Side by side Aman New York vs Taj Aravali Resort & Spa, Udaipur

A base room here (Deluxe Suite, roughly 725 square feet) runs from about $1,100 to $3,500 a night depending on season, and what arrives for that is real: Jean-Michel Gathy's dark, warm interiors, a working fireplace, and soundproofing so good you can watch a fire truck go by outside and hear nothing. The building itself, the 1921 Crown Building on 57th Street, is one of the best-designed hotel shells in the city, and the three-floor spa with its Banya and Hammam suites gets more genuine enthusiasm from guests than almost anything else on the property, cold plunge terraces and all.

Where it gets complicated is everything Aman built its name on outside the room. Several guests who've stayed at other Amans describe a butler service that's advertised but doesn't really exist, a concierge that lost a scheduled dinner reservation entirely, and a front desk that can feel like a well-run five-star chain rather than the anticipatory, name-remembering service the brand promises elsewhere. One couple celebrating a tenth anniversary got a chaotic, unresolved checkout after a lobby flooding issue; another found the pool disappointingly cold with no complimentary access to the cold plunge or jacuzzi unless you book the paid Banya treatment. The food is consistently described as good but not memorable, which stings less in a city with this many restaurants but still doesn't match the price tag.

Book it if you want a quiet, beautifully built room to retreat to in Midtown and you're not counting on Aman's resort-level hand-holding to show up. The rooms alone justify a stay for anyone who values a genuinely soundproofed, well-finished space over a livelier boutique address. If personal recognition and a fully realized butler relationship are the point of paying Aman prices, that's inconsistent here. Go for the room and the spa.

Book the villa, not the brand name. Taj Aravali sits on a 40-acre hillside outside Udaipur, and when it works, it's the space that sells it: Luxury Pool Villas with private plunge pools, traditional cottages with verandahs looking at jungle and hills, an amphitheater lawn kids can run laps on. Staff who get it right go well beyond the job. One guest's room came with a broken fridge, peeling paint and a dirty kettle; Hanumant personally moved them and stayed on it until the replacement room actually worked. Ritesh and Vardhan swapped a booked room for a kid-friendly one, unprompted by any complaint, once they clocked a family was traveling with a toddler.

The trouble is what happens when the desk, not a name, is doing the work. A no-reservation arrival waited 45 minutes without so much as a glass of water while other guests got welcome drinks a few feet away. A family checking out after a hotel wedding sat with packed bags for two and a half hours before a bellboy showed up, after ten-plus calls to housekeeping. One anniversary booking arrived to no cake and no decorated room despite an email confirming both in advance. Food is the weak link across the board: Tiri's buffet gets called basic or overpriced more than once, refills lag at breakfast, and high tea is a paid add-on that surprises people used to it being included at this level.

None of this is occasional bad luck, it's what happens when the property is at capacity for a wedding or a summer weekend, and Udaipur has real alternatives nearby if food and precision matter more to you than acreage. Come for the villa, the hills, and staff like Hanumant and Ritesh who'll actually fix things if you ask, not for a flawless check-in.