Review of EVEN New York-Times Square South: A Hotel Focused on Fitness

Elizabeth and I decided to take a trip to New York City right after Christmas and through New Year’s Day. Because hotels in New York are extremely expensive, especially that time of year, we knew we would have to use points to cover all hotel costs. Because we could fly with Southwest for free using points for me and companion pass for Elizabeth (find out more here), we then could get to NYC and back but had to work out a plan for our hotel stays.

To give a little bit of insight into our thought process, we decided to stay at different hotels over our 6 nights in the city. We decided to stay at the JW Marriott Essex House for the first two nights, EVEN Hotels New York-Times Square South for the middle 2 nights, and Hilton Times Square for the last two nights.

This review is about the EVEN hotel, and if you enjoy this article, please share it with others!

This is a fairly new brand in the IHG brand of hotels. EVEN is meant to represent a balanced lifestyle when you travel. For example, many if not all of the items served in the restaurant are very healthy, the weight room was large and extensive, and there is workout equipment in your hotel room!Queen/Queen room in EVEN hotels-Showing workout equipment EVEN hotel food area Weight Room

While this is an interesting take on traveling, we found it refreshing and fun. It would definitely be a key factor if we regularly traveled for work so that working out was more easily built into the day.EVEN hotel room

The hotel had 150 rooms, and we were on the 32nd floor. Interestingly, all hotel rooms are numbered as even numbers, and there were only 6 rooms per floor. That shows how “thin” the hotel actually was.

Our view was incredible from the windows. We enjoyed looking at the view of the city at night and during the daytime, and we also were able to watch light snow fall on our last day in the room!Light Snow from the room window View at night

The bathroom was large and was set up in a style that I would consider similar to Aloft Hotels with the Starwood program. The soap and shampoo were not in individual containers in travel size but rather in larger bottles found inside the showers.Soap/Shampoo at EVEN hotels

Above the bed were some lights that could change colors. Although this is obviously not a reason to definitely book the hotel over another, it was cool and would be something I could see kids really liking.Lights above the bed

This EVEN hotel was running around $300 a night before taxes for the nights we stayed. It was 40,000 IHG points per night, and if you know anything about IHG points, you know that is a pretty good redemption for their point value. If you want to stay here in the future, it is raising to 50,000 points unless you book it right away!

Elizabeth and I both received 80,000 IHG points when we signed up separately for the IHG credit card issued through Chase. Take note that there is no referral bonus for this card, and right now the sign up bonus is only 60,000 points. So if you want to get this credit card, my suggestion is to wait until it has an increased sign up bonus. Stay tuned to teacherstravelingonpoints.com to see when the card gets an increased bonus.IHG Credit Card through Chase

As in any hotel review we write, we want to post lots of pictures and facts so that you can make the best decision based on what you need for accommodations. This section is intended to point out the things that stood out to us, whether they were positive or negative.

-Because we are platinum elites with IHG through the credit card, we were able to get a free drink at the bar/restaurant. We chose to get smoothies in the first morning of our stay that were delicious! The breakfast menu looked really good but was a little more expensive than we wanted to pay.

-Housekeeping was very punctual and thorough. We were really pleased with the cleanliness of the room, the comfort of the bed, and the sheets. The pillows were just thick enough for me, and I like thick pillows.

-I really like the way the TV would swivel around the room so that you could watch it as you got ready in the bathroom or from the bed.

-It was slightly annoying that we could only get late checkout until 1 PM. Our other hotels in NYC offered late checkout until 3 or 4 PM.

-There was only two elevators, and they seemed to be shared with the cleaning staff. At times you could wait awhile. This is one of my pet peeves with hotels when this is a problem.

The location of the hotel was awesome as it was right next to Madison Square Garden, on the same block as a subway entrance, and about a 7 minute walk from the High Line. I do believe calling it “Times Square South” is a tad misleading, but it is kind of in-between boroughs. It is south of Hell’s Kitchen, west of what we think of as Midtown, North of Chelsea, and East of Hudson Yards.

Would we stay there again? Absolutely, and we probably will when we go back to NYC! We were easily able to relax at this hotel while we were in walking distance of the Empire State Building, the Macy’s at Herald Square, and Bryant Park.