The Lucerne Hotel

I was excited to stay at the Lucerne -- the Upper West Side neighborhood is fabulous, and the hotel in exterior photos looked really interesting. Unfortunately, I found myself disappointed. The hotel lobby and rooms are slightly bedraggled, and in need of a freshening. The elevators are old, small, and very, very slow. The front desk was understaffed: I only ever saw one person working, often with long lines. I was traveling as a family of four -- two adults and two teenage boys -- and I rented a suite, with the idea that I could get a fold-out couch or rollaway in the second room, so the boys wouldn't have to share a bed. The couch didn't fold out, and the hotel told me it didn't provide rollaways, because of fire regulations. I do love this neighborhood, but there are other, fresher hotels nearby that I'll probably investigate next time.

The hotel is situated in a great area of New York, busy enough to maintain the big city feel but quiet enough to relax and get some sleep. There are loads of street side restaurants to choose from and we had a good experience at all of the ones we went to during our 5 night stay. There is also a restaurant within the hotel complex 'Nice Matin' which serves a very good breakfast. It's a little pricey but you do get a 15% discount as a hotel guest of the Lucerne. The hotel staff are very friendly and attentive and the concierge organised a private hire SUV cab to take us back to JFK airport on our departure. This cost $91 (including tolls and tip) but was well worth the extra for the ride comfort and to not have the constant horn blasting you get in the yellow cabs. The only down side to our stay at the Lucerne was the size of our room. It was very small for 3 of us and the shower cubicle was so small that it was impossible to have a decent shower. I did notice the size of some of the other rooms when the housekeepers were cleaning them and all of the rooms I saw were larger than ours so I guess we just got unlucky with the allocation. We didn't spend too much time in there so it was no big deal.

all courtyard facing rooms (depressing enough) also faced large scale building construction next door - so dont expect to sleep in place has a great location

You can't beat this location and value if you want to stay in NYC. It is very convenient to subways and there are many nice restaurants and shopping close by. The hotel restaurant is also frequented by the locals. Just a great place to stay.

We had a lovely time. This hotel is excellent. Extremely clean and service oriented. The neighborhood is beautiful and safe, near to Central Park and museums with easy subway access. I would definitely stay here again.