Royalton Hotel Officially Uncool, So Says Denny Lee

Where: 44 W. 44th St. [map], New York, ny, United States, 10036

11/19/2007 at 9:00 AM
Tags: Hotel Reviews, Hotel Renovations, Denny Lee

Not long ago, we heard from The NY Times that The Royalton Hotel's facelift failed to recruit the glamorous patrons who packed the lobby bar, Brasserie 44, in the 90s.

And now Times reviewer Denny Lee dishes about his lackluster stay last week. Like the investment bankers and magazine editors who lament the hotel's transformation from swank-glam to glam-glam, Lee's visit to The Royalton carries an air of nostalgia. He spends most of the Check In, Check Out column listing what is no longer present at the hotel rather than appreciating its new amenities.

The red door is gone. So is that waterfall urinal. In fact, so little remains of Philippe Starck's iconic lobby that it's hard to remember that the Royalton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan was the prototype that launched a thousand boutique hotels...gone is the dark and moody nightclub; in its place, bright woods and brassy rails, almost like a luxury liner.

The only changes he notes are flat-screen TVs, iPod docks, and pay-per-day WiFi. One notable attribute of the old hotel has remained, Lee discovered -- the ditzy staff. They screwed up his check-in ("the computers are acting crazy") and pestered him about his Manhattan address ("Why are you staying here?").

By the end of the story, Lee's frustration is palpable. In true surly New Yorker form, he ends the story grumbling that the formerly hip Midtown hotel, now tamed, is just another mediocre place to spend $500 a night to sleep in Manhattan.

Related Stories:
· The Renovated Royalton Gets Mixed Reviews and Ex-CEO Ed Scheetz's Vegas Drama Didn't Help [HotelChatter]
· Check-In, Check-Out: The Royalton [NY Times]
· Denny Lee Coverage [HotelChatter]