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Rooms at The Distrikt Not As Funky as the Hotel's Name Suggests

Where: 342 W 40th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10018

One of our favorite milestones when tracking a new hotel opening is the release of photos. Not renderings, not collages, but full color pictures of the guestrooms we’re so eager to check into. Today The Distrikt Hotel reaches that milestone by posting photos on its Facebook page.

We’ve been dying for a glimpse inside the hotel since the funky collages on the website--while arty and cool--left us without a clue as to room design. Now The Distrikt delivers and we’re both relieved and disappointed.

Relieved that the neighborhood theme is not an OTT mish-mash as it could have been, but a little sad that the décor plays it so safe. For all its savvy marketing, The Distrikt looks pretty middle-of-the-road when it comes to design. The rooms look nice in these photos—but "nice" means a place your mom would be comfortable staying. (That is, if she isn’t scared off by the funky name.) And that’s just not what we were expecting here.

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The Distrikt Hotel: Where ‘Late Fall’ Means Winter

Where: 342 W 40th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10018

Get out your Hotel Opening Date Tracking Sheet, friends, because it’s time for a little update on Manhattan’s Distrikt Hotel. We’re dying to see this place: the NYC-neighborhood theme is one of the most interesting we’ve heard of all year, and we can’t wait to see which floors—each named after a different part of the city—will become the most sought after. (It seems apt that the Financial District is on the lowest floor, and Harlem on the highest, no?)

Alas, it looks like we’ll have to wait a few more weeks. While the hotel’s website is still promising an opening in “late fall,” and a press rep for the Distrikt told us the doors would open on November 15th, we’ve since heard that the big day would be pushed back to December 1st.

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Tags: Hotel Openings / Hotel Hype / Manhattan Hotels / Ascend Collection / Hotel Contests / → All Tags

Manhattan's Upcoming Distrikt Hotel To Pay Homage To NYC's Different 'Hoods

Where: 342 W 40th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10018

It looks like the (tentatively named) Fashion 26 won't be the only new hotel gracing the island of Manhattan this fall. The Distrikt Hotel is set to debut on October 28 on West 40th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues, bringing a new and exciting alternative for accommodations near Times Square (finally!) Here's the official description of the hotel:

New York City itself inspires the décor with floors representing 10 different neighborhoods or districts beginning with a Central Park living wall in the lobby and renderings of Manhattan's grid around the elevators.

We hear the hotel floors will be arranged in order according to their locations so the Financial District will be the lowest floor and Harlem will be the highest. Cool!

But there's a whole lot more going on at Distrikt. The 32-story skyscraper is actually an Ascend Collection hotel, a Choice Hotels brand, which means very good things for guests--like free wireless internet. We used this service at another Ascend Collection hotel--the GEM Hotel Chelsea--and it was blazing fast.

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