What hotel wouldn’t kill to bring Charlize Theron, Cindy Crawford, Naomie Campbell, Christy Turlington, Uma Thurman, Ines de La Fressange, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears (on a good day) together in one room?
The prize goes to the Sofitel New York. It got the job done, never mind that the women are present in photographs taken by French photographer Gilles Bensimon. Read more
It’s no mystery why hotels want shops on their properties almost as much as restaurants and bars.
The best keep guests entertained (and on the premises), attract additional visitors (who may migrate to the restaurant or bar) and impart a patina of prestige to the property, not to mention forking over rent.
But things can go horribly wrong, as the Carlyle Hotel discovered today. Read more
I can see why producers want their movies to win Academy Awards. They stick around in secondary markets like hotel rooms and make money. Witness last month’s stats for hotels across the US and Canada and in New York City: five of the top ten in-room movies were Best Picture nominees. Read more
Be seated.
Are these the ultimate high chairs?
Sitting pretty inches from the ceiling at the Museum of Arts & Design in Columbus Circle is Year and a Day, artist Marc Andre Robinson’s circle of chairs. Read more
Does anyone go to movie theaters anymore? February was Oscar month, and it seems a lot of guests used hotel room visits to catch the 2012 Academy Award nominees. (So much for witnessing Skyfall’s technical effects on the big screen.) Whatever. No envelope needed. Scroll down to see the month’s top ten hotel room hits. Read more
Abraham Lincoln or James Bond? That seemed the big question hotel guests pondered when choosing in-room movies last month. (Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson were also deep in the mix.) To find out if Oscar contenders trumped blockbusters for the top spots, read on. Read more
At home with Christopher Columbus.
No, you can’t buy the Nina, Pinta or Santa Maria. But how about a price-slashed Mitchell Gold white leather side chair? Or a deeply discounted 48-inch Samsung LED TV?
Last fall I wrote about Christopher Columbus’s living room – the one artist Tatzu Nishi designed up in the air around the famed Christopher Columbus statue (you could visit the living room, see Gaetano Russo’s towering marble statue up close and personal, then cross the street and gaze down upon Columbus’s temporary abode from the lounge on the 35th floor of the Mandarin Oriental New York). Read more
Once again it’s time to take a peek into hotel rooms across the nation and Canada (and New York City) and report on what guests chose to pay to watch on their flatpanel screens. The verdict? Ted, the trash-talking bear, had a great two-month run. But last month he fell – though not very far — from his cushy perch at Number 1. Taken 2 and Liam Neeson overtook him. No teds there. Read more
You’ don’t see many art galleries amidst the relentless array of shops, restaurants and bars in the Meatpacking District. (You don’t see many butchers, either, but that’s another story.)
So score one for the Shop at the Standard High Line NYC. This amusingly curated emporia sells hotel requisites like toothpaste, contact lens solution and magazines (a blend of American and foreign) but also showcases the work of contemporary artists. Besides stocking the shop with art that doesn’t cost a fortune – artist Ryan McGinness produced a deck of cards — featured participants paint the windows. Read more
Fans of action thrillers like big screens, it seems. How else to explain The Dark Knight Rises’ status as the Number 2 hotel room movie in the United States and Canada and New York City in November, the first month it was available to hotel viewers? Batman got beat out of the top spot by last month’s winners — potty-mouthed teddy-bear Ted (nationwide) and the gritty Bourne Legacy (in New York). Read more