#4 in Top 20 New York for Business · ★★★★★
The St. Regis New York
The 1904 Astor landmark on Fifth Avenue, where a 24-hour butler runs the executive stay.
The 1904 Astor landmark on Fifth Avenue, where a 24-hour butler runs the executive stay.
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Choose it when the trip is a relationship rather than a single meeting, because the butler service turns the hotel into a working base. John Jacob Astor IV opened the St. Regis in 1904, and the brand's flagship has held this corner of 55th Street and Fifth Avenue ever since. There are 238 rooms and suites, and every one comes with the signature St. Regis butler: a 24-hour, per-floor attendant who unpacks luggage on arrival, presses a suit without being asked, delivers the morning espresso exactly as you take it, and quietly functions as the executive assistant for the length of the stay. On a multi-day client trip, that continuity, the butler who remembers your pressing schedule and the time of your standing seven a.m. call, is worth more than any single facility.
The address does the rest. Midtown East puts you within walking distance of the Plaza District, Madison Avenue and much of the Midtown meeting circuit, with the subway a couple of minutes away for anything further downtown. It earns its number four position on our Top 20 New York for Business list on service and location above all, scoring an aggregate 9.8 out of 10 across our three editorial criteria. This is a hotel built for the executive who values a named, consistent point of contact and a genuinely central base over a downtown design-hotel scene.
For a working trip, a higher-floor Grand Luxe or Deluxe room is the sensible pick: you get the full butler service, more quiet above the street, and a rate that does not tip into suite territory. When you need to host or spread out, the Astor Suite is the one-bedroom flagship, and the Presidential Suite is the corner two-bedroom layout for entertaining or a longer stay. Because every category carries the butler, the real choice here is about space and view rather than service level, which is unusual at this end of the market and works in the business traveler's favor.
Whatever you book, set the butler up on arrival. Hand over your schedule for the stay, from suit pressing to the espresso time to the evening cocktail, and let the service run in the background while you work. It is the single most useful thing to do in the first ten minutes, and it is what separates a St. Regis stay from a merely expensive one.
Use the King Cole Bar as your after-meeting room. Aim for around 5:30 p.m. and pre-book a corner table near the Maxfield Parrish mural for a discreet client drink. Order the bar's original Bloody Mary, the cocktail it is credited with inventing, as a talking point.
The hotel's social center is the King Cole Bar, the wood-panelled lounge off the lobby set beneath Maxfield Parrish's famous Old King Cole mural. It is credited as the birthplace of the Bloody Mary, first mixed here by bartender Fernand Petiot in 1934, and it remains one of Midtown's most atmospheric spots for an early-evening drink, which makes it a natural, low-key venue to close out a meeting near the office cluster. Astor Court, the lobby tea room, is the calmer daytime option for a quiet conversation or an informal morning meeting over coffee.
This is a city hotel built around address and service rather than a resort-style leisure offering, so set expectations accordingly: the strengths are the butler, the bar and the location, not a destination spa-and-pool complex. For a business stay that is exactly the right emphasis, since a packed meeting day rarely leaves time for a pool anyway, and the things you will actually use, pressing, coffee, reservations, a good bar downstairs, are the things the St. Regis does best.
Yes on both counts, with a caveat on price. The St. Regis brand sits within Marriott, so the New York flagship participates in the Marriott Bonvoy programme: members earn points on qualifying stays and can redeem them here, and elite members see the usual recognition, which matters if your company routes travel through Marriott. For a road warrior consolidating nights with one chain, that alignment can turn an expensive room into a more defensible business expense, and the butler service is a genuine productivity multiplier on top.
On trip length, the hotel rewards even a one or two-night stay because the value is front-loaded into service you use immediately: the butler unpacks and presses the moment you arrive, sets your coffee time, and books the dinner while you head to your first meeting. There is no slow-burn resort experience you need several days to justify. If anything, the shorter the trip, the more the butler earns its keep, since it removes exactly the small frictions that eat into a compressed schedule.
The Midtown East cluster gives you several strong options at this level; the St. Regis wins on butler service and heritage, while its neighbors trade on views or a different kind of grandeur.
| Hotel | Best for | Signature edge |
|---|---|---|
| The St. Regis New York | Butler-led executive stays | 24-hour per-floor butler; King Cole Bar |
| The Pierre, A Taj Hotel | Old-world Central Park grandeur | Park-side address and formal service |
| Mandarin Oriental, New York | Skyline views and a real spa | Columbus Circle heights and wellness |
The reasons to pause are about cost and tone rather than quality.
None of these undermine the core case. For a service-led, centrally located business stay where a consistent butler earns its keep, the St. Regis is close to the best in the city; for a design-forward or leisure-focused trip, look downtown or to a view hotel instead.
Its 24-hour, per-floor butler works like a personal assistant, handling pressing, packing, coffee and reservations and remembering your preferences across visits, all from a central Midtown East address near the offices.
A higher-floor Grand Luxe or Deluxe room for a working trip, or the Astor Suite and Presidential Suite when you need to host. Every category includes the butler.
It is credited as the birthplace of the Bloody Mary, first mixed by Fernand Petiot in 1934, and sits beneath Maxfield Parrish's Old King Cole mural. It is the hotel's after-meeting room.
John Jacob Astor IV opened it in 1904 on 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, and it remains the St. Regis brand's Beaux-Arts flagship with 238 rooms and suites.
At Two East 55th Street on the corner of Fifth Avenue in Midtown East, minutes from the 5 Av and 53 St subway and the Plaza District offices.
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