June 2, 2008

Hotel news roundup: Nu's hammocks, new pools & bars

The Nu Hotel (at Smith and Atlantic in Brooklyn) is looking to open in July. You get free wi-fi, flat-screen TV, cork floors, Aveda bath products and ... a hammock. The property also promises a full-service bar and café.

Kimpton's boutique VU Hotel in a converted 1930s printing factory isn't yet taking reservations, but it's aiming for a fall opening at 653 11th Avenue at 48th.

The new Thompson Lower East Side is accepting reservations for July 15 with rooms from $299. That gets you free wi-fi, light-box headboards with Lee Friedlander photography, terry robes, Fresh bathroom products, a flat screen TV with movies on demand, i-Pod docking stations, SFERRA linens and minibars stocked with snacks from Dean and Deluca and Eli Zabar.

The Plaza makes Travel + Leisure’s annual hotel It List, but the magazine says the hotel is "still wet behind the ears" as "service is a little shaky." But it suggests boking "Plaza or Deluxe rooms adjacent to an Edwardian Park Suite—they’re the cheapest ones partially overlooking the park."

The 75-foot, 35th story swimming pool at Mandarin Oriental at Columbus Circle qualifies for Portfolio magazine's best hotel pools list, with an added insider's tip: "While you usually have to check in to dive in, guests of the Spa at Mandarin Oriental can simply take the elevator inside the spa up to the hotel pool."

The Empire Hotel now has a rooftop pool and bar.

Brooklyn's Hotel le Bleu is hoping to open its rooftop restaurant, Vue, this summer.

60 Thompson's exclusive A60 rooftop bar has reopened for the season, but it's only for members and hotel guests.

In a trend story about posh hotels upgrading their best suites, the Wall Street Journal notes that the Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons NY has a "bathroom sink carved from a solid block of rock crystal" -- and costs $30,000 a night. And there's this tip" "At the Waldorf-Astoria, a regular who is known to get in late at night and leave early in the morning, might get put into the presidential suite as a perk."

The Bryant Park Hotel's "Sex and the City" package puts the emphasis somewhere, and it's not on the city, HotelChatter.com learns.

Robert DeNiro's Greenwich Hotel joined up with hip-only bookers Tablet.

Lawmakers are seeking legislation to crack down on the illegal hotels in NYC, the Sun reoprts.

There are fears that Brooklyn's hotel boomlet could sour with the economy and create a hotsheet hotel row.

There are 2,474 hotel rooms in downtown NY and an additional 2,363 in the works at sites that are already under construction, (plus 3,720 more proposed,) according to Downtown Alliance's April report (in pdf.)

Citywide, new hotels on the horizon include:
An Aloft in Harlem (Curbed)
The View at Bryant Park (Observer)
Firmdale's Crosby Street Hotel (HotelChatter)
Nobu Hotel for the Financial District (USA Today)
21-story Cooper Square Hotel (NY Times)

June 2, 2008 9:58 AM in Downtown, Drinkology, Hotelology, Midtown, Out of Manhattan

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