Marriott is picking up a new property in New York at Hilton’s expense, and it’ll have a rather generic name…
In this post:
Details of The Luxury Collection Hotel Manhattan Midtown
Some time back, we learned that the Conrad New York Midtown would be leaving the Hilton portfolio as of June 4, 2024. At the time we didn’t know what the future held for this hotel, but we now we do — this property will become a Marriott.
Specifically, as of June 5, 2024, the Conrad New York Midtown will be known as The Luxury Collection Hotel Manhattan Midtown. The Luxury Collection is Marriott’s collection of independent, luxury properties, but most of them have a unique name, which finishes with “The Luxury Collection.” In this case the hotel is just named “The Luxury Collection Hotel?” A bit odd, but…
The Luxury Collection Hotel Manhattan Midtown features 562 accommodations. The reason many people liked this property as a Conrad was because a vast majority of the rooms are suites. So this is one of the luxury properties in New York where you’ll get extra space at a reasonable premium.
The hotel is located on 54th Street, so is convenient for those looking to visit Midtown. As far as dining goes, the hotel has a single all-day dining restaurant named Dabble, serving American cuisine. So it’s not exactly a dining destination, but rather is all about getting heads into beds.
For some further background, this property became a Conrad back in 2019, and prior to that was independent, and was branded as The London Hotel NYC.
The hotel is now bookable through Marriott channels. Of course you can book with cash (and if you do, it makes sense to book through Marriott STARS), or alternatively you can redeem Marriott Bonvoy points here.
This is a curious rebranding…
I’m curious what exactly motivated this change. A couple of things immediately come to mind:
- This was one of two Conrad properties in New York City, with the other being the Conrad New York Downtown; so I wonder if the hotel owners felt there was some cannibalization from this
- The Chatwal New York used to be a Marriott Luxury Collection property, but was rebranded as a Hyatt; so despite Marriott’s massive footprint in New York, the brand hasn’t had any hotels belonging to The Luxury Collection
More hotel options are always a good thing, so I’m sure some Marriott loyalists will be happy to see this change (while some Hilton loyalists will be unhappy). I will say, this really exemplifies how the major hotel groups are really happy to brand a hotel in any way that will please owners. As a reminder, here’s how Marriott describes The Luxury Collection:
The Luxury Collection, part of Marriott International, Inc., is comprised of world-renowned hotels and resorts offering unique, authentic experiences that evoke lasting, treasured memories. For the global explorer, The Luxury Collection offers a gateway to the world’s most exciting and desirable destinations. Each hotel and resort is a unique and cherished expression of its location; a portal to the destination’s indigenous charms and treasures
Look, the Conrad New York Midtown has been a great points property with spacious rooms, but describing this hotel as “a portal to the destination’s indigenous charms and treasures” is kind of absurd. This hotel is as generic as they get. Then again, I’d say that’s a ridiculous way to describe a vast majority of the brand’s properties.
Bottom line
As of June 5, 2024, the Conrad New York Midtown is becoming The Luxury Collection Hotel Manhattan Midtown. We’ve known for some time that the property would be leaving the Hilton portfolio, though we didn’t know what the future would hold. I guess in many ways it’s good that this will at least continue to be associated with one of the major global hotel groups with a loyalty program.
What do you make of this rebranding?
By the way, the Arizona Biltmore has rebranded from Waldorf to LXR. Yesterday, a property might be this brand. Today, that brand. Tomorrow, yet another brand. It is entirely about the specific property. How are the rooms . . . at that property? How is the service . . . at that property? How are the amenities . . . at that property? Brand is meaningless. And, as Ben mentioned in another article, if a brand doesn't really have standards . . . whaddiyagot?
PS - Even within the same ownership group, some properties might have the magic while other properties don't. Even within the same super-luxury ownership group.
Had a Conrad booking through Amex plat for July. Reservation will carry over since it’s paid but I wonder if they’ll honor my Amex plat luxury hotel collection benefits. Will call this week to check but very doubtful.
Presumably when hotels go from hilton to marriott is cos they know marriott will let them get away with anything and dont care how bad they are so long as they remain in marriott.
Before it became THE LONDON it was the Righa Royal belonging to Marriott already!
We’ve stayed at this hotel once or twice a year, when it was the Rihga Royal, the London and the Conrad Midtown. The closeness to the theater district, the adjacency to both Hertz and Avis, the amazing views of the Upper West Side, and the fact that we get a two room suite have kept us there. Hilton did a great job remodeling the rooms, which were very poorly decorated when it was the London....
We’ve stayed at this hotel once or twice a year, when it was the Rihga Royal, the London and the Conrad Midtown. The closeness to the theater district, the adjacency to both Hertz and Avis, the amazing views of the Upper West Side, and the fact that we get a two room suite have kept us there. Hilton did a great job remodeling the rooms, which were very poorly decorated when it was the London. There were a number of service blips, though, when we stayed there in May; I’m hoping it was just because of the transition.
I predict 90k Marriott points a night or 800 per night
After all its a high end state of the art premium 5 star luxury hotel
with stellar world class service and stunning public areas
Why is my nose growing like Pinocchio?
There's always the courtyard for 60k Bonvoy
Marriott members many are like sheep they will pay anything Marriott asks plus a resort fee.Just look at MGM situation in Las Vegas with a slew of benefits for Platinum's and up laughable
Tough news. Loved this Conrad and its friendly, welcoming staff. My home away from home for several years. So conveniently located with elegant suites and a glorious Park View if you’re lucky enough to snag one on a high floor. Alas!
I’m sad to see this leave Hilton and dreading what the redemptions will look like under Marriott.
Terrible for Hilton FNC owners. Unless it is priced around 50k Marriott (doubtful) and I can use my Marriott FNC.
Spent a night here last year and the rooms need a big refresh. It was also the most stressful check in I've ever experienced because of how large the hotel is but only 2 check in desks, and seemingly everyone has guaranteed 4pm check out thanks to FHR. Our room wasn't ready until 6pm, despite them knowing we had a 6:30pm dinner event and them putting us on the "priority" housekeeping list.
That is really unfortunate. We had quite the opposite experience. We stayed last year to burn up a free night certificate, and were able to get into our room at 9:30am after a redeye. Overall we really enjoyed our stay.
Not a loss at all. Pretty shitty service and inflated prices. There are better options in NYC.
And those option for a suite with Hilton in NYC are? And don’t say the Conrad Downtown as it’s too far away from where I would want to be. I’ve never had service issues at the hotel.
Conrad tweaked the rooms at this property a few years back. I booked my wife a room here in late 2021 based on my past stays at the London thinking she’d had a large suite, and they carved up some of the rooms to make them smaller. Base level rooms are now just a hotel room. Really took away the competitive advantage this property had when it was a London and I would give up Weston points to stay at the London when on business.
Nice property. Originally opened as the Rhiga Royal. Then became The London.
Consider all of the rebrandings that we've heard about recently . . . or even over the past year. They come and go. These property owners don't care about branding. They don't care about network loyalty. They care about their own repeat guests. Nothing more. In a way, they're right: it's really about the specific property, not the network.
I would say quite the opposite. If they didn't care about having a network, they would simply continue as an independent hotel. But they don't, the leave one chain and immediately join another one.