Inside the Peninsula New York’s New $19,000-Per-Night Suite

Jackie Caradonio

Updated Fri, Jan 27, 2017, 7:00 PM

What can $19,000 buy you in New York City? A single night in Manhattan’s most luxurious new suite. Unveiled last fall at the legendary Peninsula New York (a longtime Robb Report editor’s favorite), the Fifth Avenue Suite is more grand apartment than hotel accommodation. Measuring 2,500 square feet, the 17th-floor spectacle has everything a modern New Yorker needs: a sprawling living room and elegant dining room for entertaining, a gourmet kitchen for your personal chef, an impressive collection of commissioned art, and sky-high views that seem to stretch forever.

As one would expect of any well-heeled Fifth Avenue residence, the suite’s design is both crisp and elegant. The work of New York–based Bill Rooney Studios Inc., the décor is modern (think white leather, polished wood, and marble details) with the occasional nod to the hotel’s early-20th-century pedigree (herringbone walnut floors in the living room). There’s room for work and play, whether soaking in the oversize tub in the master bathroom (there’s also a powder room) or working in the private study. Should you have the urge to cook—though it’s certainly not required—the kitchen is stocked with Gaggenau appliances and a 50-bottle wine refrigerator. Throughout, commissioned works of art take the design to another level, from a hand-painted mural by the Hong Kong artist David Qian in the dining room to a custom-made headboard of embossed leather by Londoner Helen Amy Murray in the bedroom.

Of course, the Fifth Avenue Suite’s name is not just a clever moniker. Look out any window and you’ll find virtually all of Manhattan’s famous shopping avenue—and more—unfolding before you. Just below, you spy the Museum of Modern Art, its Alexander Calder and Ellsworth Kelly masterpieces appearing tiny colorful dots in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. To the east, you can pick out the Neo-Gothic spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral; farther south, Rockefeller Center reaches toward the sky.

In addition to the Peninsula’s standard perks—including the marque’s proprietary tablet technology allowing guests to control everything from lighting to temperature, as well as communicate 24/7 with a team of hotel concierges—the Fifth Avenue Suite offers its own cache of benefits. The as-you-wish staff can include masseuses for in-room treatments and personal chefs for dinner parties; and included in the nightly rate are roundtrip airport transfers in the hotel’s custom BMW 7 Series, 24-hour check-in and check-out, and unlimited use of a Mini Cooper for adventures throughout the city. Then again, there’s nothing wrong with popping open a bottle of Dom Pérignon and doing little more than staying put to enjoy every penny of the $19,000-per-night rate. (peninsula.com)