6 Columbus Circle, Hotel, New York

Easter means eggs, and people rising from the grave; both of which were reason enough for me and my gorgeous date to head west to NYC for the long weekend…

Our base for the duration of the stay was 6 Columbus, part of the Thompson Hotels group. Good hotel, shame a couple of problems with their service clouded the stay.

A bit of a porky for the website to say the hotel is located on Columbus Circle, as it is actually on W58th, but we’ll let that one pass, as it’s pretty close. One minute from the park, within easy walking distance of 5th Av’s main shopping and just a short subway ride from Soho, it is pretty much perfect for a long Manhattan weekend visit.

(A bonus to the location was finding ourselves right behind the Time Warner building, which contains a bunch of useful shops (including the awesome Wholefoods), a gym (to which the hotel can organise access) and several restaurants (including Per Se, more of which later…).)

The rich coloured decor inside the hotel rocks a deep crushed velvet vibe, similar to some of the W Hotels around the city. There’s also a cool-looking sushi restaurant which we didn’t try but which was recommended to us independently by a friend.

Our room for the first three nights was a Queen Superior which, while pretty small, was more than adequate if you intend to be out in the city the majority of the time. With wooden floors, big artwork, Kiehls products, a wide-screen TV and iPod docking, the room had a warm but modern feel with the luxury elements deployed in the right areas. The bed was super-comfy and residing on the ninth floor we were really impressed with how quiet it was at night.

Given 6 Columbus is pitched price-wise right between its Midtown competitors, The Hudson and The Chambers, it’s hard to work out how they are seeking to distinguish themselves. All similar in style, The Hudson is cheaper, but has smaller rooms, whilst the opposite (on both price and room size) is true of The Chambers. Perhaps it’s in the quality of service? Perhaps not.

Minor gripe: it seemed like the hotel took its eye off the ball slightly and completely messed up our booking (putting us in a queen room when we’d booked a king, charging us for wifi when it was complementary etc). A minor annoyance, but handled quite well by the manager on duty at the time. With no rooms to switch to the hotel compensated us by offering the penthouse suite for our last night, which we gratefully accepted. The good recovery work was then completely undone during a poorly handled the change-over in rooms, which completely wasted much of our last full day in town.

However, when you’re staying in a penthouse that is 10 times the size of your previous room, with views over Central Park and some friends around to show off to, it’s hard to stay miffed for long…

Tagged as: Hotel, New York, Per Se, Wholefoods