What Are These At The Bowery House?

November 9, 2011 at 9:30 AM | by ASchechter | Comments (0)

We like to keep it fun but informative here at HotelChatter so our newest series, What is This? is devoted to odd-looking items in hotel rooms that upon first glance look as if they serve only a decorative purpose. But everything happens for a reason, right? And we're here to tell you what these things really do.

Take a close look at this bizarre assortment we found at the Bowery House in Manhattan. It seemed pointless to use any snapshots from the rooms themselves�since, frankly, there's not much in those little cubbyholes to photograph! But this fixture in the lobby caught our eye, and if you give yourselves a little bit of reference to put things into context, we're pretty sure you can guess how these play into the story of the hotel.

Hint: the original building was used as a flophouse for soldiers returned from the war.

Why, they're room keys of course!

Just not the fancy modern plastic cards we're all used to. Rather than updating the place with flashy electronic gadgets, lighting, and entertainment systems, the owners (one of them an Italian former race car driver) opted to preserve the 1940s flophouse vibe. Just, you know, cleaner, and better appointed.

Not to mention the fact that the doors themselves are so small, we don't think a key card mechanism would even be able to attach itself to the surface of the door.

Every guest is handed a key for their ~~closet~~ room, and each key comes with a military dog tag, as a nod to the building's origins as a military flophouse. Unlike the weary, traumatized, disoriented guests that crashed here in the 40s and 50s, today's visitors come from around the world and seek out the hotel for its uniqueness and affordability. Oh, and the staff cleans the bathrooms like every two hours. For real.

[Photos: HotelChatter]

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