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Tags: Hilton Hotels / New York Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Times Square Hotels / Eco-Friendly Hotels / Green Hotels / → All Tags
Hilton New York Honored With a 'Green Street' Award. Really.
Swarming with smog, exhaust, and buzzing with the din of taxis in neutral, New York's Avenue of the Americas is hardly a location we think of as being environmentally-considerate. A work in progress, maybe, with a little cheerleading needed to nudge it in the right direction.
The "Green Street" Award was established by the Avenue of the Americas Association to inspire the thoroughfare's tenants to think eco and find new ways to close the loop. This year, the Hilton New York was honored, and not just because it hosted the ceremony in its Trianon Ballroom last week.
Innovative eco-hotels are normally found bourgeois bohemian neighborhoods like the West Village or SoHo, so when we caught wind of this news we were looking for certifiable proof of the Hilton's investment in going green. According to the Avenue's Association, proof came in the form of a futuristic, energy-saving PureCell system that uses electric power to power the hotel and heat water, which has accounted for 6% of the hotel's consumption since being installed. It is also three times more energy efficient than a normal electric grid and operates 24-hours per day.
Tags: 2009 World Series Hotels / Hotel Bars / Times Square Hotels / Westin Hotels / → All Tags
Got Tix to The World Series? They May Have Cost Less Than Your Hotel Room
The Yankees and The Phillies are set to square off in the 2009 World Series Championships on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium and tickets on Stubhub.com are starting out at nearly $300 a piece. That's definitely steep but if you're a fan, then money's no object. Your hotel room, however, is another issue.
Let's get to the good news first. If you're a lucky ticket holder, the Westin Times Square is offering a $50 credit in the hotel's Bar 10. Here's a look at what $50 will get you:
Yankees fans can snack on grilled sirloin sliders and crisp calamari fries, or throw back a few celebratory drinks in anticipation of their team’s win. Fans that really want to hit it out of the ballpark can opt for the Fall Unwind special, available in Bar 10 from 5 p.m. – 11 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Customers can sample the beer package, which includes a choice of four bottles of their favorite brews (Sam Adams, Budweiser, Bud Light, Miller Light and Coors light) and an order of select lounge fare, all for just $28.
Tags: Pitch Your Hotel / Westin Hotels / Times Square Hotels / → All Tags
The Westin New York's GM Takes Us Inside His 'Healthy Hotel'
Welcome to our regular Monday feature, Pitch Your Hotel, where we let hoteliers, general managers and other hotel execs tell us on-camera what makes their hotels so different from all the rest. And believe us, the competition is fierce these days. So sit back, relax and listen to them explain why their hotels are worthy of your hard-earned dollars or rewards points.
We popped into the Westin New York so that we could ask Gerard Widder, the hotel's general manager, about what makes his hotel so great. But instead of just giving us a stand-up pitch, Gerard took us along on a tour of his hotel--showing off the hotel's fitness center, spa, new executive guest rooms and the lobby bar, Bar 10. (We have to give him major props for filming all of this on the fly and while running on the treadmill too!)
Westin Hotels really need no introduction but Widder wanted to show us that despite being located amidst the frenetic pace of Times Square--which is where tourists and business travelers alike converge--the Westin Times Square goes to great lengths to offer a respite from the mad world below.
Tags: Times Square Hotels / Concierges / Broadway Tickets / → All Tags
Overheard in the Lobby: Can The Concierge Get Broadway Tickets?
A couple approaches the concierge of Night Hotel looking for Broadway tickets for the following night. The conversation went something like this:
Couple Guy: We want to see Billy Elliott tomorrow night.
Concierge: That show is sold out. I can get you tickets, but they will be over $200 a piece, maybe $250
Couple Guy: $250? That is way too much money. Why are they so much?
Concierge: Like I said, it is sold out -- every night. However, we go through ticket brokers and can get you seats, but it will cost more.
Couple Guy: Ok fine, what about if we go see Chicago?
Concierge: That would be easier, but you are still looking at around $200 if you go through the hotel.
Couple Guy: But it isn't even sold out?
Couple Girl: Let's just line up at TKTS tomorrow and take our chances -- half price face value I think
Concierge: Yes, she is right, that is probably your best bet.
