HotelChatter

The smallest room is 350 square feet, and somehow it doesn't feel like a shoebox. To us, both the King rooms and the Double Doubles looked clean, elegant (if safely so) and functional. Hallways are wide, and soaring ceilings in the lobby and meeting spaces mean you never feel cooped up like you do in some of the city's older, big-name hotels.

While the hotel will obviously get a lot of leisure travelers, being just a block away from the hub of Times Square, we get the feeling that this will become the go-to business hotel in town.

There are PCs in every room loaded with Microsoft Office (although you can't save to the hard drive, so forget the privacy concerns), and plenty of electrical outlets all over the room.

The meeting rooms are all plug-and-play, and the massive commercial kitchen has been fitted out with top-of-the-line equipment that can cook a banquet for 300 in less time than it takes for room service to arrive at certain busy hotels.

Most of the 13 meeting rooms are located in the basement or on the ground floor, but it's the top of the hotel that will get most people talking. In fact, we expect the penthouse on the 36th floor to become the most coveted event space in the city. The suite can be booked as a three- or four-bedroom, and has two fireplaces, a butler pantry, dining and living rooms, and floor-to-ceiling windows with get-out-of-town views of Times Square. (Yeah, it's $15,000 a night.)

For the plebs among us, there are still rooms for under $300 a night—just make sure you book before June 30 to get the opening rate.