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GEM Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Construction / Atelier and Company / Hotel Architecture / → All Tags

A Sneak Peek at The Facade of The GEM Hotel Union Square

Yesterday, we reported that the GEM Hotel Union Square aka The Jade Hotel would be opening in late 2012. Now today, we've been blessed with some renderings of what the hotel's exterior will look like.

Brooklyn-based Atelier and Company, not Gene Kaufman, is apparently handling the architecture for the facade of the hotel and they've given a "cleaner, richer and more authentic approach" to the hotel's entrance.

You can scroll through renderings here or you can skip over to the company's Facebook page for updated photos (from yesterday) of the construction progress. Wheee!

Given how much we loved our stay way back when at the intimate GEM Hotel in Chelsea, which sports a similar authentic facade, we're getting mighty excited for the GEM Union Square. Or is it the Jade? Hopefully, they'll get a website going up soon so we can settle this once and for all.

Hotel Reopenings / Hotel News / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Cats / Hotel Pets / Matilda / → All Tags

The Cat Came Back: The Algonquin Will Reopen Tomorrow with Matilda In the Lobby

It's been a long winter (and spring) but soon things will be getting back to normal on "Hotel Row" aka 44th Street in New York City with tomorrow's reopening of the revamped Algonquin Hotel at precisely 10am. After six months and an $18 million facelift, everything will be back in its place, except better than before. And that includes the hotel's resident guest--Matilda!

To celebrate the hotel's reopening and the return of Matilda, you can book the Matilda Package which includes To celebrate its re-opening, the Algonquin has updated its popular Matilda Package to includes accommodations; continental breakfast for two; a welcome cocktail in the lobby, a Matilda coloring book, a feline-focused book called "Fabulous Felines" by Sandy Robins, a plush stuff Matilda cat and chocolates for the kids and a "CATabulous" eye mask to help you with your catnaps.

Rates for Matilda package start at $329 a night not including taxes. Meanwhile, regular room rates for tomorrow start at just $229.

Wanna see what the new rooms of the Algonquin look like? GO HERE for our extensive photo gallery!

Gem Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Hype / Manhattan Hotels / Gene Kaufman / → All Tags

The GEM Hotel Union Square Is Expected To Open in Late 2012

From sometime in 2011

It's been a while since we heard of any activity from Gem Hotels but as we were scrolling through an NYC Hotel Development report, we noticed that there's plans for a new hotel in Greenwich Village from Gemini Real Estate Advisors, the same folks who run the three GEM Hotels in NYC.

Called The Jade Hotel Greenwich Village, the hotel will open on 54 W. 13th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues with 114 rooms. A projected opening date is listed for late 2012. As it turns out this is definitely the GEM Hotel Union Square, although the Greenwich Village nabe destination has us slightly perplexed.

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Standard Hotels / Hotel Renovations / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Bars / Hotel Restaurants / → All Tags

Here's What Andre Balazs Has In Mind for The Standard East Village

Where: 25 Cooper Square [map], New York, NY, United States, 10003

At last, we have a better idea of what hotelier Andre Balazs plans on doing with his newest hotel in NYC--The Standard East Village, previously known as the Cooper Square Hotel.

According to Eater, Balazs and his team won approval from the community board to add an additional bar in the garden space. No small feat especially considering how much the neighbors hated the noise that came from the hotel when it was run as the Cooper Square.

But Balazs has gotten around the noise issue but rearranging the hotel lobby so that 60 percent of the garden space will now be indoors. The bar will be a small one, only 16 by eight feet with 18 stools for guests. The existing bar on the second floor will be turned into either a guest room or a gym. Or perhaps a ping-pong room?

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Hotel Openings / Hotel Reopenings / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Rebrandings / → All Tags

The Quin, with One 'N', Will Open This Winter

Where: 101 West 57th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10015

The Buckingham is turning into The Quin Hotel.

We've already told you that the Buckingham Hotel in NYC is turning into a new chic spot called The Quin but now we've got an estimated opening timeframe--Winter 2012.

Since that's Winter 2012 and not Winter 2013, we're guessing the place should open before the year is out. And with its location just blocks off Fifth Avenue and near big touristy spots like Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art and even Rockefeller Plaza, we bet the place will open right before the holidays to better cash in on the annual influx of holiday visitors.

Here's what we can expect when the hotel does reopen:

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Hyatt Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Openings / Hotel Opening Rates / Hyatt Place / → All Tags

While We Wait on Hyatt Union Square, Hyatt Place in Midtown Has an Opening Date

Where: 52-54 W 36th [map], New York, NY, United States, 10015

We're still not sure when The Hyatt Union Square in Manhattan will open (it certainly doesn't look like in July) but up in Midtown, there's another Hyatt hotel with a clear opening date--The Hyatt Place Midtown on 36th and 6th near Penn Station.

The hotel is now taking reservations for November 26 and on. If you've never stayed at a Hyatt Place before, here's what you can expect: spacious guest rooms with divided living and sleeping areas, a king Hyatt Grand Bed (or two double beds), 42" flat-panel HDTVs, plenty of places to plug in your gadgets (including hookups for the TV), a Cozy Corner sofa-sleeper (yes, in all rooms), complimentary continental breakfast buffet and best of all, free WiFi.

Downstairs, there will be one of those new-fangled Grab n' Go restaurant, a bakery cafe, a "den" to hang out in and an "E Room", a business center in case you somehow forgot your laptop.

