Hotel Riu Plaza New York Times Square

There are things this hotel does well. And there are things it does less well. And much to my surprise, when I mentioned that phrase at checkout, the clerk just laughed and didn’t ask the obvious follow up question. So I guess Customer Service & care is one of the things that falls into the latter category… This is a hotel with a rather cold, industrialised feel to it. It’s well placed on a busy road (aren’t they all? This is NYC after all!) with lots of eating establishments close by and only a 10 minute or so walk to Times Square, Theatreland and several subway stations. There’s plenty of rooms, served by a rather quirky lift system which sometimes requires the swipe of a card – but sometimes doesn’t. The card restricts you to your floor which is a positive security measure – particularly for solo travellers but in practice, doesn’t work reliably. Once one person has swiped the card, selected their floor, other lift passengers were able to select their floors with no additional authentication. It’s also a pain if you have other members of your party staying on different floors and you want to meet up to pass over a charger for example. The breakfast is included and quite good. It’s a huge buffet style, in several locations and run with the efficiency of a Swiss boarding school! You will sit where you’re told and woe betide any stragglers to your group! But on the flip side, the challenge of feeding such a large number of people is quite considerable. Not particularly American food, usual generic International fare with a few local-ish variations. But as it’s included, you don’t feel like going out anywhere else… Don’t bother with the hashbrowns, whatever they do to them, I’ve never tasted anything so bad! But the cheese quesadillas are great… I did get a piece of plastic in one mouthful of yoghurt/cranberries through which rather put me off. Rooms are clean, not huge but perfectly ok. Bathroom fine but watch out for the shower leaking through the door, make sure you use the bath mat on the floor outside. Be aware that the bellhop WILL grab your cases when you arrive so make sure you have suitable denomination notes for tipping. They charge a room damage deposit which is a bit annoying and shows a lack of trust in my opinion. And what really gets my goat… the addition of a ‘facility fee’. It is legal as it’s mentioned in the booking (albeit they don’t make it too obvious) but it is, in my opinion, sharp practice. It’s price gouging. It’s a way of making the headline price look more attractive on searches and it’s downright unethical. It means I am most unlikely to stay at this, or other, Riu hotels in the future. So what does this facility fee get you? It cost us £155 for a 6 night stay. It gets you WiFi. Oh wow! Every other decent hotel just provides guest WiFi. It’s expected. It’s 2026, not 2000… It gets you TWO bottles of water in the fridge. But only on the day you check in. Such unparalleled generosity… Use of the lobby computers. Really? That was probably useful. In 1996. When no-one carried massive computing power around in their hands all day. I didn’t see a single soul making use of these. And nor did I hear of anyone making use of the gym. A gym is something that you could charge a small fee for, but for the majority of people on holiday, racking up 25,000 steps a day in the NYC heat & humidity, going to the gym is the last thing on their minds! Can you tell this facility fee really grates with me? In the long term, these sort of tricks tell you far more about Riu’s brand values and doubtless cost them returning visitors in the longer term. I’m told the Riu restaurant was nice by those that used it. Staff generally polite but reserved. Good work by André the bellhop in getting us a yellow cab to take us back to the airport. Although did try to upsell us to the hotel’s linked limo hire.

My partner and I were guests at the hotel for 4 days. Yes, it was loud in the breakfast room, but the staff tried to accommodate everyone. I cannot say that anyone was unfriendly. We had a really great room on the 21st. Floor with a view towards the Hudson River. And we will book there again in 2 years.