Ny Travel Guide - Page 2
Tags: Hotel Offers / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
Just How Special is the Introductory Offer at The Surrey? We Do the Math
We love us an introductory offer. It’s always nice to be one of the first guests at a hotel, and score a special rate in the process. But when your regular rates are in the $500-a-night range, how "special" can your intro offer really be? Let’s turn to the Upper East Side’s new darling, The Surrey, shall we?
We can admit from our tour inside that the hotel is gorgeous. But it is a little out of our price range. In the interest of trying to justify blowing our cash on one-night’s stay here, we examined the hotel’s Introductory Offer to see if it was worth it.
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Manhattan Hotels / Ace Hotels / → All Tags
The Breslin in a Battle Over Booze; Now Opening Tomorrow
Meat lovers, rejoice! The Breslin, the long-awaited restaurant inside the Ace Hotel New York, finally opens this week. It was meant to be Tuesday, and then today, but an Ace clerk told us this morning that the opening was postponed until tomorrow. They’re just serving breakfast and lunch for the time being, but with all the hype surrounding the place, this should keep our traps shut and bellies full for a couple more weeks when they start doing dinner.
The Ken Friedman joint had a trial run recently, for “FergusStock” (a pig-eating fest led by British chef Fergus Henderson), and early reports were rapturous. New York magazine’s Grub Street blog said the space was similar to New York cult restaurant Freemans, “with just the right touches of modern sheen and ballroom grandiosity.” More importantly, the preview of the food was also met with applause. Dishes we can expect from April Bloomfield in the kitchen include a half-size pig’s head, a lamb burger with feta cheese, a beef burger with bacon and Cheddar, and (fingers crossed) a mac-and-cheese.
Tags: Hilton Hotels / New York Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Times Square Hotels / Eco-Friendly Hotels / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Hilton New York Honored With a 'Green Street' Award. Really.
Swarming with smog, exhaust, and buzzing with the din of taxis in neutral, New York's Avenue of the Americas is hardly a location we think of as being environmentally-considerate. A work in progress, maybe, with a little cheerleading needed to nudge it in the right direction.
The "Green Street" Award was established by the Avenue of the Americas Association to inspire the thoroughfare's tenants to think eco and find new ways to close the loop. This year, the Hilton New York was honored, and not just because it hosted the ceremony in its Trianon Ballroom last week.
Innovative eco-hotels are normally found bourgeois bohemian neighborhoods like the West Village or SoHo, so when we caught wind of this news we were looking for certifiable proof of the Hilton's investment in going green. According to the Avenue's Association, proof came in the form of a futuristic, energy-saving PureCell system that uses electric power to power the hotel and heat water, which has accounted for 6% of the hotel's consumption since being installed. It is also three times more energy efficient than a normal electric grid and operates 24-hours per day.
Tags: Hotel Openings / Manhattan Hotels / Ascend Collection / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Distrikt Hotel: Where ‘Late Fall’ Means Winter
Get out your Hotel Opening Date Tracking Sheet, friends, because it’s time for a little update on Manhattan’s Distrikt Hotel. We’re dying to see this place: the NYC-neighborhood theme is one of the most interesting we’ve heard of all year, and we can’t wait to see which floors—each named after a different part of the city—will become the most sought after. (It seems apt that the Financial District is on the lowest floor, and Harlem on the highest, no?)
Alas, it looks like we’ll have to wait a few more weeks. While the hotel’s website is still promising an opening in “late fall,” and a press rep for the Distrikt told us the doors would open on November 15th, we’ve since heard that the big day would be pushed back to December 1st.
Tags: Deal or No Deal / Marriott Hotels / Hotel Packages / Brooklyn Hotels / → All Tags
'Explorer Passes' Aren't Worth It at The Marriott New York Brooklyn Bridge
Marriot Hotels have been very good lately about alerting us hotel guests to their newest hotel deals and packages via Facebook, Twitter and even the individual Marriott hotels' websites. However, just because Marriott advertises it as a deal doesn't necessarily mean it's a good one. The other week we expressed some disappointment with a New Orleans package which, based on its marketing and pricing, made less than zero sense.
Now it's the Explore Your New York package deal from the New York Marriott At The Brooklyn Bridge. Room rates range from $274-$524 per room, per night, plus tax. The ostensible bonus is that rooms come bundled with two Explorer Passes that have three discount coupons for 40 different shops, tours, or attractions. Breakfast for two is also thrown in.
We'll get into the mechanics of this non-deal after the jump, but before we highlight the specifics: there's no way this is ever going to be a deal. The rules never change. Deeply discounted resorts and cruises are sometimes bargains because you're purchasing a unique experience. Not so much hotels in major cities, which are functionally interchangeable. Tourist coupon books are worse than useless, locking you into events for which you'd be better off picking and choosing deals.
Tags: 2009 World Series Hotels / Baseball Hotels / Hotel Indigo / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags
We Don't Think Many Phillies Fans Are Going To Book The Hotel Indigo Chelsea
See that bubbly on the bed? That could be yours if you're a Phillies fan. Or not.
Tomorrow is the first game in the 2009 World Series Championships with the Yankees facing off against The Phillies in the Bronx. We've told you about some of your options for booking a hotel room but here's a deal especially for Phillies fans from The Hotel Indigo NYC Chelsea, which just opened the other week. But it's not quite a "nice" deal.
