Once upon a time, no hotel room was complete without an ashtray. Non-smoking rooms eventually appeared and, voila, room categories were born. Now the choices for guests booking at a small but growing number of hotels include a third category — the hypo-allergenic room, cleansed within an inch of its life of nearly all surface […]
Almost as many New York City hotels have screening rooms as spas. But it’s a lot easier to visit a hotel spa than to settle in with a bag of popcorn for a movie in a hotel screening room.
The uniformed attendants posted behind a discrete desk in the grand black-and-white lobby were impeccably polite. But check-in wasn’t unspooling quite as I expected. The man next to me, owner of a blue blazer and a belligerent British accent, waved a sheet of paper and demanded to know what the devil these bloody charges were.
We don’t own a car, and we definitely don’t spend much time thinking about tires. But as long-time fans of London’s Bibendum restaurant and follower of the red-coated Michelin restaurant guides, the French tire maker and its well-padded mascot have insinuated themselves into our lives.
Last year Time Square’s Paramount hotel underwent major surgery. And not a moment too soon. Once quirky and cool, the Paramount was conceived in the early 1990s by hotelier Ian Schrager and designer Philippe Starck as the hotel equivalent of Target, offering chic on the cheap. A decade later, cheap had trounced chic, and the […]
Hotels are notorious for tardiness when it comes to everything from opening their doors to refurbishing the lobby. But not the Royalton.
You’d never know it to look at them, but the Marriott Marquis, a brute, 1980s John Portman behemoth, and the Algonquin, a demure, history-drenched Edwardian, share something besides easy proximity to Times Square.
Fashion Week may be over, but designers haven’t stopped unveiling their newest creations. Making its debut in the mini-bars at Thompson Hotels’ five New York City properties is the latest from designer Charlotte Ronson – a line of limited edition condoms created for Proper Attire, the condom line whose proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood.
On a visit to the Waldorf=Astoria, I saw a notice for history tours of the hotel offered every Thursday and Saturday morning at 11:30. Not many hotels boast sufficient history or chutzpah to warrant a tour priced at $50 a person (they do throw in lunch). Besides, the Waldorf devotes four bulging lobby display cases […]
Given the blast of parties, press releases and popping champagne corks whenever a spa opens at a hotel, it’s amazing how quiet a closing can be. Consider the Guerlain Spa at the Waldorf Astoria.