August 13, 2008
Hotel news: openings, deals, and avg room now $350
NYC hotel occupancy is around 90 percent, with an average room rate of $350 a night, the Sun reports. Those figures, released by NYC & Co. the city’s official tourism arm, are from May, the most recent data available. According to NYC & Co’s archived statistics, the average hotel rate in NYC from 2000 to 2006 stayed between $198 and $267.
NYC is also the most expensive North American city for business travelers at $358.98 per night, according to the study by travel services company Hogg Robinson Group.
 GoogleMapsMania directs your attention to, deep breath … HotelMapSearch. (Yes, that’s a screengrab for Midtown at left.)
The $99 standard-cabin rooms at the Jane Hotel could be open for business as early as Monday, according to the hotel’s reservationist. See HotelChatter for a two-part sneak peak inside the hotel’s transformation from the less-posh Riverview.
Cooper Square Hotel still pledges it will open in “summer 2008.” Its Expedia profile promises free wi-fi, guestrooms with chrome and natural elements, custom furniture by Antonio Citterio, MP3 docking stations, 400-thread-count Italian Anichini-brand linens, down comforters, bathrooms with Italian glass mosaics. And this:Minibars include an array of items, from snacks to jewelry, from custom make-up kits to saucier offerings by Kiki De Montparnasse. Libraries offer selections of fiction and nonfiction, food, design, and erotica. Guestrooms include three types of bathrobes: yukata robes, silk, and terrycloth.
And wow, this is a rarity: Morgans New York, which closed for renovations in May with plans to reopen Sept. 16 — looks like it’s on track to reopen earlier than planned. The website’s currently taking reservations for August 28 from $329. (When last checked in June, it was still September 16 with rooms from $599.) Although most NYC hotels miss their planned opening dates by a mile, Morgan’s sister property Royalton indeed re-opened on time after renovations a year ago.
Hype-heavy Thompson Lower East Side is now open with rooms from $259. Full coverage from Curbed and HotelChatter, including a critical review of the $195 sex kit in the minibar.
Four Points by Sheraton plans to open its “SoHo Village” location at 66 Charlton Street on August 31, according to the hotel website. Four Points also has a Times Square/40th Street location scheduled to open February 28.
The 899-room Palace Hotel is scheduled for a grand renovation over the next three years now that it’s under the operation of the Dorchester Collection, which also runs the Dorchester in London and The Beverly Hills Hotel, according to Hotel News Resource. It’s slated for a total redesign of the public areas and guest rooms.
The Hilton Garden Inn Tribeca, at 6 York Street, is now targeting an October debut.
 Vikram Chatwal’s upcoming Lamb’s Club Hotel has opted to change its name to The Chatwal, according to HotelChatter. And judging by the way it looked last week, it’s a good bet it won’t be opening anytime soon. (Pictured at right.)
Newsweek reports that the soon-to-open Shibui Spa in the Greenwich Hotel will feature a “250-year-old wood and bamboo farmhouse roof meticulously reconstructed in the hotel.”
The Duane St. Hotel finally got a liquor license for its ‘beca restaurant as long as it closes at midnight, according to the Downtown Express.
Hotelchatter points out that the Buckingham is offering a 50 percent discount on its Martinelli Penthouse through August. Now only $1,800/night.
The Hotel Pennsylvania has a portion of its original 1919 blueprints online (in pdf.)
The Urbanite looks back at the New Yorker’s flashy deco past.
The Post noted that “the bar” made famous in the canoodling story of would-be-president John Edwards is in the Loews Regency on Park Avenue.
Yet more changes in store for the Chelsea Hotel.
The Allerton in Chelsea, which has been closed for a gut renovation into an unnamed boutique hotel - now has a name, according to Curbed. It will be a Clarion-branded Gem.
Downtown, work has started on the new 35-story McSam high rise at 99 Washington Street.
August 13, 2008 9:45 AM in Hotelology
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