Description: Okay, before I write this report on the
Iroquois hotel I have to be honest. This hotel is not for budget travelers, and under normal circumstances, we would have balked at the price of a room in which we would be spending very little time. However, the lowered prices straight after 9/11 made this hotel affordable to us, and we got to sample how the other half lives.
The hotel's website will give you a better idea of room prices than I can, but I would say expect to pay between $200-$400 a night.
I must say, I loved this place. It’s a smaller boutique hotel, and though the original 1920 limestone exterior still remains, the inside was given a complete, $10-million overhaul in the late 1990s. Located in Midtown, you can’t get a better position for seeing the sights. Times Square, 5th Avenue, and Broadway are all just a three-minute walk. You're just five minutes to Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall, and the Empire State Building was ten minutes away.
There are just 109 rooms, and we stayed in the standard room. The bedroom was small (though big by New York standards), but the bathroom was very large, all done in marble and brass, with a pedestal sink and Jacuzzi bath. Being November, the Frette down comforters were a treat, as were the luxurious bathrobes. The room had all the usual appliances--phone, in-room safe, cable TV, radio, Nintendo--that you would expect in an upscale hotel. Molton Brown toiletries, a CD player, and chocolates on our pillow each night, however, were their own personal touch.
The lobby has a laptop where you can check email for free. Other freebies include morning newspaper and shoe cleaning.
Being Thanksgiving, there was a beautiful Christmas tree in the lobby and a pot of hot apple cider available at any hour. The hotel staff was very friendly and helpful. They recognized us within minutes, greeting us by name at the door and turning a blind eye when we sneaked take-out Indian food to our room one stormy night.
It’s little wonder James Dean decided to stay here at the Iroquois for a full year 50 years ago.
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