Why the Waldorf Astoria is Closing for Renovations, and Why You Should Stop By While You Can

If eating Waldorf Salad at the Waldorf Astoria is high on your bucket list, consider yourself warned: the clock is ticking. Read more

Farewell To A Mid-Century Landmark: Tokyo’s Hotel Okura Closes Its Main Building (And Ends An Era)

By the time you read this, the last guest will have checked out of the Main Building of the Hotel Okura, and one of Tokyo’s most distinctive (and beloved) mid-century buildings will be shuttered. In the coming weeks, workers will dismantle the 53-year-old structure, prepping it for the wrecker’s ball so a pair of sky-scraping glass towers boasting hotel rooms and commercial space can rise on the site in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Read more

The Gregory Hotel Checks In With Garment District Details and a Stylish Past

The Gregory, the Garment District’s newest hotel, boasts a book-lined lobby with sky-high ceilings, an inviting bar that does daytime duty as a coffee bar and 132 black and white guest rooms.But its most winning asset is the glamorous history embedded in its freshly painted bones. Read more

Revving Up Camp Rockaway, a 21st Century Tent City Planned for Hip Rockaway Beach

Earlier this year we reported on Camp Rockaway, a germ of an idea for a laid-back, low-cost campgrounds with creature comforts like beds instead of sleeping bags and tents on wood platforms, complete with decks and adjoining pup tents for kids.

In June the project, planned for a site near newly hip Rockaway Beach in Queens, reached its Kickstarter goal, raising more than $50,000 to finance the necessary design and construction plans to move the endeavor forward. Late this summer a sample tent went up on an empty lot ringed by houses steps away from the beach. Read more

The InterContinental New York Barclay Closes for Renovations

The Barclay is taking a breather.

After the last September guest checked out, the InterContinental New York Barclay, to use its full name, closed for renovations. The storied midtown hotel will reopen in about a year, in time to celebrate its 90th birthday before 2015 checks out.

The move is a smart one for a hotel that housed Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King and society hostess Perle Mesta in its heyday but was looking too classic for its own good. Read more

A First Look at WestHouse, A NYC Hotel That Feels Like a Private Club and Channels Art Deco

WestHouse, a new midtown boutique hotel, sports an inviting lobby, but you can’t just waltz in. At least, you’re not supposed to. Read more

Camping in New York City? An Entrepreneur Discusses His Plan for Camp Rockaway

I can’t say I’ve ever been tempted to sleep outdoors in New York City. Remember the scene in Rear Window where the couple snoozing on the fire escape gets doused in a downpour? Read more

Meet Courtyard Marriott Chelsea — How Select Service Hotel Brands Won Over Manhattan

Earlier this month I attended the opening party for the new Courtyard Marriott Manhattan/Chelsea, a 273-room “sliver” hotel built from the ground up in New York’s once-flourishing Fur District. (If you visit, check out the clever stone reliefs of fox heads on a nearby building.) Read more

What’s The View Like Up There? Checking Out the Tallest Hotel in North America

This is what you see from a room near the top of the tallest hotel in North America, which happens to be in New York. (That’s a snow-covered Central Park down there, in case you’re wondering.)

view from on high

What birds see

It’s a bird’s-eye view of a high-flying bird – or a low-flying plane. But guests in north-facing rooms on the 62nd floor at the new Residence Inn Central Park can take it in from a white leather club chair or a king-size bed for as long as they like without moving a muscle. Read more

The Quin – Short for Quintessential — Makes a Glamorous Manhattan Debut

On a recent visit to The Quin hotel I came across something I’d never seen. A button on the bedside phone – remember those? – connects you instantly with a personal shopper at Bergdorf-Goodman. Should you need a new nail color or a last-minute Alaia, they can send one over (the store is steps away). If you’re not sure what you want, you can check out the Bergdorf’s vitrine in the lobby, laden with eye-catching handbags, fragrances and shoes that look like sculpture. Read more