The catch at The Fifth Avenue Hotel
Five things stand between the 1907 bank on the corner and the room most guests sleep in. None of them is hidden and none outweighs what the hotel does well, but each one decides which room to take, when to come and how early to book dinner.
On our shortlists
The 1907 bank holds only suites, and every standard room is in the 2023 tower.
The Fifth Avenue Hotel is two buildings. McKim, Mead & White's bank on the corner, which the hotel calls the Mansion, holds 21 suites and the Flâneur Penthouse and nothing else. All six room categories, from the NoMad Queen to the Corner King, are in the 23-storey brick and precast tower raised behind it on West 28th Street, and so are the Studio, Studio Terrace and Parlour suites. On the flexible rate for Tuesday 26 January 2027 the NoMad Queen was $895 a night; the cheapest way to sleep in the old building, The Mansion Suite Double, was $2,065. Martin Brudnizki dressed both buildings, and the tower rooms get the same butler, house car, twice-daily housekeeping and free Maxibar as the suites.
What to do. If sleeping inside the bank is the point, budget for a Mansion suite from the start. If it is not, take a tower room and use the bank as every guest can: the lobby, breakfast in the banking hall and the Portrait Bar, which is a guests' lounge from 8am to 5pm.
The entry room is 225 sq ft, and no room in the tower has a bath.
The NoMad Queen that sets the starting price is 225 sq ft (21 m²): a queen bed, a marble bathroom with a walk-in shower, and windows along one wall. The next two kings add 60 and 75 sq ft: the City King is 285 sq ft (26 m²) and the NoMad King 300 sq ft (28 m²). Every tower category, including the 525 sq ft (49 m²) Studio Suite and the Parlour Suite with its two bathrooms, has a walk-in shower and no tub. Soaking baths and heated bathroom floors begin with the Mansion suites at 575 sq ft (53 m²), which is where the price more than doubles.
What to do. For more than two nights, book the Grand King or the Corner King at 375 sq ft (35 m²), $100 to $150 a night above the NoMad Queen in January. If a bath matters, the cheapest one is in The Mansion Suite Double.
There is no spa and no pool, only a gym two floors below the street.
The hotel's answer to the wellness question is a 24-hour fitness centre on level minus two, with cardio machines and strength equipment, and complimentary access to Life Time Fitness. That is the whole of it: no pool and no spa, with treatments only on request. The rituals the hotel does make a point of are of another kind: a butler mixing two martinis in your room, or wheeling in a tea cart in the middle of the day. At this price it is a deliberate shape, a hotel built around its restaurant and its bar, and the one real gap in a generous list of what every guest gets.
What to do. Plan a full spa afternoon elsewhere. If you train every day, ask at check-in which Life Time club the access covers and how far away it is.
Café Carmellini and the Portrait Bar book like any restaurant in the city.
The restaurant in the banking hall is one of the main reasons to stay, and it takes every reservation on Resy, releasing dinner tables four weeks ahead and keeping a notify list when a night is full. Hotel guests book the same way. The Portrait Bar is the guests' lounge until 5pm; after that it is a public cocktail bar, open to 1am from Monday to Thursday and 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, taking bookings 14 days ahead for up to four. Dinner runs 5pm to 10pm every night, so a guest who arrives on a Saturday without a booking is in the same queue as the rest of New York.
What to do. Book dinner the day tables open, four weeks out, and the bar 14 days ahead. If dinner is full, breakfast in the same hall, 7am to 11am every day, is the easy way into the room.
January to March is the cheap season, and October to early December costs up to twice as much.
Rates here move hard with the season. The flexible room-only rate for the NoMad Queen was $895 on Tuesdays from January to March 2027 and $995 in April, July and August, but $1,495 in May. In autumn 2026 the same room was $1,445 on 20 October, $1,695 on 10 November and $1,795 on 8 December. Tax adds about $141 to an $895 night. There is no resort or facility fee; the extras are optional, valet parking at $105 for 24 hours with no in-and-out, and a $250 fee per stay for a dog.
