Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Laura and I were in New York City last week for Thanksgiving and stayed at 3 different hotels.  I wasn’t planning on doing a full, in-depth review of each hotel, but I figured I could share quick reviews of each property.  First up is the West 57th Street by Hilton Club.  This property is part of the Hilton Grand Vacation Club timeshare group and we stayed there on a 2 night timeshare package that I bought a few years ago (before the pandemic).  We both attended a 90 minute timeshare presentation, but we didn’t buy anything.  After the presentation, we were given 5,000 Hilton Points, a $100 Stay A Night On Us certificate, and $100 in dining vouchers for nearby restaurants.  Our room was very nice, but the website photos don’t really sell the property.

The property only has Premium Room Rewards, so the rooms are extremely expensive on points (154,000 Hilton Points for a random date in February or $279 cash).  Since this property only has Premium Room Rewards, you cannot use a Hilton Free Night Certificate (those only work on Standard Room Rewards).

The property is on West 57th Street and only 2 blocks away from Central Park.  There are a lot of high end luxury hotels nearby that overlook Central Park, so if that is important to you, then I would stay at those properties.  Based on the high points prices for award stays, I would recommend the Conrad New York Midtown (scroll down to the third hotel review).

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Up next, we stayed 3 nights at the Kimpton Muse Hotel that is very close to Times Square and Broadway.  I used 3 IHG Free Night Certificates since I found rates that were under 40,000 IHG Points per night (read PSA: Keep Checking IHG Award Prices for Price Drops, Then Rebook or use Free Night Certificates).

Being a block away from Times Square is convenient, but you also get a lot of noise.  I was really excited to stay at this property since I am a big fan of Kimpton Hotels, but this hotel didn’t do anything fancy.  I am also an IHG Spire Elite Member, but I didn’t get any special gift or recognition when I checked in.  There are several other chain hotels near Times Square, so I would recommend staying at whatever hotel had the best deal in terms of price or award points.

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Last but not least, we stayed 3 nights at the Conrad New York Midtown.  I used 2 Hilton Free Night Certificates and 95,000 Hilton Points for the last night.

The standard room is a 1 Bedroom Suite with a King Bed and it was really nice.  Standard Room Rewards are available for 95,000 Hilton Points per night or you can use a Hilton Free Night Certificate.  I don’t think the Premium Room Rewards are worth the 2 – 2.5x premium.

Since I am a Hilton Diamond Elite Member (thanks to my American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Credit Card) I was given a $50 food and beverage credit for each night of our stay.  We elected to do room service breakfast each morning and I did my best to keep the bill close to $50.  The breakfast was very good and delivered on-time everyday.

This property is located on West 54th Street, just 3 blocks south of the West 57th Street by Hilton Club.  The property was excellent, the service was excellent, and the location is very good.  If I had more Hilton Free Night Certificates, I would definitely come back to this property and spend them here.

Another perk is that this property is only 1 block away from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade route.  We woke up early on Thanksgiving Day to stake out our spot on the parade route and got to see all the balloons, bands, and floats pass by.

If you have any questions about these 3 properties, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!