Adrie Reinders

W Union Square, New York.
201 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Everyone that reads my blogs regularly, knows that I am a fan of the W hotels, albeit always with a critical eye. The W on Union Square in New York is one of the older W hotels I know. The positioning is fantastic, overlooking the square. Union Square is a lively, active place with seamingly endless activities such as a farmer’s market and is located walking distance from SoHo and Greenwich. From here you can hop on the undergrond to almost anywhere in the city.

The lounge at the W has been a popular place since its’ opening, a little on the small side to today’s standards, and (for me at least) too much noise, music and voices vying for attention.

The personnel at the W is always very friendly and helpful, they definitely do make you feel at home. The rooms are on the small side, but nicely done. The size is a problem that you will find through the W chain of hotels. Breakfast was great, expect the regular dishes but served with a twist.

Comfort: 7.5
Service: 8.5
Prize/Quality: 8

Hilton Garden Inn
121 W 28th Street
New York, New York, USA 10001-6102
Tel: +1-212-564-2181 Fax: +1-212-564-6581

When I am travelling (which I do often!) I like staying in special, beautiful hotels – which is a bit of a challenge when you are running a start-up company! An even bigger challenge is finding a nice and affordable hotel in New York. Normally speaking the W Hotels are amongst my favourites but it is rare that I am able to negotiate a reasonable rate with the W in NY, even though I am a frequent guest – which is a problem with central reservation desks. Sometimes I just walk into the hotel of my choice and testmy negotiation skills at the front desk – you may find you can get a discount up to 50% of the list price, particularly at weekends where business hotels are concerned.

After my better-than-average experience at the Hilton Garden Inn in Mountainview, CA, I figured that there may even be one in Manhattan. And it turned out to be at least US$100 cheaper a night then the best W rate I could get at the time! I still had to fork out US$269/night, not exactly cheap but reasonable for Manhattan. The hotel is in “Chelsea” – a nice neighbourhood.

Room and bed were wonderful – breakfast standard buffet but good food and that’s it, no frills but all you need.

Comfort: 7.5
Service: 8
Price/Quality: 8.5

It was a special day yesterday – at the invitation of Stephanie Kern, founder of Van der Bloemen Creative, we watched the Oscars on the big screen at a cinema in Milwaukee. It was really great to sit down with a large group of movie and Oscar enthousiasts and watch the events unfold. Luckily my favourite actor Sean Penn, won the Oscar for best male actor for his performance in “Milk”.

After the event, I returned to my hotel for the night in Milwaukee, The Iron Horse, www.theironhorsehotel.com. Staff at the Iron Horse is exceptionally friendly and are well trained. The room I stayed in, was by far the nicest room I have seen in a long time. The old warehouse this hotel is housed in, has been converted with great taste and style. The rooms are well equipped offering all that a traveller might need, whilst maintaining the history of the building and highlighting accents here and there such as a bare brick wall, or exposed pipes.

Breakfast is served in the Library, a great room with a lot of ambiance. Food was of an excellent quality and offering a wide variety of choices. Our waiter, Bobby, was very friendly and has a real passion for the hospitality business whilst Kira Markel was happy to answer any questions I had.

In short, a gorgeous hotel with its very own, distinct character and equipped to deal with the most spoilt business man/woman.

Comfort: 8,5
Service: 8,5
Food: 8
Price/Quality: 9

W Hotel, 541 Lexington Avenue, New York

By now you’ll have probably figured out that I am a fan of W Hotels – I have visited many in the past years, see also my earlier blogs. I like the concept, modern, well kept interiors, vibrant atmosphere and personnel that has been exceptionally well trained. Many boutique hotels have personnel that is young and cool, but just don’t understand customer service and are mostly busy with themselves. This is clearly not the case at the W. After my arrival and during my stay, Liz Pantaleon took great care of me. The only exception to the pleasant service this time was the lady on duty on Sunday morning when I had to check out. She clearly did regard this as “duty” and was not in the mood to even smile.

The rooms at the Lexington Avenue W are a little smaller then I am used to from a W, but kitted out in the same way as at other W’s. The bed was as comfy as always, breakfast just as good and apart from the regular breakfast in the restaurant, this W has a bar where you can get a quick coffee and a bagel.

At night the Whiskey Bar is clearly the draw for people to have a quick drink after work.

All in all, a pleasant hotel at a reasonable rate, certainly by New York standards.

Comfort: 8
Service: 8.5
Price/Quality: 8.5

Milwaukee,

Yesterday I was on a journey of discovery – visiting Milwaukee by train from Chicago to meet with our friends CD and Stephanie. The journey started at Union Station, Chicago where I had to collect pre-reserved tickets. Not a good experience, very unfriendly personnel, not to mention their total lack of interest in their customers. The train journey itself was good – and the people in Milwaukee were the total opposite to their colleagues in Chicago.

We held the first meeting at Milwaukee’s Public Market – an interesting concept of an indoor market, well done and quite necessary in the kind of weather we encountered on our visit to Milwaukee. One of the shops there deserves a mention – Kehr’s candies, www.kehrs.com. I couldn’t resist and bought some chocolate – the best I have tasted in years.

