Conrad New York Downtown Review

Overall: A solid luxury hotel I wouldn’t go out of my way for.

Pros: Large rooms (all “suites”), great bathrooms, lovely lobby.

Cons: Furnishings need replacing, didn’t feel like a Conrad.

Paid: $330/night with taxes and fees. Could have paid: 80,000 Hilton points/night including taxes and fees.

How to stay at the Conrad New York Downtown without paying full price:

1. Get one of the Hilton Amex cards and link it to your Hilton account
2. Hit the minimum spend required for the Hilton card you chose:
   • $4K for the Hilton Amex Aspire card (which is my favorite) – See why here!
   • $3K for the Hilton Honors Business card
   • $3K for the Hilton Amex Surpass card
   • $1K for the Hilton Honors card, which is fee-free
3. Wait for your bonus points and/or weekend night certificates to land in your Hilton account.
4. Once your bonus points/nights hit your Hilton account, search the app or website for award availability. Standard Nights at the Conrad New York Downtown are typically 80,000 – 95,000 points per night. You can stack free weekend nights with a night you book with your points too.
5. Book online through the Hilton app or website, OR if you want to stack your weekend night(s) to the reservation, you should call Hilton.
6. Make sure to take advantage of your elite benefits during your stay, which at the Conrad New York Downtown means a complimentary breakfast and bonus points.

For full instructions, see my guide to booking Hilton hotels for free here.

Full review – Conrad New York Downtown:

Check-in was efficient, and the lobby of the hotel was just beautiful. It’s a quiet urban oasis in the middle of Lower Manhattan’s Battery Park neighborhood, which is bustling with business. But the lobby itself had a lot of seating where I noticed businesspeople meeting or simply relaxing with their coffees.

My partner was on a business trip and I tagged along to take a few meetings of my own in NYC. Due to this, we paid cash for this hotel, and due to my partner’s Hilton Diamond status from the Hilton Amex Aspire card, we received free breakfast and a mild upgrade to a small suite with a better view.

This is an all-suite hotel, where every room has a separate living area. I put “suites” in quotes because I define a suite as “a separate room with a door you can shut,” and in this case there was no actual door separating the bedroom from the living area. However, it was definitely a large room, especially for New York City! And the view from my room was beautiful.

However, when I looked a little closer, I could tell the furnishings are all a little worn. I was about to open the drawer below, and… it fell off in my hands when I touched it! 

I felt really bad, but then I noticed all the wood was broken/chipped — look at the upper right and upper left corners. The hinges clearly weren’t attached. I definitely didn’t break that drawer.

I noticed some stains on the furniture, and neither of the lightbulbs worked on the reading lamps by the bed.

The bed was comfortable, albeit sans reading lamps. They provided us a nice little lavender oil on the bed too. No Conrad Bear, though.

The bathroom was a big highlight. There was a separate, HUGE shower room with excellent water pressure, plus a rainfall shower head in addition to a handheld shower head. The bath towels were numerous and extra-fluffy, and they gave us two nice robes and sets of slippers too. Toiletries were the Mandarin Tea scent, which I enjoy and which appear common to the Conrad brand.

Review – Fitness Center:

I give the fitness center a 7 out of 10: Very serviceable, but nothing special. It had a great view. And I’m not sure whether this is a Pro or a Con, but they crammed a lot of equipment into the space they provided. So while it felt crowded, it definitely prevented any issues where you’d have to wait for a machine.

In total, the fitness center provided two bikes, a big row of treadmills and ellipticals, plus a full set of dumbbells and two weight benches. They gave out hand towels, disposable headphones, apples, and mini bottles of water. And, cardio TV was available too.

Review – Restaurants:

Because my partner is a Hilton Diamond thanks to the Amex Hilton Aspire Card, we usually get treated pretty well. At this Conrad hotel, they didn’t have an executive lounge but they did provide us with a “continental breakfast” at Atrio, the wine bar on-site.

This is not most generous Hilton Diamond offering. (See my review of the Conrad Osaka Executive Lounge for the most over-the-top elite lounge I’ve ever experienced. However, it was obviously cooked-to-order for me, and the eggs and potatoes were delicious. I cleaned my plate and they provided coffee for me too.

Later I went to Loopy Doopy, the Conrad hotel’s rooftop bar. It offered beautiful views and some alcoholic popsicles. Worth “popping” in.

Value per Hilton point: 0.41 – 1.0 cents

This is a large range because this room can cost anywhere from $300-$800 per night. Most standard awards here run 80,000 – 95,000 Hilton points per night. Therefore, if you can find an award night when the hotel costs $800, it’s a great value per Hilton point, which The Points Guy Values at 0.6 cents per point.

Bottom line:

We enjoyed this hotel and would go back if we got a good deal again. Normally this hotel costs a much higher rate than the two nights we were here. Apparently the base rate of ~$330 that we paid (including all taxes and fees) is very low. Sometimes, this hotel costs upwards of $800 per night. I don’t think it’s worth $800. But I do recognize how large the rooms are, and how expensive New York City is! Relative to some mid-range hotels that were nearby, $330 for the Conrad New York was a reasonable value.