Tag Archive for: hotels

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

Is Free WiFi About to Become the Norm at Luxury Hotels at Last?

Free WiFi: Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong.

Free WiFi: Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong.

This was a good week for those who believe WiFi is no different from hotel basics like sheets, towels and a shower with running water and should be included free of charge in the price of a room.

Mandarin Oriental announced that its hotels will offer their “exceptional” high-speed internet service on a complimentary basis. Guests will be able to connect up to six wireless devises free of charge. Read more

It Only Took 300 Years — Singing Handel’s Baroque Opera “Rodrigo” at the Gershwin Hotel

I’ll take a wild guess and assume that George Frederich Handel never dreamed his opera Rodrigo, written in 1707 when he was 22 years old, would have its North American premiere nearly three hundred years later in a hotel lobby.

But on May 21, 23 and 25, Handel’s fifth opera will be performed in the lobby of the Gershwin Hotel, a move that trumps the Met and every other opera house in the hemisphere. Read more

Ten Ideas to Steal From The 2013 Kips Bay Decorator Show House

Kristen McGinnis's lacquered dining room.

Kristen McGinnis’s lacquered dining room.

The best hotel rooms are the ones filled with things you want to steal – like decorating ideas.

A great decorator show house is even better. The designers, of course, want you to hire them, but they have to put their ideas out there to lure you in. And this year’s Kips Bay Decorator Show House, the biggie of the bunch in New York City, is jam-packed with ideas ripe for the plucking. Read more

Hungry? More than 30 Hotel Restaurants Sign On for NYC Restaurant Week, January 14 to February 8, 2013

Week is a misnomer, but who’s complaining? New York’s Winter Restaurant Week, an annual event for, well, decades, stretches luxuriantly from January 14 to February 8, proving a week can be longer than seven days – and that 2013 is already a lucky year, at least for diners out for a deal. Read more

“Mindfulness” — A New Exhibit Under Glass at the Roger Smith Hotel

Larger than life Gummy Bears? Models prepping for a fashion show? A Dublin artist’s outsize photos of New York?

You never know what will turn up in the windows of The Corner Space, the Roger Smith Hotels storefront on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 47th Street. And that’s why we love looking in whenever we pass by. Read more

Is that Hotel a Christo? The New York Palace Gets Wrapped

They don’t hand out gold statues for Best Dressed Scaffolding. But if they did we’d vote for the courtyard at the New York Palace. Read more

What’s It Like To Work at a Hotel During a Hurricane?

Storm weather.

A hotel on high ground with power, water, room service and a big bathtub can be a great place to ride out a hurricane – if you’re a guest.

But what about the people who work there?  “It’s definitely a lot more fun to stay in a hotel during a hurricane than work in one,” says Daniel Jones, a former employee at a luxury hotel in Orlando, Florida who writes the popular travel blog The World of Deej. Read more

High-Fiving The Plaza’s Peek-a-Boo Palm

As advertised: they really do have palms at The Plaza’s Palm Court. We spotted this one today, peeking out between closed French doors. It reminded us of a certain scene in Sixteen Candles. But it could just as easily be a palm’s version of a high-five.