Stay Classy, Soho Grand Hotel

November 1, 2005 at 3:51 PM | 0 Comments

Ok, so after all this fanfare, we are finally getting down to it--the highly anticipated Soho Grand Hotel Review.

With hotel prices in New York sky high (we had to swallow a $400 bill for one night!), we figured asking hotels to lower prices was probably the wrong approach; you know sellers market, blah, blah, blah. Instead, after a brief synopsis of the room and service, we are going to give the Soho Grand Hotel a bulleted list of how to get their hotel up to $400 a night standards--in our humble opinion, of course.

First of all the location is unbeatable if you want to be downtown.

Second, the service was top notch. Now, it wasn't satisfy-your-every-whim type service, however, there is no doubt the staff was extremely friendly--everyone from the barkeep to the housekeep said hello and goodbye as we cased the joint. That said, the biggest biggest disappoint amenity wise was the terrible WiFi connection. Yes, we had free WiFi, for hotel guests only, in the lobby, the bar, and the rooms. However, the network was excruciatingly slow and harkened back to the dark days when we had an Earthlink dial-up account. Luckily, this is an easy fix. Just talk to the IT folks and fix the network.

More importantly than these nits, we want the Soho Grand to stay classy. She is obviously an elderstatesmen of the whole nineties boutique hotel craze, and we think we know at least three ways that she can preserve and not expire in the coming years.

Our suggestions are after the click.

· Fix Your WiFi Network
Really. Folks care about this more than you think. It is great that you offer WiFi to guests for free, a classy move, but having a second rate wireless network in unacceptable for the price one must pay for a room. Granted, we could have been there on a bad tech day, and we definitely have had bad tech days, but a reliable WiFi network goes a long way to keeping guests happy. Especially when you offer a cool "rent-a-powerbook" program.

· Remodel Your Rooms
Even Marriott is retooling their rooms to attract today's always-connected business and leisure travelers. The current rooms are classy, but worn. They look to have passed their prime back around the millenium and now they are just living on borrowed time. What specifically you ask? Ok, we know the room isn't going to get any bigger, but people still want room to maneuver. Placing the minibar directly in front of the room door is probably not the best idea. Secondly, the television. You can win over hordes of people if you go to Costco and pick up 369 flat screen televisions for your rooms. Even if you don't agree with the above suggestions, an overall redecoration and retooling of the rooms is definitely in order.

· Keep Up The Killer Ambiance
The common levels of this hotel are full of spirit and ambiance, both in the decor, and in the people. We found all employees we encountered affable and helpful. One particular hostess seemed truly concerned that the hotel's WiFi signal was sucking wind--or maybe we are just suckers for cute blondes acting all concerned. Either way, no one on staff that we encountered was rude. Quite the opposite -- doormen, conceirges, waitresses, and front desk folks were all helpful. We even put in a request for the housekeeping staff to make up our room at 8 AM, and guess what, they showed up at 8 AM and did so.

As always, these are just suggestions--we are not the final word, nor the only hotel opinion. As a matter a fact, we are sure plenty of the hotel mavens out there are disagreeing and agreeing with us as they read this.

Either way, just thought we would give our two cents on how you could stay classy, Soho Grand Hotel. After all you don't want anyone ending up saying, "Go fuck yourself, Soho Grand", right?

We're HotelChatter, you stay classy, Soho Grand Hotel.

Related Stories:
·   Viewlicious: Soho Grand Hotel [HotelChatter]
·   Hangin' at The Soho Grand Lounge and Bar [HotelChatter]
·   Soho Grand Reviews [TripAdvisor]

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by markj

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