Lessons Learned:
Hotel concierges mark up their ticket prices and not only pass the broker costs on to you, but more than likely the hotel gets a cut of the mark up as well. Oh, and Billy Elliott is way more popular than Chicago.
Tags: Digital Nomad Hotels / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Lobbies / Manhattan Hotel Reviews / Times Square Hotels / → All Tags
Digital Nomad Lobbies: Millennium Broadway
There has been a lot of talk recently about the lifestyle of digital nomads -- folks who work from wherever they might roam. HotelChatter has been covering hotel wifi since the beginning, but as we cited in our 2009 annual hotel wifi report times they are a changin'.
Hotel: Millenium Broadway New York Times Square
Location Layout: There are three levels. The street level is the busiest level, level two is bound to have a conference going on and level three is fairly open.
Outlets: Plenty of 'em.
Furniture: Each level has a set of couches and good lighting. Aside from the street level, which is a bit darker.
Digital Nomad Tolerance: Light. If you are there during non busy hours you stick out like a sore thumb, and if you are there after 6 PM the place turns into a full fledged bar.
Phone Calls: Not a problem. There are three levels of lobby/conference rooms -- just pick the quietest level for your call.
Overall Mood: Business Time.
Digital Nomad Grade: A
Lack of outlets, bad furniture for working, dim lighting loud music -- they don't want digital nomads here and you don't want to be here. Keep searching.
Tags: Digital Nomad Hotels / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Lobbies / Manhattan Hotel Reviews / Times Square Hotels / → All Tags
Digital Nomad Lobbies: W Times Square
There has been a lot of talk recently about the lifestyle of digital nomads -- folks who work from wherever they might roam. HotelChatter has been covering hotel wifi since the beginning, but as we cited in our 2009 annual hotel wifi report times they are a changin'.
Hotel: W New York Times Square
Location Layout: You enter around the corner from Times Square, but have to get yourself to the 7th floor before you are actually in the lobby. Once there, expect dim lighting, base pumping music, and fembot servers asking you if you want a drink regardless of the time of day.
Outlets: Could not find one.
Furniture: Low set couches coupled with low set tables make working comfortably difficult. Wheat grass is present, of course. Oh, and there is this cool old typewriter on one of the tables near the back.
Digital Nomad Tolerance: Light. If you are there during non busy hours you stick out like a sore thumb, and if you are there after 6 PM the place turns into a full fledged bar.
Phone Calls: Not recommended, unless you like your conference calls set to drum and base backgrounds.
Overall Mood: Millennial shiek.
Digital Nomad Grade: D
Lack of outlets, bad furniture for working, dim lighting loud music -- they don't want digital nomads here and you don't want to be here. Keep searching.
Tags: Hotel Hype / Hotel Openings / Times Square Hotels / InterContinental Hotels / → All Tags
InterContinental Times Square Still Set For Summer 2010
Oh, good. Another big-brand hotel is opening up as a tourist HQ in Times Square (do we sound like real New Yorkers yet? No? Okay.)
A sharp tipster was cruising around the IHG site recently and came across this: some specs on the upcoming InterContinental Times Square, opening up (supposedly) in the summer of 2010.
The sparkling marketing copy on the site doesn't say much about the hotel itself, but IHG does seem to be quite excited about the building that's going to be housing it:
Designed by the global architecture firm Gensler, The InterContinental New York Times Square rises 34 stories above the dynamic Eighth Avenue development corridor. It joins contemporary icons the Hearst Tower by Norman Foster and Renzo Piano’s New York Times Building on the skyline. Gensler’s holistic design draws from two distinctly New York neighborhoods. White glass along Eighth Avenue reflects the movement and shimmer of the street, while warm-toned granite on the 44th Street façade relates to the adjacent residential buildings. Featuring a restaurant and street-level retail, the six-story podium is topped by a sculptural glass hotel tower.
That's nice. According to a press release sent around when the property topped off (on June 1st), it will have 600+ rooms, and will be "the first luxury hotel built in the Times Square-neighborhood." The only image available right now is this rendering, though we're sure — in true InterContinental fashion — they'll get some nice images depicting close-ups of the hotel's decor, complete with the trademark blurry moving-quickly models that appear in almost every single one of InterContinental's flagship brand property photos, in no time.
