San Carlos Hotel

We stayed at the San Carlos for five nights in May and it was lovely. The hotel is incredibly clean, conveniently located in Midtown and the staff was kind and helpful. My son forgot his bear in the room due to an unfinished game of hide-​and-​seek (the bear was left behind the chair). The hotel was super helpful and packaged the bear up and shipped him home to us. My son was so happy to unwrap his beloved bear this morning. Thank you to the San Carlos staff for helping reunite the two! You’ll definitely see us again the next time we visit New York.

Pleasantly surprised with this quaint hotel. Walked into an elegant lobby. The hotel staff is very welcoming, professional, and courteous. The room was spacious which is not is easy to find in NYC and also very comfortable. A bonus was also the fridge. I normally don’t sleep very well in hotels, but slept as well as I do at home! For me, a really good bed and quality bedding are important. They didn’t skimp on the Aveda toiletries. Overall, I will definitely stay here again!

Nice hotel. Good location. Value for money is ok. Good services. Room was very quiet beside noisy NY :-).

A great place to stay in New York! Its a nice place to stay, the rooms are big for New York! The hotel staff is Amazing! They have a nice comp. breakfast and coffee. This hotel is close to the subway, but if your in New York you need to walk!
We booked our room thru SECRET ESCAPES and we had ni problems at all!

Awesome boutique hotel walking distance from EVERYTHING you’d want to explore in NYC. Located in a quiet (er) street/​intersection; free from the hustle and bustle of the city. The room and bathroom are clean and well-​appointed. The staff are amazing. Excellent service through out!
Stayed here for 2 nights. On the second night, I was ready to go around town and when I came down to the lobby, it was pouring rain outside! The hotel provided everyone free umbrellas for their guests at the door! Now THAT’S service!
Will stay here again when I’m in the city.

Best hotel I’ve ever stayed at in NYC. By a long margin too. The location is very close to a subway station, otherwise walking to anything is going to be at least several blocks. But the room size for the price is excellent value — and the staff are extremely friendly and helpful. I’ve stayed in a lot of places in my many visits to NYC over the last 15 years or so, and of course you get a lot of staff who are working for their tips — but at San Carlos, you really felt like the staff were genuinely interested in making sure your stay was comfortable.

A coworker recommended this hotel to me for NY travel and I am extremely disappointed. First of all, I was here for a week and paid $ 520 a night for this place, which isn’t too bad for NY, but way too much for this hotel. This is not a 5 or even 4 star hotel. It is a 3 star hotel disguised as a 4 star hotel. I’m giving them an extra star for the large room sizes (the rooms are suites); the large room is nice, but I honestly never used the other part of my suite. I don’t really need a dining table or a living room. Maybe this is good for some families, but I would rather have a smaller room that is actually nice. At the cost of large rooms, shared spaces such as hallways are narrow and tight.
The staff here is undertrained; while the majority of them are nice, they are just not that helpful. For example, I requested for a quite room upon arrival. That usually means a room not facing the main street where there is construction going on. Then there was the day my key stopped working and I had to go up and down the elevator 5 times before it was resolved. And there are only two elevators. And they are slow.
I also requested for a cab because I have to leave in the middle of the night to catch a plane when cabs are harder to come by. The front desk told me that I have to flag it down myself, or use the hotel’s shuttle service costing $ 69. When I informed me that other hotels would arrange for cab service, he got visibly annoyed and told me that yellow cabs do not have a number to call. After a 2-​second google search, I found the number, which is 1−800−609−8731. Press 1 for reservations. For me, this was the final straw. I don’t appreciate hotels lying to you just to push their own services. NOT cool.
The free Wi-​Fi is a joke. Yes it’s free, but it’s SUPER slow and times you out after a while. Don’t expect to be able to download your favorite shows to watch. I just ended up using my cellular network the whole time.
Free breakfast? Go down the street and spend $ 8 at any café and you will get a better breakfast.
I honestly don’t understand all the high ratings here. This hotel does not deserve 5 stars, especially for what you pay.

