HotelChatter

Warning: the following might ruin your fantasy of The Standard Hotel.

Yesterday, the NY Post revealed—we like to imagine them sending their most charismatic reporter—that The Standard is anything but innocent when it comes to their exhibitionist guests. You see, oftentimes they aren't even guests; they are employees of The Standard, encouraged to flaunt their nasty bits:

'We don't discourage [the nudity]. In actual fact, we encourage it,' a friendly bellhop told a pair of reporters as they checked in yesterday at The Standard, where randy guests cavort with abandon to the dismay -- or delight -- of parkgoers below. After the hotel opened late last year, the bellhop said, naked and semidressed staff members were encouraged to pose in front of the windows. The point, he said, was to create a buzz with the unexpected peep show. 'One of the managers even got naked in a room, and filmed it -- they were considering a live feed for the Web site,' the staffer said. 'She's an exhibitionist, too.'

We understand why they didn't livestream it to their website, because then that would be softcore porn on a legit business' site, but why not pump that video right into the in-room entertainment options? That'd be one truly unique amenity; we'd call the channel "Hospitality Staff Gone Wild" or "The Standard Nudity."

Nonetheless, we are agitated over this whole idea of paying employees to give the impression that guests are getting busy in public; it strips away the illicit deliciousness and felicity of it and coats it with the varnish of cheap advertising and hype. If the story continues to snowball, we might be asking if it's possible for an entire hotel to be ticketed for public indecency? Hey, we're just thankful that we slept at The Standard while the bedding was still spot-free, or so we hope.

[Photo: NY Post]