NYC Hotels Where You Can Watch the Olympics (Without Getting a Room)

We love the Olympics regardless of where they occur, but we’re especially jazzed that they’re in London this year. As the capital city of a country steeped in theater – Shakespeare, anyone? — London knows how to put on a show, with royals and rock stars to boot. So bring it on! Read more

Meet “Big Kastenmann” aka “Big Box Man,” The Standard Hotel’s Summer 2012 Sculpture

The Standard’s BMOC.

What is it with The Standard’s outdoor sculpture choices? Read more

Four Hotels Where You Can View the Statue of Liberty Without Taking a Boat

There’s nothing shy about the Statue of Liberty, standing proud and tall on her very own island. It’s just that in a city of skyscrapers she’s not exactly the tallest act in town. But starting on October 28 you’ll be able to see more of her — and more of the view from her island — than in years when Lady Liberty’s crown reopens after a year of renovations. Or to quote pageant coach Victor Melling in Miss Congeniality, “‘You ‘are’ the crown!” Read more

See “Midnight Cowboy” — and Hear Spike Lee Talk About It — at W New York Downtown’s “New York in Film” Series

We love watching old movies in hotel screening rooms, the ultimate anti-multiplex (the chairs! the sound system! the champagne!).

Last month W New York Downtown initiated “New York in Film,” a smart if brief summer series of old movies curated by savvy New Yorkers. And just like that W joined the (too) small society of New York hotels, including the Crosby Street Hotel and Tribeca Grand, that screen movies to anyone who purchases a ticket, not just red carpeters and opening nighers. Read more

Aged in Wood: The Pierre Hosts a Barrel-Aged Cocktails Festival

If you’re on top of drinks trends, you know all about barrel-aged cocktails, mixed drinks like Negronis and Old Fashioneds poured into barrels and left for weeks or months to oxidize and absorb flavor and color from their woody casings, much like whiskey and wine. Read more

How Clever Hotels Keep Their Spare Pillows and Blankets Clean

Clean at the Conrad.

First came washable duvet covers that replaced heavy, dry-clean-only bedspreads and lowered the “oogie factor,” as one hotel executive so aptly described, well, you know. Read more

Pod 39 Throws Open its Doors with an $85-a-Room “Sample Sale”

On sale, limited time only.

New York is the capital of sample sales for everything from designer T-shirts to sofas, so why not hotels? During early July Pod 39, the new East 39th Street sibling to the original Pod Hotel, aka Pod 51, is offering guests a chance to “sample” the new hotel for $85 a night. Read more

Conrad New York’s Roof Bar Breaks Out a New Signature Drink: Prosecco & Popsicles

Dip in.

What does summer taste like? Popsicles, if you’re 10 years old. And if you’re in double decades?

How about a cool goblet of Prosecco with a boozy, Day-Glo popsicle plopped inside like a swizzle stick? Read more

Pass the Popcorn: The Top 10 Hotel Room Movies in June 2012

You know it’s summer when you’ve got action movies at the multiplex and comedies in hotel rooms. Hotel guests across the nation watched 21 Jump Street, about two hapless undercover cops sent back to high school to bring down a drug ring, more than any other pay-to-view movie last month. Read more