[Image: Google Maps]
Tags: Hotel Openings / Hotel Delays / Vikram Chatwal / Times Square Hotels / → All Tags
Rejoice! The Chatwal Shows Signs of Life, Might Open This Summer
No, we can't believe it either. Surely egged on by our not-so-wild speculation and eyebrow-raising (what? The fact that the hotel disappeared from the VCH website was legitimate cause for concern), we received a sparkling nugget of a press release in our inbox today: it was from The Chatwal, the mythical, fabled hotel from hotelier Vikram Chatwal that we thought would never open.
Well, it still hasn't opened — but it is showing signs of life! The hotel announced today that it has hired itself a general manager: one Mr. Joel Freyberg, who most recently held the position of Executive Director for New York's Waldorf Towers (at the Waldorf Astoria).
And — ready for this? — this caught our eye: "Opening in July 2009, The Chatwal will salute the New York City “baby grand” hotels of a bygone era, offering unparalleled accommodations and a fresh perspective on the luxury hotel experience."
July! July! July! It's coming! And now...we wait. And no, it does not appear to be accepting reservations yet.
Tags: NYT Reviews / Manhattan Hotels / Vikram Chatwal / Times Square Hotels / → All Tags
NYT Doesn't Seem to Mind Stay.Hotel's Teensy Rooms
We’ve been a bit guarded about Vikram Chatwal’s Stay.Hotel in Manhattan ever since we heard the place was basically a Quality Inn with a souped-up lobby. So we were pretty intrigued by the mostly positive review of Stay in the New York Times this weekend.
Besides the overly punctuated moniker, the biggest gripe we’ve been hearing about Stay is the tiny rooms. NYT’s take? Staying “in a standard room means trading spacious accommodations for state-of-the-art technology.” They also call rooms “improbably small.” (They suggest upgrading to one of the eight rooms with two double beds or 15 with king beds and walk-in closets.)
Tags: Oscar Hotels / Westin Hotels / Hotel Cocktails / Times Square Hotels / → All Tags
Bar 10 at Westin Times Square Will Serve 'Oscar Drinks'
The Oscars are here! Um...wait does anyone care about the Oscars? No. We're living in some depressing times what will all the layoffs, the house foreclosures and plummeting personal fortunes. Why should we care about which overpaid celeb was wearing what fancy $3,000 gown as she collects or gets denied a gold statue? The thing is we don't.
But we do like to drink. And Bar 10 at the Westin Times Square encourages us to drink while watching the Oscars with their latest Oscar-themed specialty cocktails.
Tags: Hotel Hype / Vikram Chatwal / VCH Hotels / Times Square Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
We Finally Have an Opening Date for The Chatwal
It's official: The Chatwal will, indeed, open. Well, according to the Leading Hotels of the World website, anyway: NewYorkology has stumbled upon an opening date! A date! Not just a nebulous time period like "early 2009" or "this winter"!
A bit of backstory: we've been watching this 88-room hotel for a while now. It sits in the Times Square space that was once the iconic Lamb's Club and has been in the works for ten years. It was originally supposed to be called the Lamb's Club Hotel, but it will finally make its debut as The Chatwal (named, of course, for the one and only Vikram Chatwal, the oh-so-modest hotelier behind hotels like Dream, Night and Stay.Hotel).
Tags: Vikram Chatwal / VCH Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Hype / Times Square Hotels / → All Tags
The Lamb's Club is Now The Chatwal and Might Actually Open
Oy. The controversial Lamb's Club Hotel — Vikram Chatwal's new Times Square project that has pretty much taken 10 years to open and was renamed The Chatwal — now has a website and some details that indicate the place might actually open.
A little background for those of you not keeping up: back in 1999, the New York Observer reported that Hampshire Hotels (the parent company of VCH) had announced plans to turn the historic Lamb's Club, the legendary Times' Square "theatrical social club" frequented by beloved figures like Fred Astaire and George Gershwin, into a hotel. Locals were sad.
In 2006, the NY Post runs a similar story, this time specifically mentioning that "Hampshire Hotels announced plans to gut the building and construct a five-star, 99-room boutique hotel" to open in 2007. It did not.
The date was pushed to August 2008 — which also didn't happen — the place was reflagged as The Chatwal, and today Newyorkology pointed us toward the brand new website, which says it will be up and running in "late 2008."
So, what's in store for the Chatwal?
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