What to do. Come between January and March, or in July or August, when the entry room is $895 to $995 against $1,445 to $1,795 in autumn. Leave the car at home: the R and W stop two minutes from the door.
Who should skip it
Anyone who wants a spa afternoon or a pool, or a bath without paying for a Mansion suite. Two people planning a week in the 225 sq ft entry room. Drivers, at $105 a day for the valet. And anyone who reads the name and pictures Central Park: Fifth Avenue meets the park at 59th Street, 31 blocks north, a 34 minute walk or a ride on the R or W from 28 St.
Who should book it anyway
Anyone who wants to eat, drink and sleep in a hotel that already behaves like an institution. Every guest gets the butler, the house car from 8am to 3pm, twice-daily housekeeping and a free Maxibar, and the lobby, the banking hall and the Portrait Bar belong to the tower guest as much as to the suite guest. Book the Corner King, book Café Carmellini the day its tables open, come in January, and everything above is a cost you chose with your eyes open.
The catch elsewhere in New York
- The PlazaMidtown
The entry rooms do not face Central Park or Fifth Avenue. The Plaza King and Deluxe rooms look over the inner courtyard or 58th Street, and in January the Carnegie suites, with a partial park view, and the Pulitzer suites, over Fifth Avenue, cost more than $1,000 a night above them.
- The Carlyle, A Rosewood HotelUpper East Side
The entry Superior Room is 360 sq ft (33 m²), faces the courtyard and has a rain shower but no bath, and even in January it costs about $1,300 a night before tax.
- The Beekman, A Thompson HotelFinancial District
Laissez Faire, the club in the cellar, plays until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, and The Bar Room serves until 1am, so low floors hear the weekend.
- 1 Hotel Brooklyn BridgeDUMBO, Brooklyn
A $45 nightly amenity fee plus tax is added to every room at check-in, covering the house car, the classes and the pool whether you use them or not.
- The William ValeWilliamsburg, Brooklyn
The entry King with Balcony is sold on neighbourhood views. The Manhattan skyline is promised only in categories with Manhattan View in the name and in the penthouse Vale Garden Residence.
- Nine OrchardLower East Side
The cheapest rooms are small: the Studio Queen is 230 sq ft (21 m²) with little storage, and the Nook is sold below it without a published size.
- Hotel ChelseaChelsea
The Petite Chelsea, the entry room, is about 200 sq ft (19 m²), with a queen bed, a limited view and a place on the lower floors.
- TWA HotelJFK Airport, Queens
It is an airport hotel. Midtown is about 50 minutes away by AirTrain and the E train, so it works as a first or last night, not as a base for the city.
- citizenM New York BoweryLower East Side
Every room is about 150 sq ft (14 m²): the bed meets the walls on three sides, and the shower is a glass pod in the room itself.
Questions people ask
Good questions about The Fifth Avenue Hotel
What are the downsides of The Fifth Avenue Hotel?
Five things stand between the 1907 bank on the corner and the room most guests sleep in. None of them is hidden and none outweighs what the hotel does well, but each one decides which room to take, when to come and how early to book dinner. The 1907 bank holds only suites, and every standard room is in the 2023 tower. The entry room is 225 sq ft, and no room in the tower has a bath. There is no spa and no pool, only a gym two floors below the street. Café Carmellini and the Portrait Bar book like any restaurant in the city. January to March is the cheap season, and October to early December costs up to twice as much.
Who should not book The Fifth Avenue Hotel?
Anyone who wants a spa afternoon or a pool, or a bath without paying for a Mansion suite. Two people planning a week in the 225 sq ft entry room. Drivers, at $105 a day for the valet. And anyone who reads the name and pictures Central Park: Fifth Avenue meets the park at 59th Street, 31 blocks north, a 34 minute walk or a ride on the R or W from 28 St.
Our verdict
Book it for the bank, the restaurant in its banking hall and the service every room gets, and pay up to The Corner King for the light. Sleeping inside the 1907 building itself starts at a Mansion suite.
Last checked: October 2026