobby had also been waiting an hour and a half). The manager was polite and very apologetic despite the issue being beyond his control. We had ordered a round of drinks from the bar one evening during our stay and the manager proactively removed them from the bill and gave us 20,000 points. That felt more than fair, particularly when you consider the fact that the garage is really operated separately and exists a few blocks away, yet they still make it complimentary for Globalists on an award stay. I’ll add that I’ve never waited more than 30 minutes for our car here and our friends didn’t have to wait for theirs (they left hours before we did).
All of the above is a long-winded way to say that although the Andaz 5th Ave is far from my favorite Hyatt property, I will continue to stay there for the combination of location and benefits, particularly when using a suite upgrade and needing to park a car. If I didn’t have a suite upgrade to use, I would likely choose the Thompson Central Park, which is generally in better condition and offers a great breakfast, but which does not have any standard suites. If reaching beyond Hyatt, I might prefer staying at The Luxury Collection, a Marriott Bonvoy property (formerly the Conrad Midtown) where many of the standard award rooms are 1 bedroom suites (indeed, there are more 1bdrm suites in that hotel than non-suite rooms). That property is in far better physical condition and also has a very good location, but with Marriott you’ll both pay for parking and pay a destination fee.
Andaz 5th Ave Key Details
- Price: As a Category 7 Hyatt property, rooms usually cost 30,000 points per night (standard), but our dates were off-peak, so we paid 25K per night. That represented a decent value against the cash rate of just over $500 per night all-in for a standard room. The Andaz Suite would have been a couple hundred bucks per night more.
- Value: At about 2c per point, this was slightly above our Reasonable Redemption Value for Hyatt points, which is 1.7c per point.
- Location: Excellent. This is in the middle of Midtown Manhattan, just a couple of blocks from Times Square, across the street from the New York Public Library and Bryant Park, and a few blocks from Rockefeller Center (and Saks 5th Avenue for those with credits to use!). Do note that if you’re driving into NYC, there is now a $9 congestion surcharge for driving south of 60th St.
- Room: We used a suite upgrade award and were assigned room 1413, an Andaz Suite (the standard suite). Note that this property has many different suites labeled as “Andaz Suite”, so layouts vary significantly.
- Parking: $85/nt for sedans or $95/nt for SUVs, waived for Globalists on an award stay.
- Resort/Destination Fee: $35 destination fee, waived on award stays. See inclusions here.
- Internet: Premium Internet was fast and flawless except while in the elevator.
- Service: Excellent. Lili from housekeeping was particularly cheerful and accommodating. Alexsander, the Director of Front Office, was particularly helpful when the parking garage ran into difficulty returning cars on checkout day.
- Turndown service: None.
- Dining:
- The Bar Downstairs: Open for breakfast daily and dinner/drinks Tuesday to Saturday. The atmosphere is nice enough and service is good. Breakfast was fine, though the pancakes haven’t been what they once were for a long time.
- Spa: None
- Fitness Room: Sufficient. The fitness room is located in the basement opposite The Bar Downstairs and it features a range of equipment that will probably suffice for most workouts.
- Hyatt Globalist Benefits:
- Room Upgrade: We used a suite upgrade on our room and were not upgraded further. We used a Guest of Honor award on a second room for a base-level 1 King room and that room did not receive any upgrade despite some upgraded rooms being available in the app (but no standard suites and we didn’t proactively request an upgrade).
- Free Breakfast: Globalists can have breakfast in The Bar Downstairs or order from In-Room dining. Either way, you get an entrée, a coffee, and a juice per adult for up to 2 adults and 2 kids registered to the room. The waitress proactively let us know that everything was included when she brought the bill and told us to just write down the room number and sign.
- Club Lounge: None.
- Late Checkout: Offered the standard 4pm checkout, but we didn’t need it.
- Welcome Amenity: None.
- Would I stay again? Yes, I’m sure I will even though it isn’t my favorite hotel in New York. For the same award price, I would take a standard room at The Thompson over the Andaz, but if I wanted to use a suite upgrade I would stay here again.
Pros
- Great location – just a flew blocks from Times Square, seven blocks south of Rockefeller Center, and right on 5th Avenue.
- Good use of a suite upgrade as many Andaz Suites are pleasantly spacious for midtown Manhattan (our living room easily accommodated 5 adults and 3 kids to eat / hang out)
- Proactive management response when something went wrong (parking valet took a long time and management went above and beyond)
- Free parking on an award stay for Globalists is a terrific value
Cons
- The worst hotel showers anywhere. You’ll freeze and potentially be exposed to the room.
- The high occupancy that this hotel sees means that maintenance isn’t always stellar. We typically find some disappointments with room condition that appear to be easy fixes — like the missing outlet cover (a $0.75 fix?) and the fact that you had to constantly push buttons to get the toilet light on (it didn’t turn on if you just pressed “toilet”, but rather you had to turn the entire bathroom light on and then could somehow turn the main light off and keep the toilet light if you tapped buttons in the right order, which isn’t probably how it is meant to be).
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Fully agreed on the showers. It’s like being in Italy.
According to Hyatt, this is my second-most frequented Hyatt (and therefore, hotel). I’ve been in a ton of these rooms, and all of the showers are generally terrible. Get rid of the footwash. Add a door.
That said, I don’t think I’ve seen a room where you’d need that screen – I’ve always seen a black door that might look hidden, swing closed to enclose the bathroom. This room didn’t have that? They can be hard to see, especially given the lighting in those rooms.
Terrible design choice for the shower. Will never understand why anyone thought this was a good idea. Bad for the consumer and bad for the hotel too as it leads to a lot of water on the floor and eventual damage from said water.
Compromise. No thanks.
Staying there in a couple of weeks. Stayed once before and loved the location. I’m atending a trade show at Javits and the subway goes straight there from just around the corner. I thought about the Centric but stayed with Andaz. I was also able to apply the suite upgrade.
Glad someone pointed out the insane shower situation, here. I’ll never understand some of the design choices at this hotel are just bizarre. It’s why I’ve moved to the Times Square Centric. Less points and a better product.
My problem with the Centric is that the standard suite is pretty small comparatively, but the shower here is extra awful for sure.