HotelChatter

Our other issue with this, of course, is: why, of all their brands, would they want to be duplicating the Hudson Hotel?

Sure, we admit, the public spaces in this hotel have always done good by us (Private Park, with its tall trees and brick arches; the Ralph Lauren-designed Library; and even, on nice weather days, the Sky Terrace). But the rooms are teeeensy, and kind of dark and coffin-like. This has always been the complaint with Hudson—and for cramming 834 rooms into a building the size of a high school, what did they really expect?

What we'd love to hear is that the upcoming Hudson renovations will knock down some walls and up the per-room square footage a little. But that may be wishful thinking.

For now, we know that the $30 million "modernization" of Hudson New York will bring new furnishings, upgraded technology, new lighting, and newly-designed corridors. As for London, at least we know it won't be quite so sardine can-stuffed as its New York counterpart (200 rooms sounds much more reasonable than 800+), though as the reported "gateway brand" of MHG, we can probably expect a lot of the same quirky features, like the Hudson's extra-long neon green elevator, an elevated lobby, a lobby that looks like something out of Where The Wild Things Are.

By 2015, MHG hopes to have four hotels in London: Mondrian, Hudson, and the already open Sanderson and St Martins Lane. Which one will you be staying at?

[Photo: HotelChatter]