The Benjamin Royal Sonesta New York

Not so great high end hotel. Odd set up. Dated room. Dark.

No frills hotel. Doormen are very helpful, front staff not so much. Explore other options in the area.

Amazing historic building located in Midtown Manhattan. Walkable to Central Park and Times Square. Friendly and helpful staff.

Hotel is undergoing renovations which appeared dated. All staff members were excellent.

It is a shame I’m writing this review as this was the first hotel we visited in New York in 2005 and we actually got married in this Hotel during that stay we loved it that much. We decided to bring our 10 year old daughter for Christmas and New Year to NYC and thought it would be a lovely idea to stay at the hotel we loved to show her where we got married and to experience the quality hotel as it was - Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore……. 1) The staff on reception were very abrupt, had an attitude problem and they seemed like they didn’t want to be there. 2) Previous visits, there was always 1 and sometimes 2 very helpful doormen on shift who would open the door on your way into the hotel and on your way out. This time we visited most times there wasn’t anybody on the door and when there was, there was no good morning or good evening and they just stood at the door and waited for the door sensor to do its job. 3) Our room was on a high floor which was great but I can honestly say the decor is probably the same as it was in 2005 and looks very very dated. Two of the window blinds were broken and couldn’t be closed fully or opened in a straight line and one of the windows wouldn’t open. 4) The toilet had a bad leak where we would leave the trash can underneath so that the water would drip into that instead of onto the floor - we didn’t report this as we really liked the high floor we were on but regardless, the cleaner emptied the bin on a couple of occasions and then put the bin back under the leak. On the same issue, one day we flushed the toilet and it just filled up with water and wouldn’t drain. We went downstairs to inform reception as the phone in the room didn’t work and the ignorant woman said “what have you done to it!!!!” “You must have done something to it???” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing?? And then, when I told her we had simply flushed the toilet and it didn’t empty, she didn’t send maintenance, she sent a door man up to have look who then sent a maintenance man????? 5) We stayed 11 nights at this hotel and spent over $5800 which I’m not complaining about as we chose to stay here expecting it to be like it used to be but during those 11 nights we only had a cleaner 6 of the 11 days and on previous visits you would always get a turn down service at approx 6pm where they would lower the blinds and turn the lights on but that doesn’t happen anymore. The hotel is very very dated, the staff (the ones we dealt with) were horrible, the restaurant doesn't exist anymore and the nice lounge that used to be on the 2nd floor is now meeting rooms. It just doesn’t feel like a luxury hotel anymore. I can honestly say that I don’t think we will ever return to this hotel which makes me sad as we always used to try and visit on our anniversary as a nice memory of our wedding in that hotel. I wouldn’t recommend this hotel anymore

We checked in to our 1-bedroom suite and our 16-month-old daughter discovered dirty, clipped toenails all over the carpet in the main living room left by the previous guest. Obviously the room was never vacuumed between the previous guest’s checkout and our family’s check-in. We had pre-paid for a 5-night stay - paying approximately $630 per night. Despite the fact that our planned 5-night reservation was non-refundable, we checked out the very next morning and moved across town to a clean hotel. When I explained why we were checking out after being at The Benjamin less than 16 hours, the Benjamin representative offered no apologies - instead he just replied “Okay.” I also requested a call from the property manager to discuss the matter. To date, I have yet to receive a courtesy call from management at The Benjamin as requested. It seems quite obvious that room cleanliness and guest satisfaction are not concerns shared by either Benjamin Hotel staff or management. I will never be staying at another Royal Sonesta property in the future and I certainly plan to share my horrible Benjamin Hotel experience with anyone I know traveling to NYC to make sure they choose a different hotel. There are far too many other good hotel choices in NYC to waste your money at this hostel.