Side-by-side
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel vs Aman New York
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel: Most guests describe genuine warmth, a complimentary suite upgrade during a cold snap, and staff who remember names. Aman New York: The three-floor spa with Banya, Hammam and cold plunge terraces gets the strongest reactions of the whole stay.
Can't split them? Tell us the trip and we'll say which one we'd book — then book it at the same rate as direct, our perks attached.
Rosewood
Fat FavoriteThe Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel
A room here starts around $1,400 a night and a basic deluxe king can run closer to $1,200 before taxes, and what you get for it is a hotel that still feels like a hotel rather than a lobby full of…
Aman
Aman New York
Aman New York is a city-centre property with a jazz club, spa suites with fireplaces, and an indoor pool.
Strengths & trade-offs
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel
Strengths
- Art deco rooms and suites, with the Central Park Suite singled out for space and views
- Bemelmans Bar and Cafe Carlyle give the hotel a genuine draw beyond the rooms themselves
- Staff go out of their way, from arranging a house car in the rain to full-floor privacy for a guest recovering from surgery
- Quiet Upper East Side setting a short walk from Central Park and Madison Avenue shopping
Trade-offs
- Plant-based and room service dining is limited for a hotel at this level
- Gym is small and dated compared to nearby competitors like the Surrey
- Some recent stays report real lapses: brown water, unresolved maintenance issues, cold service
- Some rooms and bathrooms haven't been renovated in a long time
Aman New York
Strengths
- Jean-Michel Gathy's dark, tactile room design paired with soundproofing strong enough to block street noise entirely
- Three-floor spa with Banya, Hammam suites, and cold plunge terraces rated as a standout even by disappointed guests
- Entry-level rooms run around 725 square feet, unusually large for a Manhattan hotel
- Basement jazz club open to non-guests draws consistent praise as a night out
Trade-offs
- Advertised butler service frequently described as missing or one-way (iPad only, no direct line)
- Concierge has dropped confirmed dinner reservations and been slow to resolve billing and checkout issues
- Pool has run cold with no complimentary access to jacuzzi or cold plunge outside a paid Banya booking
- Food and beverage described as good but unremarkable given the price, with limited bar hours reported on at least one stay
Scoreboard
| Dimension | The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel/ 20 | Aman New York/ 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Tier | Fat Favorite | — |
| Overall Fat Score | 17 | Not in collection |
| Service | 17+3.5 Most guests describe genuine warmth, a complimentary suite upgrade during a cold snap, and staff who remember names, though a handful report cold, dismissive treatment. | 13.5 Front desk and spa staff get praised by name in some stays, but a real share of guests report a missing butler, mixed-up reservations, and slow callbacks. |
| Design | 17.5 Art deco rooms, Ludwig Bemelman's murals, chandeliers and wood panelling get consistent praise, though the elevators and some bathrooms feel their age. | 18.5+1 |
| Location | 16.5+0.5 The Upper East Side address puts Central Park and Madison Avenue shopping within a short walk but sits away from downtown dining and nightlife. | 16 The 57th Street address puts you next to Fifth Avenue shopping, but the lobby sits on the 14th floor and many guest rooms below it get poor views. |
| Dining | 16+2 Bemelmans Bar and Cafe Carlyle draw people back for the jazz and the crowd, but room service is thin and plant-based options are limited. | 14 Guests call the food fine rather than special for the price, and one wedding-anniversary checkout was disrupted by a lobby flooding incident and billing confusion. |
| Wellness | 12.5 The gym gets called out as needing a real upgrade, and there is little else on the wellness side to speak of. | 17.5+5 The three-floor spa with Banya, Hammam and cold plunge terraces gets the strongest reactions of the whole stay, though the pool has run cold and the pool windows are painted over. |
The Verdicts
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel
A room here starts around $1,400 a night and a basic deluxe king can run closer to $1,200 before taxes, and what you get for it is a hotel that still feels like a hotel rather than a lobby full of phones. The art deco rooms and the Ludwig Bemelman murals in the bar downstairs are the reason people keep coming back, and more than one guest mentions getting waved past the two-hour line at Bemelmans just for being a hotel guest. One traveler recovering from surgery at a nearby hospital was given an entire floor to herself and a stocked kitchen with a blender for protein shakes, arranged by a travel advisor who'd told the hotel why she needed the quiet.
The catch is consistency. Some rooms haven't been touched in years, the elevators are slow, and a few recent stays describe real problems: brown water from the taps, a scabies scare that the hotel wouldn't document, room service orders that never showed up. The food on property is the weakest part of the case — plant-based options are thin, the cheese plate on room service has been described as a few cubes on a dish, and the gym is small enough that regulars book the Surrey next door just to work out. None of that is universal, and the good stays outnumber the bad ones by a wide margin, but at these prices a brown-water afternoon or a missed room service order lands harder than it would somewhere cheaper.
Book it for the Central Park Suite or a high floor if you can get one, for a seat at Bemelmans, and for a version of New York that doesn't exist much anymore. Skip it if what you actually want is a modern gym, adventurous food, or to be near downtown. For anyone chasing old New York glamour with real service behind it, nothing else on the Upper East Side does it quite the same way.
Aman New York
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.
Still torn between The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel and Aman New York?
We're Sofie and Nicolas, the two of us behind Fat Voyage — and we've stayed in hotels like these ourselves. Tell us what the trip is and we'll tell you which one we'd book, and why. We're not a booking service, but a few times a year we plan one properly for someone; if that's what you're after, say so.
You'll be dealing with the two of us the whole way through, which is why we only take on a handful of trips at a time — if we're full, we'll say so. We reply by email, usually within one working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.
Common questions
Which should I book — The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel or Aman New York?
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel: Most guests describe genuine warmth, a complimentary suite upgrade during a cold snap, and staff who remember names. Aman New York: The three-floor spa with Banya, Hammam and cold plunge terraces gets the strongest reactions of the whole stay.
What's the difference between The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel and Aman New York?
Both are Urban, Heritage, Architecture, Romantic and Design. Aman New York adds Wellness. The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel is ahead on how you're looked after. Aman New York is ahead on the spa.
Which is better for wellness, The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel or Aman New York?
Aman New York leads on this. The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel: The gym gets called out as needing a real upgrade, and there is little else on the wellness side to speak of. Aman New York: The three-floor spa with Banya, Hammam and cold plunge terraces gets the strongest reactions of the whole stay, though the pool has run cold and the pool windows are painted over.
Which is better for service, The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel or Aman New York?
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel leads on this. The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel: Most guests describe genuine warmth, a complimentary suite upgrade during a cold snap, and staff who remember names, though a handful report cold, dismissive treatment. Aman New York: Front desk and spa staff get praised by name in some stays, but a real share of guests report a missing butler, mixed-up reservations, and slow callbacks.
Where are The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel and Aman New York?
Both are in New York, about 1.6 km apart — close enough that the choice is the hotel, not the neighbourhood.
How does Fat Voyage compare The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel and Aman New York?
Fat Voyage scores every hotel out of 20 across five dimensions — service, design, location, dining and wellness — from independent signals: the most active luxury travel communities, major editorial publications, and verified guest reviews, weighted by source credibility, depth and recency. Nothing is paid for, and no hotel can buy a place.