Side-by-side
The Mark Hotel vs Aman New York
The Mark Hotel: Steps from Central Park and the Met on Madison Avenue, a location almost nobody who's stayed here complains about. 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.
Independent
Fat ApprovedThe Mark Hotel
A 1927 landmark building on Madison Avenue with 106 rooms and a Jean-Georges restaurant, steps from Central Park.
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 Mark Hotel
Strengths
- Staff who remember guests by name across multiple stays and years
- Unbeatable Upper East Side location minutes from Central Park and the Met
- Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant and room service, including breakfast in bed
- Old-school touches: loaner bikes, winter sleds, John Lobb shoe care, hot dog cart
Trade-offs
- Base rooms can show real wear: stains, dated furniture, occasional maintenance failures
- Outdoor dining and lost-item resolution are inconsistent when something goes wrong
- Dining room and lobby atmosphere read as dated or dim to some recent guests
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 Mark Hotel/ 20 | Aman New York/ 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Tier | Fat Approved | — |
| Overall Fat Score | 16 | Not in collection |
| Service | 15.5+2 Regulars name the same concierge and front-desk staff, like Suzana and Mia, but other guests describe rude doormen and lost belongings that went unanswered. | 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 The 1927 building and Jacques Grange interiors still read chic, though several guests flag rooms with worn furniture and dated details. | 18.5+1.5 |
| Location | 18.5+2.5 Steps from Central Park and the Met on Madison Avenue, a location almost nobody who's stayed here complains about. | 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 | 14.5+0.5 Jean-Georges breakfast and the hot dog stand draw real fans, but brunch and room service have drawn complaints about slow, careless staff for the price. | 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 | 13.5 Barely mentioned in the reports beyond the Frederic Fekkai salon, so there's little to go on here. | 17.5+4 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 Mark Hotel
The case for The Mark is the people at the desk, not the building. Mia greets a returning guest by name at checkout years after her last stay; Suzana builds itineraries with real warmth; Tim the bellman and Henry at the hot dog cart get singled out on their own. That kind of continuity is what people actually come back for, along with the 1927 landmark building, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's kitchen, and a location blocks from Central Park and the Met.
Book a base room and you're gambling. One Christmas-week guest paid around $5,000 for three nights in a Madison King with stains and burn marks on the furniture, got moved to a Park Studio with mold in the corners, and lost refrigerated gifts in the shuffle. Outdoor dining draws real complaints: flimsy furniture, a party left sitting in the rain with no one checking on them, food arriving without silverware. One guest's coat, sent out for cleaning after a spill, took four calls and thirteen people to track down over ten days, and still landed at the wrong address. None of this is universal: plenty of guests describe spotless rooms and easy weeks, and the dining room and lobby read as dated to some recent visitors rather than others. But it's recent enough and specific enough to price in rather than wave off.
Book it for the location, the doormen, and Jean-Georges breakfast in bed, and go in expecting a base room that might be tired rather than perfect. Ask for a renovated category if that matters to you, and don't count on outdoor dining or lost-item follow-up if something goes wrong. For an Upper East Side address with staff who remember you and a view of Madison Avenue, nothing nearby matches it.
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 Mark 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 Mark Hotel or Aman New York?
The Mark Hotel: Steps from Central Park and the Met on Madison Avenue, a location almost nobody who's stayed here complains about. 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 Mark Hotel and Aman New York?
Both are Urban, Heritage, Architecture and Design. The Mark Hotel adds Culinary; Aman New York adds Wellness and Romantic. The Mark Hotel is ahead on where it puts you. Aman New York is ahead on the spa.
Which is better for wellness, The Mark Hotel or Aman New York?
Aman New York leads on this. The Mark Hotel: Barely mentioned in the reports beyond the Frederic Fekkai salon, so there's little to go on here. 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 location, The Mark Hotel or Aman New York?
The Mark Hotel leads on this. The Mark Hotel: Steps from Central Park and the Met on Madison Avenue, a location almost nobody who's stayed here complains about. Aman New York: 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.
Where are The Mark Hotel and Aman New York?
Both are in New York, about 1.7 km apart — close enough that the choice is the hotel, not the neighbourhood.
How does Fat Voyage compare The Mark 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.