Stay No More — A New Name for a Times Square Hotel

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. They turned Stay, a 2008 Times Square boutique with teeny rooms and a sprawling, love-to-party lobby, into Night Times Square. The original Night Hotel, also in Times Square, stands unchanged – a study in dark-as-night black and white — two blocks downtown on West 45 Street. 

Curiously, the original Night Hotel is closer to the actual Times Square than Night Times Square on 47th Street. Go figure.

The name change was at the behest of mother ship Wyndham, the front desk

Announcing the name change in the lobby.

attendant told us. In 2011 Wyndham snapped up Chatwal’s trendy chain of monosyllabic New York City boutiques, including Dream, Time and Night, and plans to open more, all patterned after the originals. Stay, apparently, didn’t fit into the mix. (Agreed; sounds too much like a dog command.) Whatever.

For now the hotel formerly known as Stay is a work in progress. The lobby is unchanged save for a sign near the window announcing the new name. The black exterior looks pretty nighty night already (the original Night is also painted black). And plans are underway to night-ify the interior, upstairs and downstairs.

Will they roll out Night’s clever black carpeting patterned with gothic with white Ns? Will they hang School of Helmut Newton black-and-white photos on the lobby walls? Will they paint (almost) everything black? Stay tuned.