I stayed here this past weekend with 3 guys + myself. There are too many positive things to write about the San Carlos Hotel! This is my first time staying here, and it won’t be my last. The room was SUPER clean and very large in comparasion to other hotels I have stayed at in the past. My double queen room was equipped with a microwave and mini-​fridge! Bathroom was insanely clean and quite spacious too. Rooms are all very new and modern. Hotel location (Midtown East) is perfect for tourists — close to public transportation and always plenty of taxis around. Walking distance to Times Sq. ect. The hotel doesn’t offer valet, but they do proivde you with a voucher for a garage two blocks away at only $ 30 a night (taxes included). That is AMAZINGLY cheap parking in NYC if you ask me. Hotel never seemed too busy and was real quiet. Staff was very friendly and helpful in many ways. The famous Ess-​A-​Bagel shop is literally a 2 min walk from here, so skip you’re fancy brunch or hotel bfast and grab a bagel.

I was here in December, and it was one of my best hotel experiences in NY. The staff was accommodating, and everyone – from the concierge to the desk – was friendly and helpful. The room was spacious and spotless, and the area is safe and centrally located in midtown.
I plan to make this my go-​to place whenever I’m in New York.

My first visit to NYC, and this hotel was wonderful. We were within walking distance to Times Square, Central Park and the Empire State Building. One of the few hotels to offer free breakfast. Your basic cereal, coffee, juice and bagels but good enough to get your day started and be on your way. Our room was very clean and the staff was super friendly.
Would definitely stay here again.

My family of four just got back from a five night stay at the San Carlos Hotel. It was a great experience. We had a 2 room suite w/​2 queen beds and a kitchenette, very spacious with comfortable beds. It’s in a great location, very quiet at night which was so nice after touring the city all day. It also has complimentary breakfast each morning. The staff was wonderful and we can’t wait to return.

We go into the city at least twice a year and always stay at the San Carlos… close to the metro… great sized rooms… always have good customer service… place is clean… price is reasonable and comparable to other «chain» hotels in the city. Area always feels safe… Have yet to have a problem.
On one occasion we had an air conditioner problem. They offered to move us and when we declined, they brought an actual unit into our room to make us more comfortable. Oh — and parking is right next door — $ 30 a night…

I chose this hotel because it had a room with two queen beds as my wife and I were traveling with two of our children. The room was roomy and faced an alley, and as such we heard no street noise at night. The bathroom was spacious. The staff was friendly and responsive. Continental breakfast was good and was highlighted by hot milk which came in handy for café con leche. Convenient to the 6 subway (at 53^rd and Lexington) as well as the E train and M train for easy access to the east side and the west side. Excellent restaurants nearby and a short walk to 5^th Avenue. An excellent NYC experience.

This hotel is absolutely wonderful! The staff couldn’t be nicer, everyone was super helpful! Is this New York? I felt so taken care of! The rooms are huge, we had a king suite on the 17^th floor. Amazingly quiet, felt like I was in my own world. I never heard anyone ever! The beds are very comfortable. They offer a daily continental breakfast which was a wonderful surprise. The location is fantastic! We were able to walk to central park, 5^th avenue, Rockefeller Center, times square, and a broadway show… it is very close to a perfect subway route that took us to the airtrain back to JFK. I would highly recommend this hotel, and hope to come back and visit again soon!

Excellent place… rock solid staff…

We booked a double queen room. The room we got was good, fairly big for a new york hotel. The biggest plus is that it comes with a microwave and an empty bar-​sized fridge that is for our use! There is a separate drinks fridge that the hotel provides for in-​room convenience. But for us with young kids, a microwave in the room is a big plus!
The hotel provides a good continental breakfast spread, including fresh pastries, OJ, coffee/​tea and yoghurt and cereal selections. We had our breakfast at the hotel everyday.
There is a free business center with 6 desktop computers and free internet access. A printer is even provided free to print-​out online reservations/​tickets and flight check-​ins. Wifi is free around the hotel. There is a pool but we did not get to try it.
This hotel is has a good location mid-​town. A block away is the Metro station on 51^th St/​Lexington, which covers both the 6 and M line, so it is fairly convenient. We do need to walk to 52^nd street Metro entrance which has an elevator for our stroller. It is also a fairly quick 15 – 20 mins walk towards Times Square with the kids.
If supper is needed, there is a number of late night cafes around the hotels. Laundry service is also available down 2 blocks.

