Hotel Giraffe by Library Hotel Collection

The Hotel Giraffe housekeeping service was fantastic. I know that’s not a sexiest thing about a hotel, but I stayed there for six nights and the room was fresh and clean every day, and that was very comfortable and nice. Also, I loved the big French doors in my room and the fact that the hotel has an old building charm but all the modern amenities. I was working in Midtown the first few days and then my husband and I were hanging out with our daughter in the village the other half of the time, and it was a perfect location for both. Also, some great restaurants right around Madison Square. I thought it was a very good value and very enjoyable.

I'm tough on hotels, especially expensive ones... I think if you're going to charge an arm and a leg to be a temporary homebase while demanding a premium price you had better be amazing at what you do. Hotel Giraffe most definitely is good at what they do, they charge somewhat of a premium and yet there's no major dings to this place that would keep me from recommending it to everyone I know who visits NYC. I wanted a perfect hotel with the following items: -not at or around Time Square -safe neighborhood with good subway access -had rooms truly fit for 3 people (none of this 2 'double beds' nonsense that 90% of NYC hotels do now) -no barn door bathroom -breakfast provided free -not outlandishly expensive (I think I paid $450/night or so?) Hotel Giraffe checked all the boxes and simply put this place is great. The location, a block from Madison Park (which is also awesome), which is next to the Flatiron Building, is perfect. Many subway stations within 1-2 block walk here. Many Citi bike docking stations around. Easy access (20-30 minutes) to LaGuardia Airport. The surrounding neighborhood along Park Avenue here is great, busy with young white collar workers commuting in the morning and joggers in the afternoon and overall surprisingly quiet at night (except for the occasional ambulance with horns blaring at 2 am). Very safe. The hotel is very boutique'y with character yet modern. The 2 elevators are perfectly-suited to the building's guests, no long waits. The WiFi is decent. The in-room coffee machines work well and the housekeeping replenishes k-cups every day. The king bed is exquisite, the sofa bed could use some upgrading (seriously, why do sofa bed manufacturers insist upon using old engineering rules of putting a horizonal bar directly where the back/shoulders goes?!) and the balcony doors do well to keep the insane NYC noise outside (except for the occasional aforementioned ambulances). All outlets worked, the TV worked well, the bathroom has an actual door (thankfully NOT a barn door for the dear Marriott-haters such as myself) however the door has a bizarre and massive refracting glass window on it. You can't necessarily see exactly what someone is doing in the bathroom from the hallway but you can obviously tell if their clothed or not and if they're sitting on the throne or not. It's odd. We'd rather they just put in an actual full door there, or if they must have the window at least put on like frosted glass inserts, so instead of seeing Pablo Picasso-like abstract person in the bathroom you see a late-age Claude Monet impressionist blur of a person. As far as the breakfast goes, it was nice, not great, not horrible. Greek or non-Greek yogurt option. Bagels, croissants, bread, packets of instant oatmeal, mini-boxes of cereal, skim and non-skim milk, coffee machine, bananas, apples, oranges. Basic stuff which is fine. There's plenty of true "brekkie/breaky" places within an easy walk from the hotel. Overall just a great place. Good service. Nice front door/bell hops and front desk and breakfast attendants and housekeepers and just a great hotel.

Great service and location was enough away to be less insane, but close enough to the tourist sights to get there no problem. Staff was phenomenal and attentive. I booked a suite because I'm a snob and like to be comfortable and able to sit and rest. The sofa bed (used as a sofa) was horrible. We had no reason to pull the bed out, but cannot imagine it being at all comfortable. The cushions slid off just trying to sit on the sofa and it was not at all comfortable as a resting spot. All the chairs were very upright and victorian-esque, so I found the living space to be too uncomfortable to really relax and sit back after long days walking the city. Breakfast wasn't much of anything, mostly toast, coffee, some fruit, bagels, instant oats and things like that. No real complaints, but don't expect a hot breakfast. It was nice having access to coffee and teas along with Cliff bars for a quick grab and go 24/7. We didn't eat at the restaurant at the hotel, so nothing to add there. The rooftop garden is small but nice. Weather wasn't great for it during our stay, so we didn't spend much time up there. Not much of a view from the rooftop as it's a shorter building than the one across the street, but you can look around a bit from the edge and it's perfectly comfy. More comfortable than the living space in the suite. Fairly easy access to the subways depending on where you are headed. Not a terrible walk to Union Square, but you can catch other trains from closer stations as well. The glass door for the bathroom was curious. It was fine as it faced a hallway and I was traveling with my spouse, so privacy wasn't as concerning. You can see right into the bathroom though from the hall even with the rolling glass. Could be an issue for traveling with family, but in that event, you likely aren't booking the king suite. You can see out and be seen when sitting on the toilet if that's an issue for you. While I would not stay there again, I wouldn't discourage others from staying there. It's clean and the staff is awesome. Not too far to walk to some great places. 24 Diner NYC is a quick walk and decent food at perhaps some of the lowest prices we saw in NY. Pete's Tavern and Oscar Wilde for food and drinks are also convenient walks. On one return to the room, everyone working looked like they were on break from a Broadway show - beautiful people and so poised. I half expected a scene to break out in the lobby and the concierge and others to start a dance routine then some hidden camera show to reveal itself.