Having seen all the positive reviews we were very excited about our stay at Hotel Giraffe so maybe our niggles are due to overly high expectations.
The location is really excellent and the rooms are very comfortable. The housekeeping staff do a great job - the rooms are very clean, the turndown service is nicely done and there are plenty of fresh towels (although I can never understand why hotel towels have to be so small!). Breakfast is fine and it's nice to have access to tea/coffee all day. There's a nice atmosphere for evening drinks and it's good that they're complementary.
Our first niggle was to do with the check-in. Following the advice on TA, we'd requested two rooms high up the building and we had a friendly email acknowledging our request. When we checked in at 4pm only one of our rooms was ready and both were on the 5th floor (UK 4th Floor). We asked reception if we could have a higher room but they said they had no record of it but they would call us next day to move us. The call never came and once we were unpacked, we didn't follow it up but it would have been good to have been asked. Our second room wasn't made available to us until after 5.30pm and no apology or explanation was offered. (check in is supposed to be from 3pm).
The other niggle was the shower pressure which was really low (and we're British so our expectation is not that high!). We mentioned this to reception who sent an handyman to look. He turned on the shower, said it was working and walked away again. (He failed to notice that the diverter wasn't working properly so half the pressure was lost to the bath tap.). That said, the second room also had low water pressure so maybe it's just the way it is.
The last niggle was about ordering a car to take us to the airport. The receptionist encouraged us to use their car service and we booked it having had a long conversation with her about getting up early in the morning. When we checked out, it transpired that the car had been booked for 5PM not AM so it wasn't there. (In the end we took a NY yellow cab which was cheaper and fine so not a big deal but no one likes stress before a flight.).
Overall, we think the hotel is very good - perhaps our expectations were just a little too high from the TA reviews.
New York is fantastic for a family break. We had a ball. Particularly recommend a food walking tour of Greenwich village.
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