Equinox Hotel New York

The outdoor saunas didn’t get warm at all while I was there, which was a big letdown since sauna time is an important part of my post-workout recovery. The gym itself was clean, well equipped, and felt premium. I had a great experience with the hotel too. The room was stunning, with beautiful design and smart features, and the shower was excellent. I also liked the selection of supplements for sale. It’s a lovely high-end facility, and I hope they fix the sauna issue so it matches the rest.

The rooms were nice, but the hotel didn’t come close to being worth $700 to $800 a night. For that price, I’d expect the spa and the rest to be first rate. I’ve liked the Mandarin and Peninsula in the city and love Shangri-la Hotels, so I thought I’d give this high-end place a try. Instead, the gym felt like a public meat market full of New Yorkers in plugged-in zombie mode, with nothing relaxing about it. The spa put me off too: about 12 young men were standing around “working,” and the men’s locker room felt sketchy, with the sauna there and guys seeming a little too friendly with each other while naked. The pool and spa were a complete no-go. The pool, sauna, hot tubs, steam room, and rinse showers should all be together, keeping gym-goers separate from people using the bathing suite and avoiding “funny business” in the lockers. There wasn’t even a steam room, normally the best part. The sex toys in the rooms also made it clear this isn’t somewhere to bring kids, though that wasn’t a big deal to me. The restaurant and bar were pathetic, and I wouldn’t recommend a drink there even if desperate. The layout was annoying too: you enter through the valet parking section where guys were goofing around, take a two-phase elevator to check in on the fourth floor, then another set of elevators to the rooms or back down to the spa. Even the spa and pool layout was weak. Electric Lemon is a painfully bad name. This should be $400 a night, with the option to use the public gym and spa for an extra $75 a day, or more like $45, even allowing for NYC prices. At the current rate, the value just isn’t there.

Everything we needed was brought quickly, even toothpaste, and when something wasn’t on hand, they went out of their way to find it. Any problems we ran into were handled straight away. The views were beautiful and the gym was incredible, but most of all, the people who work there were caring and warm. A wonderful hotel.

My business partners and I spent more than a week at the Equinox Hotel, with roughly $50,000 just for the rooms. We stay here several times a year, but after this disappointing trip, we won’t be coming back. The room I booked was switched when I arrived because of a reported scent issue, and the replacement had a worse view. I understood the change at the time, but things kept going wrong. The shower nozzle fell off multiple times, and one night I couldn’t shower at all. The bathtub was clogged with hair and needed maintenance. These problems happened more than once. My partner and I were traveling with a two-month-old baby, and my business partner had a three-month-old. A working shower is a basic need in that situation. Despite repeat problems and several service visits, no one offered to acknowledge the inconvenience or compensate us. I don’t usually complain or write reviews, but for the price and the brand’s reputation, this fell short.