Years ago my husband stayed at Hotel Giraffe for two months on a work assignment and loved it, so this year when it came time for us to plan a trip to NYC to celebrate my birthday he recommended we choose the Giraffe. I am so glad he did. We had an incredible experience at this hotel over a 5 day period in July. The hotel is conveniently located in a great neighborhood, just a couple of blocks from the #6 subway train. We felt welcomed by the complimentary bottle of champagne and chocolates the staff placed in our room in honor of my birthday. We were also upgraded to a very comfortable suite with a balcony at no extra charge. The hotel lobby was a great place to relax each day. It featured a complimentary continental breakfast each morning and a happy hour each evening. The quality of the food and beverage options was very nice. The rooms were clean and the daily maid service was first rate. The hotel had a night club in the basement that got pretty crowded each night. The staff managed the crowd via a separate entrance so we never heard any of the club noise from within the hotel. In fact we would've never known they even had a club had someone in the hotel not mentioned it to us in passing. The only noise issue we had to solve was the street traffic noise coming through our 4th floor window at night, but we simply closed the thick fabric blinds before going to sleep and that solved the issue. This hotel was incredible - the personalized attention, the clean, spacious rooms, the modern decor, the amentities and the location. We will definitely be back!

Hotel Giraffe really was like two different places. At night, the elevators were full of drunk, yelling hipsters and 20-something tourists (maybe they were guests) going to and from the rooftop bar. In the morning, at breakfast, it was mostly older folks--and I mean *older* older; I wondered if these people heard all the noise the night previous or whether it worked out fine because they couldn't hear that well.

The place overall seemed to have a veneer of modernity and sophistication about it, but just under the surface was a lack of quality that broke the illusion. The rooms were nicely decorated, and efforts were made to lend upper-end feel, but look closely at the details--a plain institutional box of tissue, an unwrapped roll of toilet paper, creaky old air con units--and it tells the story. This kind of "playing at being a hip hotel" theme persisted elsewhere too: desk staff whose suits didn't fit quite right making strained efforts at cordiality, but clearly not paying attention to guests or very practiced in their jobs; breakfast staff standing by to pour each guest a cup of coffee at the bar, but then disappearing for minutes at a time requiring me to serve myself (I didn't mind, it was just awkward since they had this stand-by-to-serve thing going on before).

Overall, I guess the impression is "nice try". At this kind of rate, though, I'd prefer to stay someplace that knows its business and has hospitality down pat-- thoroughly nice instead of just trying.

Stayed here with a couple of friends for a girls weekend away. This hotel worked out very well for us -- the size of the room was amazing for a NYC hotel. Enough room for 4 girls to spread out without bumping into one another!! We were excited to go downstairs for the nightly wine and cheese bar, however were disappointed with the wine choices. Overall, a good hotel at a convenient location!

We stayed at the Hotel Giraffe for a long weekend from July 18 - 21, 2008, and I can't think of a single bad thing to say about the place. Service was great, room was immaculate, location very central. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. We will definitely stay there on our next trip to NYC.