Just spent a weekend at the Benjamin with my mother and sister. We had adjacent rooms and were pleased with the size and comfort of the rooms, although a bit surprised to find the hotel has NO rooms with two beds in them. Aside from that, the in-room amenities were comfortable and provided more than everything we needed. The decor is very pleasant and the location was perfect for our shopping/sightseeing plans. The one misadventure occurred when we arrived at 2 PM - one room was still occupied, and the cleaning staff must have set a time record for turning the room over, because it was available an hour later. Unfortunately, even though the floor was designated as non-smoking, the previous occupant had clearly enjoyed smoking cigars in the room, because the room, all of its furnishings and even the hall outside absolutely reeked. Of course, by the time we discovered this, there weren't any adjacent rooms left in the hotel, which was fully booked. Housekeeping came back and sprayed, aired the room and set up a HEPA filter in the room. It eventually did the trick, and we accepted that no hotel can control the behavior of its guests. Meanwhile, we had gone to the spa for facials, which were most enjoyable. The fitness center adjoins the day spa, and packs as much equipment into a smallish space as is humanly possible. There are a handful of cardio machines and more weight machines. It seemed to be little used on the weekend, which was fine for me as I didn't have to wait to use any of the equipment. The concierge and other staff were invariably polite and cheerful, and we were overall pleased with the stay and would probably choose to stay at the Benjamin again.
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