New York Classic Old-School Hotel, Marriott Marquis, with a Location that Can’t be Beat

By Max Hartshorne
GoNOMAD Editor

Located at 1535 Broadway in Manhattan, in the heart of Times Square and Broadway’s busy theater district, the 49-story New York Marriott Marquis is one of the largest Marriott hotels in the world.

This landmark hotel opened in 1985 and was designed by the iconic architect John Portman. It has great architectural interest, including a 37-story atrium with 12 glass enclosed state-of-the-art Miconic 10 elevators.

In recent years ornate bars have been put up around the atrium so that nobody can jump down the long drop to the eighth floor.

All 1,966 guest rooms and suites are spacious and comfortably appointed. Many guest rooms offer a Times Square view.

The hotel houses the 1,600-seat Marquis Theater, a premiere Broadway musical house. Guests and visitors enjoy several restaurant choices, including The View, New York’s only revolving rooftop restaurant.

Across the street is one of the city’s most famous restaurants, Carmines, with its famous coal-fired stoves where they bake pizzas. Only the NY Hilton is bigger than Marriott’s flagship NYC hotel. the Marquis.

The Marquis Fitness Center, a bold, glass-enclosed 4,000 square foot space, appears as a “floating lightbox”, midway over the hotel’s dramatic 37-story atrium, providing an exciting, spectacular setting for a full workout, as well as panoramic views of Times Square and midtown Manhattan.

Fond Memories

I have a personal cache of memories of this grand hotel, going back 15 years to when we first began exhibiting and doing speaking engagements at the New York Times Travel Show. Each year as we schlepped all of our booth and giveaways and posters over to the Jacob Javits Center to take part in the tradeshow, we’d get our reward by staying in the Marriott Marquis.

We stayed there for at least ten years in a row, up until 2011 when my great friend Kent St. John could no longer make the trip due to illness.

Being able to have a big room like this made us young web entrepreneurs feel like we’d hit the big time! The first year we stayed there, we invited a few colleagues up to our suite to try and wow them. The shrimp cocktail from room service and the big view did the trick!

What Travelers Think

This grand hotel has done pretty well over the years, despite the deluge of competition from smaller, ‘hipper’ hotels with more modern decor and dark, noisy lobbies. There are currently 12,452 reviews for The Marquis on TripAdvisor, and 46% are five stars, with 39% four stars.

Many guests agreed with me, that it’s the location that gives the MM its special position in the NYC hotel hierarchy.

A guest from London who stayed there in January 2019, the same time that I stayed there said, “This hotel is pretty good for New York. Could do with a bit of sprucing up but my room was clean, everything worked, it was quiet, the room was pretty big by NYC standards.”

A recent guest from California added. “It really is the location that makes this hotel, along with the glass elevators and rooftop lounge. Times Square is laid out in front of you as you go out the door. Rooms are a good size, bigger than most in NYC. ”

New York Marriott Marquis sponsored this visit, but the opinions are the author’s own.