See NYC's Most Expensive Rental, a $500,000 Hotel Room

As the most expensive rental in the city at $500,000 a month, one might expect the suites of The Pierre's 39th floor to be gilded from top to bottom in 24-karat gold. One might expect to swing open the double doors leading to the Tata Suite, the largest of the six that comprise the rental, to a stream of doves and a private quartet playing an old favorite. One might expect, at a price that bests an entire city of astronomical rents, that the furniture is impeccable. That the design is original. That the chandeliers are perfectly symmetrical. But they are not, nor did any of those scenarios unfold. That's not to say that one of the city's most esteemed hotels couldn't arrange a welcome wagon of the aforementioned magnitude—of course it could—but to a visiting journalist, the city's priciest rental looks like a hotel room, because that's exactly what it is.

The best part of the rental, barring the extravagant services that are offered to its guests (more on that later), are its incredible views. The living room of the Tata Suite—the only of the six suites that comprise the rental available to view—looks over Central Park, with unobstructed views up Fifth Avenue and across Central Park South. The dining room, with a table that seats six, overlooks the Upper East Side, the master bedroom looks out onto a transforming 57th Street, and the master bathroom, south, towards the resplendent topper of the Sherry Netherland.

If a guest is to rent out the full 39th floor at a cost of $500,000 a month, The Pierre and its staff are their oyster. A personal butler waits at their beck and call 24 hours a day—the butler can sleep within the confines of the hotel, lest the renter needs them in the middle of the night—to provide services like a rose petal bath, described in great detail as an almost ceremonial experience, or, as has happened in the past, to remake the suite into a disco for a kid's birthday party. The renter has their own private attended elevator, access to the Pierre's chauffeured Jaguar, twice daily maid service, and the option to indulge in pet pampering, for which the extra package including chef-prepared meals with Fiji drinking water, both served in silver, runs $220 a day.

If all this sounds too extravagant, the rental is achieving what it seems to have set out to do. It is, in its essence, the manifestation of extravagance. At the cost of $6 million a year (or $25,000 a night, although the rental's only a go for one month or more), the guests it attracts—and yes, someone has actually rented it—aren't the type to count pennies, or make their own beds, or treat the room's fixtures with care, because there's someone on the other end to do that for them. The city's most expensive rental isn't an apartment, but a place to detach from reality. While a quick look in is not enough to sing the merits of actually renting the space, it's certainly a way to feel grounded.

· Listing: The Pierre, 39th Floor [Town]
· $500K/Month Pierre Suite Is NYC's Most Expensive Rental [Curbed]
· Someone Actually Rented the $500,000/Month Pierre Suite [Curbed]