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Hotel WiFi / Manhattan Hotels / Movie Hotels / → All Tags

'The Dictator' is Hit with a Hotel WiFi Shock in New York City

Where: 45 East 45th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10017

You're not the only one fed up with paying out for Hotel WiFi. Comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen feels your pain, and actually adapted the ridiculousness of hotel WiFi charges into a bit for his newest mockumentary: "The Dictator."

You won't find the scene online...yet. Bet here's what happens: Cohen, as Dictator General Aladeen, walks into the Manhattan hotel where he'll be staying while in town to address the United Nations. The General Manager is John C. Reilly, and he has seen to it that the General will be totally at home, outfitting the General's suite in gold glitz, his official portraits and all many of other luxuries. Aladeen spots a card in the room, reads it and exclaims: "Twenty dollars a day for WiFi? And they call me an international criminal!" He then warns his entourage not to touch the minibar.

It's a tiny joke that packs a big punch. And, as we've heard from other friends who went to see the movie this opening weekend, it's also one of the few solid laughs not already shown in the movie's TV commercials.

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Beach Hotels / Long Island Hotels / Hotel Rooftops / Hotel Deals / Hotel Amenities / → All Tags

Which Seaside Hotel Built Its Own Private Tunnel To The Beach?

Where: 80 West Broadway [map], Long Beach, NY, United States, 11561

Beach-loving tourists flying into New York this summer might not have to venture too far from the airport to get the full sand, sun and turf experience.

You see, unlike other hotels in Manhattan and Brooklyn, which are limited to just a rooftop pool or maybe a farmers market when it comes to outdoor spaces, Long Island's Allegria Hotel—which is just 14 miles from JFK—has one feature to top all the rest: a private tunnel to the beach.

The 143-room hotel sits right along the boardwalk facing the ocean, and is in fact the only hotel in Long Beach. To capitalize on its awesome location, owners have built a short tunnel from the lobby to the beach, so guests can simply roll out of bed, hop into the elevator, zip through the tunnel, and be stretched out on the beach faster than you can say LIRR.

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Hotel News / Steve Wynn / Hotel Condos / RItz-Carlton Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Penthouses / Penthouse Suites / → All Tags

Steve Wynn Is Moving Into the Ritz-Carlton Penthouse

When he isn't pricing new real estate in Macau, Las Vegas tycoon Steve Wynn is keeping his eyes peeled for a new home in Manhattan. And he's now found the house of our his dreams: the penthouse suite at the Ritz-Carlton Central Park.

The NY Observer reports that Wynn has nabbed the apartment for $70 million, and it sounds every bit as incredible as we imagine. In fact, if we weren't so busy finding out about all the new hotels opening up in Manhattan, we would be knocking on his door this very instant trying to get a peek inside.

Think he'd have us in for tea and a bit of hotel gossiping?

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Manhattan Hotels / Historical Hotels / Hotel History / → All Tags

Before The Standard and The Americano, There Was The Americana

Thanks to relatively low room rates for a high style hotel in Manhattan, the Hotel Americano is quickly making a name for itself. In fact, we have several friends who just go there for coffee or drinks. Now, were this fifty years ago, we'd all be talking instead about the Hotel Americana, the hot new hotel on the scene in 1962.

The Americana, at 7th Avenue and 52nd Street, towered 51 stories above Midtown and had 2,000 guestrooms, plus five restaurants and numerous ballrooms. Real-life Mad Men—the ad men of Madison Avenue—would absolutely have known it and gone for meetings and/or trysts there.

The cool part of all this is that the Americana still stands...though it's now the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers and the 1960s interiors have long been ripped out in favor of what we'd like to call "modern business conservative."

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Hyatt Hotels / Hotel Openings / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Hype / → All Tags

Will The Hyatt Union Square in NYC Still Open in July?

We've been tracking the opening of Hyatt Union Square in New York for quite some time now, getting excited about the good eats coming to the hotel and the funky guestroom designs. But the question remains--when will this hotel open?

According to NYC & Company, the city's tourism organization which also tracks the development and openings of new hotels, the hotel should open in July. But we're not seeing so many good signs for that.

For starters, there's no website and of course, no reservations are being taken. Also, it looks like the hotel has a few key staffing positions to fill, like that of general manager.

Considering that July is just a month and a half away, we're going to go ahead and say the Hyatt Union Square will probably open in the fall instead.

Know something we don't know about the Hyatt Union Square? Send it along!

HotelChatter Questions / Hamptons Hotels / Hotel Deals / Hotel Rates / Marriott Hotels / → All Tags

Finding A Cheap, One-Night Summer Stay In The Hamptons Isn't The Easiest Thing To Do

Long Island is a big place. It's a place Manhattanites love to trash talk in the winter but can't wait to visit come summer. It's an endless stretch of land that sprouts from Queens, and its tip runs all the way out to eastern Connecticut. None of which should necessarily imply that finding a decent, cheap hotel there during the summer would be difficult. Except, it is.

For starters, most places require a two- or three-night minimum for any stay from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day, making a one-night getaway that much more difficult.

Plus, for whatever reason, most of the major hotel brands have completely overlooked Long Island as a viable place to establish a hotel. Add to that the fact that New Yorkers are planning freaks, so most have already booked their Hamptons hotel months (if not years) in advance, rendering the few decent hotels all sold out.

So, we ask, with good reason: where to turn?

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