Hotel Elysee

No live HotelsForKings score while the hotel is closed. Our three-axis editorial score (Rooms, Service, Location) rests on a current assessment of the property as it actually operates, and the renovation changes the rooms materially, so any pre-closure number would price a hotel that no longer exists. We are holding the score and the New York ranking until the doors reopen and we can re-assess the Elysee on the same terms as every other hotel here. Affiliate disclosure: this page carries no bookable rate while the hotel is closed, and we never accept payment for placement.

Why did we rebuild this page while the hotel is closed?

We kept and rebuilt the Hotel Elysee page because the property is temporarily closed rather than gone, and because presenting it honestly matters more than pretending it can be booked tonight. The Elysee shut in mid-2025 for a renovation estimated in the tens of millions of dollars, part of a repositioning timed toward its centennial, and it is scheduled to reopen in fall 2026 with dates subject to change. Rather than link a bookable rate for a hotel that cannot take you, this page states the closure plainly, describes what the Elysee was and points you to the official site for reopening updates. When it reopens we will re-review it and restore a live score and ranking.

What the Elysee has long been is worth recording. The 103 rooms occupied a 1926 building between Madison and Park Avenues with the ceiling heights and window proportions of pre-war residential Manhattan, and the Library Hotel Collection ran it around a philosophy that consistently favoured the guest: a complimentary afternoon wine and cheese reception, genuine attentiveness and preference memory, and the absence of the resort-fee mathematics that Midtown's larger hotels impose. It was the most straightforwardly civilised small hotel in the Midtown East corridor, and the renovation is meant to lift it further while keeping the character that made it worth seeking out.

What were the rooms like before the closure?

The rooms were residential in character rather than commercial, which was the whole point of the Elysee. The standard configurations had the proportions of a pre-war apartment rather than a standardised hotel box, and the suites carried living-room layouts and, in some cases, kitchen facilities that suited extended stays. Across the 103 rooms the Library Hotel Collection layered in the amenities that made the value case, complimentary breakfast, the afternoon wine and cheese, evening turn-down, so the cost-per-amenity calculation consistently favoured the guest. It was a quiet, grown-up small hotel rather than a scene.

The honest note for anyone planning a future stay is that this is exactly what the renovation is changing. The works increase the size and number of suites and reposition the property, so the rooms on reopening will differ from the ones described here, which is precisely why we are holding our score rather than carrying an old number forward. Treat this section as a record of what the Elysee was, and check the reopened room categories directly when the hotel returns in 2026. In the meantime, the fairest way to think about the Elysee is as a hotel worth waiting for rather than one to write off. The Library Hotel Collection has a consistent record of running warm, service-led small hotels, and the decision to keep the Monkey Bar open through the works signals continuity rather than a wholesale reinvention. When the doors reopen we will book a stay, assess the enlarged suites and the restored amenity package on their own terms, and publish a live score and a New York ranking on the same basis as every other hotel on this site.

Is the Monkey Bar still open?

Yes, and it is the one part of the Elysee still operating during the renovation. The Monkey Bar, the long-running piano bar and restaurant just off the lobby, remains open throughout the construction even while the guest rooms above are closed, which is unusual and a genuine reason to visit. It is a Midtown institution with an Edward Sorel mural of New York cultural figures and a period room that the neighbourhood's newer hotels cannot replicate, and it has survived the area's complete commercial transformation. For now it is the way to experience a piece of the Elysee while the hotel itself is dark.

What about wine and cheese and other amenities?

Before the closure, the Elysee's signature hospitality gesture was a complimentary afternoon wine and cheese reception each day, alongside complimentary breakfast and evening turn-down, the amenities that made a boutique price feel generous. Those programmes are paused while the hotel is closed and will presumably return in some form on reopening, though the renovated hotel's exact amenity package has not been published. As with the rooms, we will confirm what is on offer when the Elysee reopens rather than assume the pre-closure package carries over unchanged.

Signature amenities, before the closure

In the heart of Midtown East

The building, the rooms, the Monkey Bar

Facade

Guest room

Lobby

Monkey Bar

Where to stay in Midtown East while the Elysee is closed

Because the Elysee is closed until fall 2026, the useful comparison is not against it but around it: where to book in the same corridor in the meantime. The Lowell is the discreet Upper East Side boutique with wood-burning fireplaces a short walk north. Park Hyatt New York is the modern luxury option at 57th Street, a different price bracket entirely. The Library Hotel, the Elysee's sibling in the same collection, offers the same warm small-hotel service on Madison Avenue at 41st Street. Each covers a different part of what makes the Elysee worth waiting for.

Open alternatives near Hotel Elysee

#8 · Upper East Side

The Lowell

Upper East Side · boutique

★★★★★HFK 9.0

#9 · 57th Street

Park Hyatt New York

Midtown · 57th Street

★★★★★HFK 9.3

#43 · Madison Ave

Library Hotel

Madison Avenue · same collection

★★★★HFK 8.9

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