Hotel Review of the Club Quarters in Downtown New York

My great experience with Club Quarters, Downtown began before I even arrived in New York. I booked on-line via yellowpages.com but typoed the email address so I never received a confirmation... the gal on the phone at Club Quarters was extremely nice to talk to, and answered all of my questions.

Then I went to their website and found you needed a password, so I emailed them. Seems the Club Quarters hotel is for members only. They have locations all over: Chicago, two in NY, DC, London.. theres quite a few. The only two ways for a non-member to stay there is either as a guest of a member, or booking available rooms via the web. They sent me their password anyway. That's two plusses right off the bat.

So, we pull into NY and get completely lost in Manhattan. There is a ton of construction going on and it seemed every street we turned down dead ended into a construction blockade. After getting very aggravated, I called them from my cell phone. That young man at the front desk never once sounded exasperated. He was so very helpful and stayed on the phone with me until we got through the maze and pulled up to the place. I ran in while my friend circled the block and he handed me a map to get to the parking garage. See, we couldn't pull up out front because errr .. there's no street. There was a street.. it's been torn out awaiting a new surfacing. ohj. Hopefully they finished the street now so you won't have this problem.

Parking for Club Quarters is at 45 Wall Street. Rather, it's at the 45 Wall Street building, which is to say the parking isn't really on Wall Street.. it's back one block on Exchange Street. Are we having fun yet? I really tend to think that New York was designed as one of those elaborate how to drive a blonde crazy jokes... Anyway, the parking garage usually charges like $39 per day and there is no in-and-out. Park it and leave it. They have an arrangement with the hotel though so parking only ran us $25 per day, and even the folks there were super great to deal with. (It sounds worse than it is to find, it's really only a block and a half from the hotel.)

Ok.. the Jeep is tucked in for the night, so we walk back to the hotel to check in and truth be told, I'm a bit nervous. Yes we had called to confirm, but you hear so many horror stories about rooms booked blindly through a website. I needn't have worried a bit. Check in is usually at 3PM but when we arrived at noon they had our room all ready and it took less than 2 minutes at the front desk.

The lobby is very small but elegantly under-decorated, if that makes sense. Everything in the hotel is done in greens with hints of mauve and slate blue. Very comfortable and sparkling clean. Even the brass rails up the steps were shining. To the left is the rounded desk, and to the right are the elevators. Straight back is the club room which is just very warm and inviting. The love seats and chairs are the kind you just sink into and never want to get out of. They also have a computer with high speed internet access which is free to guests.

The room continued with the color theme and while not huge, it was adequate. We didn't feel cramped at all. There was a desk as you first enter, then a full sized bed. There are bedside stands on both sides which gains major points with me. We had an armoire rather than a closet which I loved, and a small dresser beside it. All the wood is done in blondes, and there were framed pictures of New York on the walls. The small Sony TV was on the desk. Under the desk is a small dorm sized fridge with ice. You can have it stocked via the TV menu if you like, but we didn't bother as we weren't going to be in the room much this trip. The lighting was way cool. Plenty of lamps, but they didn't just flick on..oh no.. they like faded on. I don't know how else to describe it. It was just very neat.

The restaurant is called Bull's Run and I'm told it's a pretty happening spot during the week since it's right there by Wall Street.. but it's closed on the weekend so I can't personally tell ya how good the food is. They do supply room service during the week, and if you order food delivered from an outside restaurant the desk will pay for it and bring it up to you then just add it to your bill... only guests can access the elevators so that's a real nice convenience.

Free internet access is included with your room and it works great. I used it to post a review of my lap top before we left the next morning. If you don't have wireless on yours, you can borrow a card from the desk, use the full size computer in the Club room, or they have access via the TV for a small fee and they supply the keyboard.

They also have a fitness room which I just didn't have time to locate..but they will bring equipment to your room free of charge if you request it, too. Ours was one of the smallest rooms. I didn't see the others but I know they vary in sizes up to rather large suites.

The bathroom in our room was very small, but adequate, and everything was just very clean. There is a shower, but no tub. They supply a conditioning shampoo (but bring conditioner, this doesn't work well in that department), two bars of soap, and mouthwash. The towels were the huge kind and sooo fluffy. Loved the towels! The water pressure is fine, but the water temperature at full hot was comfortable, meaning not hot. This was fine for me, but I know some of you like it really hot. Not happening here. There is a hair dryer and a small coffee maker on the ledge in the Bathroom.

The staff was very knowledgable about the area. When we left the room to go meet some fellow writers, they directed us easily on where (half a block away) and how to access the subway system, which trains to catch, and where to get off.

Either there was nobody else on our floor, or these rooms are terrifically sound proofed. We didn't hear a peep at all the whole stay.

When we checked out Sunday morning, they even held our luggage for us until we got back from playing tourist for the day. Talk about going that extra mile...Check out was a snap with no hidden charges whatsoever, and not once did anyone bother us to try to sell us a membership.

I do highly recommend this place. The weekend rate for members is only $75, for non-members if you book through yellowpages.com it's $107 including taxes. That's like half of what a cheap room normally runs in Manhattan. We were very pleased on all counts and just might be looking into a membership.

52 William Street
(Between Wall & Pine Streets)
New York, New York 10005
Phone: (212) 269-6400
Fax: (212) 269-6464