They skipped the bells, whistles and champagne last September when JW Marriott took over management of the Essex House, the gracious 1931 tower overlooking Central Park and operated most recently by Dubai-based Jumierah Hotels.
Last night they made up for it. Read more
Is the hottest New York hotel amenity a new name?
Consider: In recent months Stay morphed into Night Times Square (never mind that the original Night Hotel is just two blocks away). And the Sheraton New York Hotel & Tower changed its name to Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel (never mind that it’s not all that close to Times Square). Read more
Every city that’s home to an election-night political candidate, from mayor to POTUS, has at least one hotel you’ve seen a lot even if you’ve never been inside. 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
Stay into Night.
Having two hotels two blocks apart from each other with same name sounds confusing. But that’s exactly what Vikram Chatwal and the folks at Wyndham Hotels did late last month. Read more
Work-down call.
The hotel room telephone has a buggy whip quality to it. When was the last time you used it to check a flight, find out movie times or talk to someone outside the hotel? Read more
It’s not your imagination. Hotel rates in New York City have gone up.
In fact, they’re third highest in the world – just behind Moscow (priciest for the ninth year) and Lagos. So says the newly released hotel survey from Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), which compared rates for 55 international cities. The New York average is $341.59 a night, up 4 percent from 2011. That uptick reflects confidence in the financial sector, a good thing until you have to swipe your credit card. Read more
When hotel historians – hey, they’re out there somewhere — look back on 2012, they’ll say what we already know: it was, for the most part, a very good year. New York City boasts 91,500 hotel rooms – up from 90,000 in 2011. Put another way, 29 million hotel room nights were sold in New York City in 2012. Read more
I like Tripadvisor for the most part and use its reviews the way my daughter’s middle school French teacher computed quarterly grades – throw out the top and bottom scores and add up the rest.
Still, a recent post on The Consumerist (via Hotelchatter) gave me pause. Read more
The library at the Library.
January is the slowest of slow seasons in New York. And small wonder. The weather is dreary, days are still dark, and the holiday fizz has gone flat.
In short, it’s the perfect time to come to New York if you’re looking for deals. Read more