Called "Drown Your Sorrows", the package offers Phillies guests a bottle of Perrier-Jouet champagne if their team loses--"As expected", says the hotel. Oh smack! You must show your game ticket and a valid ID showing your address in the city of Philadelphia as well as that you're over 21 in order to get the loser's bubbly. Our question is: Would you actually accept this bottle of champagne from the hotel if your team lost? If so, then we think the hotel better put in some clause about vandalizing the room with champagne.
Tags: 2009 World Series Hotels / Hotel Bars / Times Square Hotels / Westin Hotels / → All Tags
Got Tix to The World Series? They May Have Cost Less Than Your Hotel Room
The Yankees and The Phillies are set to square off in the 2009 World Series Championships on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium and tickets on Stubhub.com are starting out at nearly $300 a piece. That's definitely steep but if you're a fan, then money's no object. Your hotel room, however, is another issue.
Let's get to the good news first. If you're a lucky ticket holder, the Westin Times Square is offering a $50 credit in the hotel's Bar 10. Here's a look at what $50 will get you:
Yankees fans can snack on grilled sirloin sliders and crisp calamari fries, or throw back a few celebratory drinks in anticipation of their team’s win. Fans that really want to hit it out of the ballpark can opt for the Fall Unwind special, available in Bar 10 from 5 p.m. – 11 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Customers can sample the beer package, which includes a choice of four bottles of their favorite brews (Sam Adams, Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Light and Coors light) and an order of select lounge fare, all for just $28.
Tags: Twitter / Room Rate Gimmicks / Hotel Contests / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags
How To Get Roosevelt-Era Rates at NYC's Roosevelt Hotel
It wasn’t all that long ago that we were telling you about the New York Roosevelt Hotel’s penchant for Twitter contests—and whaddyaknow? They’re at it again. This time the historic hotel goes back to the Web 2.0 future to celebrate Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday, which, as history nerds know, is tomorrow, October 27.
The contest begins at 2:00 p.m. EST tomorrow, when the Roosevelt will post a trivia question about the nation’s 26th president on their Twitter page. The first five respondents to tweet the right answer will receive a special rate at the hotel of $18.58 (the year Roosevelt was born). Then, at 2:30 p.m., there’ll be another trivia question to ponder—with the first five people answering correctly snagging a room rate of $26.00 (in honor of Teddy being the 26th president).
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Celeb Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Bars / Standard Hotels / → All Tags
Finally, Ordering The Humble Pie At NYC's Standard Hotel Grill
As you may have noticed over the last year, we've got a serious thing for the newly-opened Standard Hotel NYC. We've done everything from sleep there to party there, and even walk the High Line below it.
But it was last week that we finally got a taste of the Standard when we had lunch at the Standard Grill, which only began serving meals other than dinner back in late August.
Now that the cold air has settled into New York and kicked out the fair weather friends and put the staff through the paces, we decided it was time to go and see if the grill really lived up to all the hype.
Tags: Hotel Packages / Halloween Hotels / Marathon Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / W Hotels / Kimpton Hotels / → All Tags
In NYC for Halloween or The Marathon? There's a Hotel Package for That
Next weekend is a big weekend in New York. Not only is it Halloween but it's also The New York Marathon which will be held on Sunday, November 1st.
If you're in town for costumes, candy, tricks and the Halloween parade, 70 Park Avenue, a Kimpton Hotel, is offering a special Drop Dead Rate. Guests will get "trick or treat" buckets of candy, two cocktails at the silverleaf tavern and a map of the Greenwich Village Halloween Day parade route. On Halloween day, the hotel will also host a pumpkin carving competition with the staff. Use code DDR to book. We found rates for next weekend starting at $237 a night for a queen deluxe room.
If you're in town for the marathon, the W Hotels of New York is offering a package to honor the runners. Rates vary from property to property but start at $379 a night. The package includes a Wonderful room accommodation, Power Bars, two bottles of water and the all-important Bliss Foot Patrol lotion. Go to W Hotels to book. (It's under Special Offers.)
[Photo: the junes]
Tags: Hot Hotelier News / Sean MacPherson / Hotel Ads / Andre Balazs / → All Tags
Sean MacPherson Moves On From 'Gossip Girl'; Tries Modeling Instead
"Sometimes...when I get real nervous..."
It looks like a cameo on Gossip Girl wasn't enough for Sean MacPherson. The Bowery Hotel's Twitter tipped us off to the spread that Sean Mac did for the J. Crew Catalog. J. Crew, people. Clothes you can buy off the rack! How bourgeois!
The feature is available online here and it features Sean looking tough in a leather jacket and answering questions about his life. We learn how he likes his martinis (extra dry with three olives) and that he always carries his passport and a credit card wherever he goes. (Let's hope he has better passport-handling skills than Kristen Stewart.)
We also learn this incredibly helpful advice on how to get into a hot spot. "Start your own." Hmmm...should Andre Balazs be concerned or no?
Tags: Hotel Restaurants / Hotel Openings / Manhattan Hotels / W Hotels / → All Tags
The W New York Downtown Will Get Its BLT On
Despite news that Starwood’s third-quarter profits have declined 64 percent, work continues on the W New York Downtown Hotel. And let us be the first to say that we're happy about what's cookin' in the kitchen.
Some time back it looked like Trump SoHo would be getting a Laurent Tourondel BLT restaurant, but then came news that the two brands did not play nice:
“BLT Restaurants are recognized for a particular style of food and service which ended up not being what the Trump Organization was interested in,” said Jimmy Haber, Managing Partner of BLT Restaurant Group.
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