My 5 night stay at the currently renovating St Regis New York with (previously mentioned) $477 BRG rate turned out to be an almost flawless stay as usual to my total surprise — even without the Astor Court restaurant, King Cole Bar, elite free breakfast benefit, or really much public spaces at all. I didn’t even get a suite upgrade for the first time ever here, upgraded “only” two categories to a Grand Deluxe Room, but it still turned out to be a very comfortable room and an outstanding stay. I loved it yet again. #newyork #stregis #stregisnewyork #grandeluxeroom #upgrade #nofreebreakfast #renovation #ambassadorstatusmatters #aircon I did consider changing to the RC NoMad after learning about the public spaces renovation and concomitant temporary suspension of the breakfast benefit only in mid-January, quite a while after my original booking. But the RC NoMad only guarantees 66 F in its rooms and suites as opposed to my knowing the St Regis easily can guarantee down to 60 F. Also, the St Regis concierge already had booked reservations for me at “impossible to get” 1* Tatiana, “almost impossible to get” 1* Kochi, 1* Rezdora, and the Polo Club, and “hard to get” 2* Aquavit — with the Polo Club across the street and Aquavit only down a block. And I had that incredible $477 BRG rate, to boot. The best rate I found for the RC NoMad was $680. So even with the renovation, and even without the breakfast benefit, I stuck it out with the St Regis. And thank goodness I did! EDIT: the hotel later honored my breakfast benefit and refunded the $181 for my three breakfast charges at the hotel. With the grand deluxe room normally costing about $1200 and my BRG rate of $477, I still had an Ambassador upgrade value of $3600 or so. Pretty nice, all things considered. #ambassadorstatusmatters My grand deluxe room cooled as low as 58 F, but largely stayed at 60-62 F for the entirety of my stay. Just about the only mistake for the whole stay came when housekeeping accidentally reset my thermostat for turndown on my third night, but within 30 min of my return the air con returned to to my Arctic delight. #greataircon #airconworks Otherwise, my grand deluxe room was plenty spacious enough for me alone. But it would have been fine even with my husband, too. They had blacked out both windows as per my usual pre-arrival instructions, but the view was nice enough otherwise. They also had fulfilled all my other pre- arrival checklist requests, including pre-cooling the room to below 65 F for my arrival, extra bottles of room temperature water, a fan by the bed, and chocolate covered strawberries as my luxury hotel welcome amenity (along with a bowl of fresh fruit). #prearrivalchecklist The St Regis New York showers continue to be my favorite all time — with the most amazing soft but full water pressure ever. It’s a small space, but I love that water effect. I take unusually long showers here every time. The WiFi was also fantastic at usually 130 Mbps up and down. I ordered room service breakfast three times of my five mornings — costing me $72, $62, and $74 extra. At $0.007 a point, that would be just over 29K Bonvoy points. So the courtesy credit of 25K points from my Ambassador seemed a pretty fair compensation under the circumstances. But the room service items were delicious, hot, and prompt each time — I don’t think I waited more than 20 minutes for any. (The hotel also is operating a 20th floor ballroom as its breakfast restaurant, but I prefer room service.) Room service continues until 9 pm during the renovation. Only once did I crave something for room service after that time. So that really was the only time I missed what usually would have been available to me. Not too bad. Butler French press coffee was delivered promptly and perfectly each morning. Due to the renovation, I didn’t insist on warm milk as I’d usually do here. The only other mistake of the entire stay was the butler once bringing two cups rather than one. Seriously. Not bad yet again. The butler service also unpacked for me on arrival after I went to dinner that first night. And they did shoe shine for me once. I didn’t need packing service at the end. Housekeeping was perfect (except for messing with my thermostat that one time) and invisible. They always brought more water, too. Turndown was done every night, usually timed to after I informed the butler I was leaving for dinner. I did complain to the hotel that their towels didn’t seem as plush as I remembered and the toilet paper was ridiculously thin and cheap. Housekeeping did bring me more plush towels, but a hotel manager called to apologize that they were using the Marriott provided chain-wide toilet paper. Clearly, that’s something they need to address for the luxury brands! All in all, I had another exceptional stay despite the renovation. I did miss having a drink at the King Cole Bar, but instead I enjoyed drinks at the Polo Lounge across the street and at the Chatwal bar (which wasn’t as good as before, so I won’t return). It was a little annoying taking the elevator on entry to the 2nd floor (where they have the temporary lobby, front desk, and concierge) and then walking to the different elevators to get to my 16th floor room, but I managed. Otherwise, it wasn’t that different for me. I tipped the front desk, butler team, concierge team, and housekeeping. They all did a really great job, not even considering the unusual renovation circumstances Would I stay again at the St Regis during this renovation? I have to admit that I might. It was still that good to me. And the air con, rooms, service, and F&B quality are as good as ever. Paying for the room service breakfast that good doesn’t bother me for a stay this nice, tbh. But I can’t wait to see what the new public spaces looks like after they finish. Rumor is that they also will renovate the rooms and suites when they finish the public spaces, so stay tuned. P.S. I did manage to visit and check out the RC NoMad for the first time after my lunch at nearby 1* Rezdora. Suffice to say that the mostly southern exposure windows for almost all rooms and suites wouldn’t make for the best or coldest air con experience for me compared to the much better air con at the St Regis. But it’s a very nice hotel otherwise with impressive modern decor for those that like that. And I absolutely love the NoMad neighborhood. The rumor is that the hotel will be acquiring the northern side of the building soon and will renovate that to add northern facing rooms and suites — which will be more appealing to me!…