Looking for a hotel that’s family-friendly in New York? Then it’s well worth taking a look at the Kimpton Eventi Hotel.
With so many hotels and areas of New York to choose from, we were really happy with our choice for our visit to New York over Thanksgiving.
With spacious rooms for New York standards and a fantastic location, this trendy hotel is a great choice if you are visiting New York with children.
Location
One of the main reasons why we chose the Kimpton Eventi apart from the great deal we had booking via British Airways was because of its location. It was less than a 5 minute walk to Macys and within 10-15 minutes you could walk to the Empire State Building, Bryant Park or into Times Square.
The Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, the high line, Bryant Park, Penn Station and Times Square are all within easy walking distance.
The Hotel
As you would expect from a luxury boutique hotel there were lots of beautifully designed public areas, my favourite of which was the lobby.
With its comfortable leather sofas, hip-music, bookcases, artwork and designer lights it sometimes felt as though we had entered a trendy living room rather than a hotel – but it was still family friendly.
It was not just the décor, scent and ambience of the trendy lobby that was impressive – the staff were so friendly and a credit to the Kimpton brand.
By the time we had reached the check-in desk, we had been greeted by several of the hotel’s staff, already creating a great first impression.
Tip – Check out the Kimpton Hotel’s Social Media Feeds to find their social password. If you mention it at check-in you get a surprise welcome gift.
Family Rooms at the Kimpton Eventi
We stayed in one of the Kimpton Eventi’s family Queen Queen rooms, one of the 292 rooms on offer at the hotel. At 325 square feet it was huge by New York standards and provided us with all the space we needed for our stay.
We ruled out a suite as we wanted the girls to have a proper bed and ideally two interconnecting rooms would have been ideal but this is New York in the holiday season so prices were at a premium.
The staff at the Kimpton Eventi set up the most amazing balloon display we have ever seen in our room to celebrate my husband’s birthday. There was also a huge bowl of treats for the girls, delicious cupcakes, a fresh fruit platter and champagne for us to enjoy.
After a long flight from London this was such an amazing welcome and certainly provided us with the much needed energy boost we needed and such a thoughtful warm welcome from the hotel.
Our room at the Kimpton Eventi was really impressive, beautifully decorated with gorgeous lighting and a chocolate and taupe colour scheme which created a contemporary and stylish ambience – the perfect home from home for our 6 days in the city.
One of my favourite things about our room on the top floor of the hotel was its huge floor to ceiling windows that provided sweeping views over the Manhattan skyline.
Drawing back the curtains each morning and seeing this amazing view was the perfect way to start our day and one of the many things I loved about our room.
Some of the bedrooms have views of the Empire State Building but the family rooms (queen queen rooms) unfortunately do not, but we would catch a glimpse of it each morning before we took the lift down into the lobby for morning drinks.
I always say a sign of a good hotel is when the girls make themselves at home. After recharging on the snacks the hotel had left for us, within minutes of arriving they had covered their beds with their favourite travelling toys, took control of the large wall mounted flat screen TV (which would typically be the Disney channel) and connected their iPads to the hotel’s free high speed wifi.
In typical Kimpton style we even found a yoga mat in the wardrobes along with two plush robes and an umbrella.
The beautiful all-marble bathroom like the bedroom was large for New York standards with a huge walk-in rainforest shower, which I loved after long days exploring the city.
As you would expect from a Kimpton hotel the Atelier Bloem toiletries were amazing and the towels were so soft and fluffy, (if it only had a bathtub it would have been our ideal bathroom.)
Facilities
We loved the complimentary fruit infused water and hot drinks station set up in the lobby each morning which would typically be coffee or hot chocolate and marshmallow, and as it was Christmas, the candy canes. One omission was English breakfast tea, which would have been a lovely addition.
When we booked the Kimpton Eventi one thing we didn’t check was if it had an executive lounge as we feel this benefit makes a huge difference to a family stay.
Unfortunately the Kimpton Eventi didn’t have a lounge, but did offer a wine hour for guests (non alcoholic drinks for children) between 5pm and 6 pm each evening.
We were so busy seeing the sights and attractions of New York that we only used this once which was a lovely quirky benefit of staying at a Kimpton Hotel and was a good way to relax after a busy day sightseeing.
Other facilities at the Kimpton Eventi included a large gym and a fab looking spa with the most delightful scent coming from its reception area. On the 5th floor the veranda offered another place to escape and relax.
Whilst families are not the core target market for Kimpton what was disappointing was that at the two restaurants the Vine and L’Amico there were no specific children’s menus.
After a long day sightseeing we were really looking forward to relaxing and dining at its restaurants as we typically love to dine where we stay.
However because of the limited menu choice for children and the fact that we couldn’t get a table until very late, we had to take the children back out into New York to look for a restaurant. This is an area where Kimpton could improve upon to cater for the family market.
Is the Kimpton Eventi Child-Friendly?
The hotel did a fantastic job making the girls welcome and feel so at home, with the huge welcome balloons to the gigantic bowl of candy.
This level of service continued throughout our stay from local knowledge and tips from the friendly concierge staff to the doorman that would cheerily welcome us back to the hotel each day.
They were all eager to help with anything we needed and made our stay incredibly seamless and stress-free.
For our return to JFK airport the hotel arranged a private SUV transfer for us ($115 one way) which was a far nicer way to leave the city than the yellow cab ($70 one way) which we arrived in.
The most child-friendly aspect of the hotel are its spacious, clean and very well appointed rooms which are one of the largest in the city for a family.
With a few tweaks to its menus to cater for children, this is a hotel we would definitely return to. So if you are planning on taking the kids to New York, it’s well worth looking at the Kimpton Eventi.
This was our first experience of staying at a Kimpton Hotel and now we can’t wait to try out other Kimpton hotels on our travels, especially as they are opening soon in the UK at London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Glasgow.