For the remainder of my meetings, I was at the Iron Horse Hotel – a former warehouse which only opened its doors a short while ago. It looked very good, not like your run of the mill business hotel. It has a lovely lobby, with comfortable seats – a gorgeous library with massive open fire and the guest rooms look comfortable and appealing. Definitely worth staying at if you happen to be in Milwaukee – www.theironhorse.com

The Grand Salon @ Soho Grand Hotel, New York, by Evelyn Lee
Had a late and super relaxing lunch on New Year Day at the Grand Salon, it is located in the main Atrium of the Soho Grand Hotel, next to the Grand Bar & Lounge. It offers casual Nouveau American comfort food. We started our lunch at 2:30pm this Thursday and sat on the big comfortable sofa chair. The décor is quite zen, with very high ceilings and big white loose curtains which made the pretty big space even more airy and quiet. Unlike sitting in the Grand Bar area, which was much smaller space with communal kind of seating.
I ordered the prosciutto, goat cheese, tomato, olive & Arugula Pizza. It was tasty especially while zipping green tea with honey. The best part was that it’s very laid back eating on low tables and the hour and 15 minutes just flies while eating and watching people walking in and out.  The interesting  part was that there are many beautiful cute dogs rooming & lying around. Usually, the centre of attention are the hip folks but interestingly not that day.

The vibe in the afternoon is so different than night time – which was a lot more intense & loud – buzzed by music and non-stop crowds. I can say this was the right choice for a bite to eat to start off the new year – full of leisure and relaxation.

A good start to the New Year was created by having lunch at the Dylan.

The Dylan is one of Amsterdam’s most stylish and intimate hotels – offerings its guests a sensational personal service. The Dylan ensures an environment of sheer escapism and luxury. It is located in a wonderful 17th century Landmark on the famous “Keizersgracht” – one of Amsterdam’s canals. Next to being a boutique-style hotel, it is also a great location for lunch and dinner or simply a nice place to hang out. The interior is largely black and very comfortable.

Ofcourse lunch was not a heavy affair so soon after the Holidays – as a main course I simply had Carpaccio of beef with Parmesan cheese. It was delicious and fresh and just the right size for lunch. Service is both professional and friendly.

Service: 8.5
Comfort: 8.5
Food: 8
Price/Quality:  8

It isn’t standard procedure for me to write about the same hotel or restaurant twice in 6 weeks…unless something dramatic happens.

Last week I stayed at the W in Atlanta, one of my favourite hotels as I wrote last time. Great accommodation, comfortable rooms and excellent facilities. Milen Menase, Welcome Desk Talent Coach, checked me in this time – she is a natural talent herself, making her guests feel welcome and special – always a treat. Though I really appreciate her assistance then, I only got to truly value her skill later in the week when I was felled by an gallstone attack. I have to admit to never having been in so much pain before. After suffering in the middle of the night, I couldn’t stand it any longer – the hotel reception desk immediately took charge – organized a doctor to visit, took me to the hospital by Accura and generally taking care of all the things I couldn’t do myself. In the days following I was amazed at how genuinely every one in the hotel was concerned and sympathetic – nothing was too much trouble. Roomservice comped my (very light) meal, the hotel organied flowers, a gift and a christmas card signed by all personnel wishing me speedy recovery. I have always maintained that PEOPLE make your business…. it is very clear that the W in Atlanta has got exaclty the right people.

W Dallas,

Over the past few days, I stayed at the W Hotel in Dallas, 2440 Victory Park Lane, Dallas.
I do like the W in general. They are modern, comfortable and different. In this case though I do have mixed feelings. On the one hand, they certainly have wonderful people that go out of their way to help you – like Kent Clark Jones or the concierges that we dealt with. Great people that care about making your stay a great one. On the other hand, the hotel makes a rather disorganised impression – it lacks the hand of a conductor. Things don’t gel – like the public restrooms where someone forgot to refill the toilet paper or the washtowels – making it look like no-one cares.
Also – in their effort to put as many different elements as possible in the hotel – there is a nightclub “The Ghost Bar” in the hotel. The queue of people waiting to get in, all mill around in the lobby and elevator areas and you almost have to push past the bouncers to get to the elevator…not a good thing and not very peaceful. Another disadvantage of the character of this hotel, all about being trendy and cool, is the audience that it attracts – a group of loud people coming back from the party (or the Ghost Bar perhaps) outside your door at 3am is not exactly what you are looking for in a hotel.
As I said – mixed feelings.

Comfort: 7
Service: 8
Price/Quality: 7.5

Last night I stayed at the Midtown W Hotel in Atlanta, 188 14th Street. I happen to know W Hotels quite well since I used to stay there regularly in both New York and Chicago.

The public in W Hotels is often a little younger and very trendy. Reception did a great job in welcoming me – the service being open, friendly and professional both with regards to luggage handling and check-in.

Notable are the rooms in this hotel – smart, well laid out and spacious and a great bed. Everything done in designer style – although to me it seems the design sometimes has gained the upper hand on user friendliness.

The Gym in the hotel is good – you will find everything there you need as a traveller, although being in the basement – it is a little grey/dark.
In short, all round a good hotel – with the right price/quality ratio at US$ 177/night during the weekend.

Their attempt at vamping up the hotel by bringing in other brands, such as the Spicemarket restaurant, in my opinion is not a success. Spicemarket in New York is one of my favourite places – cool, great design, great food but here it does not come into its own. It almost seems that the W attempted to make their own brand “cooler” by bringing in Spicemarket, a little like bringing in Starbucks everywhere these days instead of making your own specialty coffees. I thought the people at W would be more creative then that!

Comfort 8
Service 8
Price/Quality 9