I cannot report on the actual rates here, since my firm put me up here, but I am guessing our corporate rate was in and around $ 200 a night.
Having been put up in corporate digs in the area before, I can say that this spot is special. It is conveniently located in an important work district of NYC, and yet close to the further East regions of Manhattan that are a little less business, shall we say.
Inside the rooms are ample (I’ve seen the tiniest hotel rooms in Manhattan), comfortable, and well appointed. The bathroom is equipped with Aveda amenities!
You can hear some noise through the walls, but it’s not bad for a normal to light sleeper. The staff is very friendly, and no incidents.
The free breaky is nothing spectacular but wholly unexpected in a business boutique hotel like this. The orange juice is fresh squeezed!

I am in NYC every three weeks and I have tried my share of midtown accommodations and by far the Hotel San Carlos is the best. ALWAYS accommodate me on the early check In … Which is KEY after a red eye … Which is enough for a five star rating from me. Only once have I had a surly front desk person as for the most part the entire staff at the HSC have been awesome. The rooms are, well, roomy and the beds are clean and comfortable. The sheets and towels SMELL clean and do not give you a rash from too much industrial laundering. They have many complimentary amenities, with the free wifi being a bonus. NOTHING is more annoying to me than to be charge frigging 14 bucks per day on top of my rate for Internet !!
Bottom line? Good convenient clean reasonable comfortable easy living while in the City that never sleeps!

Okay here’s the scoop. To get a decent room in the city you’re looking at least paying $ 250 a night these days (unless you are really good with the internet specials). I’m old school I want to make a reservation and have a 24 hour cancelation policy. And I’ve stayed at many hotels around the Midtown area (times square with the kidlets, and even in Chelsea during a booked out weekend in the city). We paid $ 350 a night (this was St. Patty’s week, prices vary due to the going ons in the city) I have to say by far for our money this was the best value and impeccable service for our stay… ever (well except when we stayed at my cousin’s…love Hotel Jo! It’s free!) But that aside when we can’t stay with family I want a place that I can crash at the end of a day tromping all over the city and then stuffing a big ass dinner down, where I can relax and feel comfy. And San Carlos was great. We did a minor upgrade for and extra $ 25 a night and got the Executive Suite with a King and it came with a kitchenette and a pull out couch (with a second tv in the front area). So nice having the extra room to move around. And having a fridge, was a big plus! I like to have a few snacks on hand fruit and juice, and yes they have one of those silly tempting fridges in the bed area (with M&M’s staring at you for $ 6) on a weighted top. But I had my little fridge for my personal goodies, oh and a microwave (I like tea).
A coffee maker, and yes the mint on the last night was a nice touch.
Oh and we totally forgot to use our nice big robes in the closet… booooo
But it was quiet (other than outside noise occasionally). and I rarely saw other people even staying there. I used the exercise room which had two treadmills, a crossramp and a recumbent bike. I used the treadmill which worked well for me.
The staff was very helpful, and always seemed to be right there with whatever we needed. And when we initially checked in on a Saturday at 8pm tired and weary there was no waiting, it took 5 minutes. So nice…
I love the location, 50^th for me is near the Lex subway line @ 51^st and an easy walk to so many things. I will definitely stay here again. :-)

We really love everything about the San Carlos Hotel! When we arrived at 11:00 a.m., we were informed that check-​in wasn’t until 3:00 p.m. — but the desk clerk did us a favor and allowed us to check in right away because our son was so cute. (Awwww!)
Our suite was absolutely fabulous. It was a HUGE one bedroom with a living room area and kitchenette which had a microwave and a fridge. Perfect for this family of three.
The service is excellent and the hotel staff really friendly and helpful. Free continental breakfast is also available for guests. Even better, the hotel is located in the heart of midtown Manhattan, so everything is within walking distance.
I would definitely recommend staying here if you’re planning a visit to NYC. We know we will the next time we’re in town.