Hotel Review: W Hoboken

Situated in the heart of Hoboken, New Jersey overlooking Manhattan / New York City skyline, the W Hoboken is only a few blocks away from the PATH Train Station which makes it a few minutes from downtown Manhattan.

With its’ proximity to the Hudson River, the W Hoboken offers scenic views of Manhattan. A view which always look desirable no matter the time of the day, or night. Washington Street in the city of Hoboken is famous for diverse restaurants, shops, and night life.

BOOKING:

I recently hit a jackpot by booking a night at the W Hoboken, a Marriott Bonvoy Category 6 hotel. Technically speaking, this Cat 6 (not Ethernet cable by the way) hotel was literally booked with 35,000 points.

As at the time of booking, cash rate was $392 for a 1 King Standard Room. Cash rate at the W Hoboken sometimes get quite pricey, as high as almost a thousand dollars during peak summertime.

Simply put, we Booked a 1 King Bed Partial Riverview room using 1 Free Night Award (FNA) which I received annually from my Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card. We then applied 1 Suite Night Award (SNA) to upgrade from a standard room to a Fantastic Suite, 1 King Bed, New York City Skyline with River View. As at the time of the booking, cash rate for this suite was $773. Certainly not a bad way to churn 1 FNA & SNA.

Related: Residence Inn Weehawken

Since this was a booking during the winter (off-peak season), I was sort of confident that the Suite Night Award would be approved. Lo and behold, the SNA was approved 5 days prior to arrival, and we had a Fantastic Suite waiting for us at the W Hoboken hotel.

CHECKING IN:

We arrived at the hotel at 6pm and was approached by a gentleman who eventually was both the valet guy and the bellman respectively. We dropped off our car for valet at $45 per night. Though I thought of doing the self-parking right across the hotel for $35 per night, but then, it’s winter and snowstorm was in the horizon.

Checking in was smooth. We were checked in by a super-friendly front desk attendant who appreciated us for choosing their hotel and for being a Marriott Ambassador elite. More on that shortly.

THE FANTASIC SUITE:

Our Fantastic Suite, room 1408 to be precise, had more than enough room to move around. At 544 square feet, this 1 bedroom with 1.5 bathrooms corner suite gave us a mixed feeling. More like a love-hate kind of feeling.

Like my experience at the W Miami, the entire furniture in the suite were dated and could really use a refresh. The Couch in the living room wasn’t comfortable to sit on. In all honesty, it wasn’t just too firm, it felt like sitting on a brick.

The bed on the other hand was comfortable in my opinion, although my wife did not totally agree with me on this one.

The water pressure from the walk-in shower was good enough, but the temperature was lukewarm. It takes longer before the water reaches a boiling point. We did not make use of the bathtub during our stay here at the W Hoboken.

Related: W Hotels New York – Times Square

Save the best for last, right? One of our best moments at the W Hoboken was the welcome note from the hotel and “on behalf of the Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador team” which was also accompanied by a box of chocolates. I found this to be a great touch from the hotel. 

Another positive thing about the Suite was the Nespresso machine and the capsules located by the wet (dry) bar.

There’s also a long table and chair with power outlets where one can get some work done. But again, this table and chair seems to have seen better days.

ELITE BENEFIT:

Elite breakfast at the W Hoboken did not disappoint. The hotel currently offers in-room dining from Monday to Friday and dine-in at the restaurant on weekends only. We ordered breakfast for 2 with a total of $74.20 and our folio reflected that we were charged for the breakfast. Upon calling the hotel after checkout, to my surprise I was told that the hotel only offer up to $22 per guest towards breakfast. Quite disappointing since nothing like that was ever mentioned at check in, but we let that one slide.

We couldn’t leave the hotel without leaving something behind for housekeeping. We understand times are hard, and the hospitality industry is short-staffed. We think the least we could do was to appreciate those that showed up to work. Besides, housekeepers are usually overlooked, but we recognize their hard work.

MY VERDICT:

All the staff members we encountered during our stay were awesome. We had food delivery at the lobby, and we got a call from the front desk attendant about the food delivery, and they offered to bring the food to our room. Again, it was our bellman / valet guy. For us, it was some of those little things that matters.

Though there were many rooms for improvement as mentioned above, but overall, the pros outweighed the cons in our opinion.

Have you stayed at the W Hoboken before? What do you make of this property?