Hotel Review: Ace Hotel, New York

Transforming the Breslin, a grimy single-room-occupancy hotel at the corner of 29th Street and Broadway, into the Ace, a hotel for young hipsters, meant displacing hundreds of longtime residents, which created bad feelings and bad publicity. But even now, after the official opening in May, the 300-room hotel seems a bit too redolent of the past, with grungy (albeit deliberately grungy) furniture and shoddy detailing that make the rooms feel insubstantial. (Not only that, but some 40 holdover tenants remain.) The Ace’s owners — who started out in Seattle — are hoping that travelers will enjoy the spacious accommodations, but that depends on whether they find the Ace’s oddities off-putting or endearing.
THE LOCATION
The neighborhood, which the hoteliers are calling NoMad (north of Madison Square Park), is full of hot restaurants and clubs. But my window faced a half-dozen wholesale perfume stores and a ghastly parking garage. Directly across the street is a makeshift mosque frequented by taxi drivers. In a great New York juxtaposition, the gracious Marble Collegiate Church is down the block.
THE ROOM
Though I had reserved a Super Deluxe King room for an introductory rate of $259, I was sent to a fifth-floor room with a full-size bed. After arguing with a desk clerk, who tried to persuade me that the full was a king (one of a number of odd encounters I had with poorly trained employees), I was offered a larger room on the second floor. This one had the promised king, plus an old dining table, a collection of retro office chairs, a 1950s-style refrigerator filled with snacks and drinks, and even an Epiphone guitar. An indie band would have a great time jamming here, but I found the unadorned black and white walls and harsh lighting depressing. The bed was comfortable, except for the scratchy Pendleton blanket; the TV had an easy-to-use interface, though few premium channels. The air-conditioning unit dripped water onto the black carpet; still, we had to keep it on a high setting to deaden the traffic noises coming from the window.
THE BATHROOM
The one whimsical touch — a faux-Victorian mirror bearing the words “Love Is Meant to Make Us Glad” — wasn’t enough to break the brown-tile boredom. The tiny soap-on-a-rope over the sink was a smart way to avoid slimy bar syndrome. The shower — a brass head over a tub — had plenty of water pressure.
AMENITIES
The lobby doubles as a bar, with most drinks priced around $10. On a Saturday night in July, the room was quiet. Things may pick up when the Breslin, a new restaurant from the owners of the West Village gastropub Spotted Pig, opens this fall. Also adjoining the lobby is a branch of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, out of Portland, Ore. Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel, and iMacs are available in hallway niches.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Ace has lots of quirks. At $259 a night (the current price of the smallest rooms, some of which have bunk beds) to $499 (the going rate for rooms like the one I occupied), they may not seem so charming, or its shabby-chic style so appealing. The Ace New York, 20 West 29th Street; (212) 679-2222; .