Things Are Not So Pretti at The Eventi

May 24, 2010 at 9:55 AM | by juliana | Comments (0)

Last week, we were a little let down by the lobby space at the new Eventi Hotel in New York but we had high hopes for the guest rooms. Consider those hopes dashed. One of our hotel spies recently stayed there over opening weekend and has sent us this report (sadly, it's without room photos. You can send us yours if you have 'em or check out Conde Nast Traveler)

I was really excited to stay at The Eventi. Somehow, I got swayed by the swanky site, so much so that I canceled reservations at the Andaz Wall Street to try out this new property. Well, let me just say that the whole experience left me flat and that the Eventi won't likely be at the top of my list of hotels to stay at in NYC.

Checking In I understand that I stayed there for four days opening weekend and that there would be some hiccups, but it's a problem for me when you walk into a hotel at 10.30pm and find four people behind the front counter, not really paying you any attention. It's like they were seeing who would get stuck checking me in.

There also seemed to be a "manager" type person there looking over the shoulder of the front desk employee. This "manager" said nothing to me during check in, I found that odd. I told the woman checking me in that I recently joined In Touch (the Kimpton loyalty program) and she just said "Oh, ok, that'll be added to your account." Um, ok.

She walked around the desk, handed us our keys, and told us to enjoy our night, not bothering to tell us where the elevators were. Granted, it's a small lobby, but still, it was off-putting.

Room Reaction: We opened the door to our room, a King corner room, on the 10th floor and were amazed by the long hallway leading to where the bed was. We had a great view of the Empire State Building and of Sixth Avenue. We flung open the sliding door the bathroom to marvel at the white marble all over everything. It's definitely a comfortable, warm environment. I was surprised there was no binder about the hotel in the room and we didn't get a key to the mini-bar.

Service Issues: The next morning we attempted to go out the set of revolving doors by the elevators, but were denied. For some reason, they're locked during the day, but unlocked at night. We saw a woman attempt to go out that way another morning, when a staff member simply told her, "Use the other door." Yeah, it came off as rude.

I also got the impression the hotel staff really wants to show off the place to media, but not help out actual guests. An employee giving a tour to some media outlet saw us trying to get into the workout room with our key (it wasn't working) and he simply kept going on with his tour. Ok, sir, thanks for your concern!

What the desks in the guest rooms supposedly look like.

The Good:
+ Location is great if you are going a trade show at Javits or want to be near Times Square
+ Views are lovely, if you are on the right side of the hotel
+ Wine reception, many guests were walking around with bottles
+ Do not disturb button inside the front door. Awesome!

The Bad:
+ Location is in a restaurant/bar dead zone
+ A/C is LOUD. Every time it came on we thought someone was opening the door to our room.
+ Noise from the street. The windows may be double glazed, but the Renaissance in Times Square was quieter than the Eventi.

The Odd:
+ Managers overlooking front desk staff while not recognizing that guests are also there
+ The bathroom has no fan and a sliding door and is all marble. If you get sick, hopefully you'll be with a loved one, because the room echos like mad.
+ Housekeeping is confused. One day they forgot the bath mat. Another day, they threw out all of the soap.
+ Didn't get the paper each morning, maybe another room stole it.

Overall, things were ok at the hotel. We were there four nights and noticed the HELL that is morning check-out and wine reception time. The front desk is simply too close to the doors and there's not enough space in the lobby. Would I stay there again? If I found a great deal, otherwise, I'm off to other NYC hotel adventures.

Have you stayed at The Eventi recently? Was it pretti or not? Let us know in comments below.

HotelChatter

Select a Destination:

Hotel Spies / Manhattan Hotels / Reader Reviews / Checking In On / Kimpton Hotels / → All Tags