The Benjamin - New York

It is a good location for exploring uptown New York and it is fairly convenient to and from JFK airport. The rooms are well specified and very clean, but as most New York hotels noisy at night due to traffic. What lets the hotel down is the service and the facilities there, in particular they hire the bar out during the Xmas season and therefore guests have nowhere to go in the hotel for a night. Dinner facilities aren't great as I think they assume you will go out and explore other restaurants. In room service is quite expensive even for New York.

loved the hotel great location for everything great deli round the corner for breakfast staff more than helpful would go again

Great hotel in a very central location. 15 mins walk to Times Square less than 5 mins from St Patricks Cathedral and Rockafella centre. Subway around the corner. Hotel staff were very friendly especially the cleaning staff. Room was very large by New York standards and comfortable. A daily bed linen and towel change is standard if required and there were plenty of lovely Elemis bath products available.

We had a brilliant long weekend at the Benjamin in New York, starting with a free upgrade to a suite just by asking for a quiet room before we'd even seen ours! Their pillow menu is fabulous (free, unlimited choice of any of their 12 types of pillow - by the end of the weekend, we had over ten pillows on the bed, including jelly rolls, 5' body pillow and one in a satin case!). Our bed was the biggest I have ever seen, and the suite included kitchenette, living room and big bedroom with ensuite. The hotel is located just to the south east of Central Park, near 5th Avenue and within walking distance of the Empire State Building. I thought it was a bit of a poor show to charge for Internet access (wired and wifi, $9.95/24 hours, but you can use it on more than one device [great if you have an iPhone as well as laptop, or friends in other rooms - you can share the access code]).

As a family of 4 with 2 teenagers we chose the Benjamin because it offered a suite with a bed settee in the living room and a small kitchenette. We loved our stay in New York and found the staff at the hotel helpful and courteous at all times. It is ideally suited for tourists as it is smack in the middle of Manhattan and within easy reach of all the sights. We didn't try the restaurant because we were out every evening, but there is a good luncheonette for breakfast and a sushi restaurant both right next door. Our only complaints are that on our first night, even though we had booked for four people, they had only prepared for two, and we had to request extra cutlery, plates, glasses etc. Also, the bed settee was not particularly comfortable, but two exhausted teenagers had no trouble sleeping in it. Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Benjamin, would recommend it to friends and would happily stay there in the future.

I visit New York maybe twice a year for leisure and shopping. I found The Benjamin in 2007 by chance and have always been impressed with how it provides a level of comfort and luxury I would expect from more expensive hotels. The rooms are spacious by Manhattan standards and very clean (I was even lucky enough to get a small outdoor terrace with table a chairs this time - on the 18th floor). The hotel has also always been surprisingly quiet for Manhattan, external noise well insulated by the double glazing and short corridors meaning very little noise from other guests. It's nice to see the Elemis toiletries, quality bedlinen and a well-stocked minibar. Will definitely stay here next time. Only downsides are that it can take some time for a lift (elevator) to arrive and the in-room internet access seemed slow for broadband.