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The Chatwal is Now Shooting For a September 2009 Opening

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 130 W 44th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10036

| June 17, 2009 at 9:24 AM | 0 Comments

Hey, remember when someone told us that The Chatwal would open "sooner than we think" and that "sooner than we think" was going to be July? Yeah, no: now we're looking at September.

The former Lamb's Club-turned Vikram Chatwal vanity-ish project has had a lot of obstacles to overcome, we suppose (what else takes a hotel ten years to open?) — and we checked in on the property's Leading Hotels of the World page to find that the "New hotel: Opening to be advised" message had turned into "NEW HOTEL - OPENING SEPTEMBER 2009 (date to be advised)."

We noted a couple months ago that the property had mysteriously disappeared from the list of hotels on the Vikram Chatwal Hotels site, but we were reassured that the place was still going to open — and, also, we really have no idea what this means, but when we Google "The Chatwal" the search results come up like this:

This is probably nothing we need to read into, but it's just sort of...weird.

Anyway, in conclusion: they're shooting for September and we're not holding our breath.

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South Beach's 'Dream' Will Become a Reality on Labor Day

Where: Collins Ave [map], Miami, FL, United States, 33139

| May 26, 2009 at 12:01 PM | 2 Comments


Dream SoBe, in February 2009.

'Twas when we were in Miami earlier this year when we first heard news of Vikram Chatwal's plan to take his Dream Hotel to South Beach — in fact, we drove past the hotel itself, which is going to be the result of renovations of the Tudor and Palmer House buildings on Collins Avenue, and it was under some pretty serious construction. But that was in February — and no opening date was in sight.

But we did a little checkup on the VC Hotels website today and noticed a sweet little "Labor Day 2009" next to the hotel; can it be? But where we assume its website should be (dreamsouthbeach.com), there's nothin' but a bit of plain text nonsense.

Whenever it does open, the 110-room hotel will span across the two renovated buildings connected by a glass-enclosed walkway. It's set to have two food and beverage establishments: a ground-floor restaurant and a glass-enclosed rooftop bar.

We'll keep our eye on this bad boy 'til September 7th. In the meantime, send any hot gossip our way.

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Rejoice! The Chatwal Shows Signs of Life, Might Open This Summer

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 130 W 44th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10036

| April 28, 2009 at 5:32 PM | 0 Comments

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.

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The Chatwal Will Open 'Sooner Than You Think'

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 130 W 44th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10036

| April 23, 2009 at 10:36 AM | 1 Comment

From the depths of a late-afternoon delirium, our emotions got the best of us and we were moved to write a poem about how upset we were that we couldn't find Vikram Chatwal's ten-years-in-the-making The Chatwal — slated to open this year — on the official roster of VCH's open or in-development hotels. However! Thanks to a fairly confident commenter and an official hotel rep, we are happy to learn that The Chatwal is indeed on the way. Supposedly.

Says BVCH:

Because of the more traditional nature of the product and slightly different demographic that The Chatwal will [we feel] ultimately will appeal to, it is being marketed outside of the VCH Collection as a stand alone property and possibly the progenitor for its own line of hotels... but make mo mistake about it, it is coming and sooner than you think.

Interesting. Very interesting. An official hotel rep confirmed this morning that this was arrurate — the hotel is "still slated to open this year," and we'll get the deets as the opening date gets closer. Hm. Okay.

While this is good news, it's also kind of disappointing because now we have to wait some more. This is kind of like one of those relationships where you don't really trust the other person but they keep you hangin' on. Or like that Diana Ross song. Vikky, set us free, why dontchya babe?

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Has VCH Given Up On The Chatwal After All?

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 130 W 44th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10036

| April 22, 2009 at 4:50 PM | 1 Comment

Vikram had a little Lamb,
little Lamb, little Lamb,
Vikram had a little Lamb,
Whose name was changed, we know.
He named his Lamb 'Chatwal' one day,
'Chatwal' one day, 'Chatwal' one day,
But we checked the VCH website and —
Oh wait, where did it go?

We were sitting around Dream-ing (ha! See what we did there?) of Vikram Chatwal when we realized that it's been a mighty long time since we'd heard anything about The Chatwal, the "upcoming" Times Square hotel formerly known as the Lamb's Club Hotel which has, so far, been a decade in the making. What gives? Isn't that bad boy supposed to be opening soon?

Maybe not. We did a thorough search for info about the hotel and dug up nothing: the Leading Hotels of the World website still says "opening to be advised" and the Chatwal site itself is still claiming that the hotel will be "coming soon." Hmm, whatever.

But then: we headed over to the VCH website (yes! And we did enjoy ourselves some hot jams, thank you very much!), to find that The Chatwal was mysteriously absent from the listing of U.S. hotels — and the roster seems to be up to date, since Dream Cochin is listed as open and Dream Downtown's opening has been updated. Interesting.

Anyone know what's going on or why The Chatwal seems to have mysteriously gone missing? Let us know.

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Vikram Chatwal Wants Us Floating On a Cloud at Dream Cochin

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: SA Road, Ernakulamv, Kochi, Kerala, India, 682020

| April 7, 2009 at 9:38 AM | 0 Comments

While the opening of the Downtown Dream Hotel in New York is, pardon the pun, still just a dream, Vikram Chatwal's VCH group seems to have managed to get their act together with another Dream hotel at least: the Dream Cochin in Kerala is now up and running.

Per Luxist, The Indian tourism ministry has apparently already awarded the Dream Cochin five stars, although the Dream gang seem to think their new hotel is even better than that; they promise it "offers a glimpse of the future of deluxe accommodations."

The future is apparently going to be blue in color, which the Dream people think will give us the feeling of floating on a cloud. Think a mix of hippy and hip, because they've also tried to plug in modern technology all over the place too.

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Dream Downtown NYC Delayed to 2010?

Where: 346 West 17th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10011

| March 16, 2009 at 11:19 AM | 1 Comment

Back in April of 2008, we stood at this very same vantage point in West Chelsea for a look at hotelier Vikram Chatwal's upcoming Downtown Dream Hotel, which abuts the back end of Sean MacPherson's Maritime. Now almost a year later, the Dream construction (on the left) remains shrouded like Chernobyl while the Maritime beams at the thought of having another summer to itself.

Originally slated for "early 2009" and with no official revised date, we'll take the initiative and peg this as early 2010. If we're to understand anything from the construction company's project website for the Dream Downtown, then they're having enough issues with the porthole-like windows, forget the rest of the place. What this means is that The Maritime will enjoy smooth sailing this summer, its (most likely) final one as the only hotel and cabanas on the block. That is, unless you're willing to walk down several blocks to The Standard.

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Finally, Hotel Website Music That Doesn't Suck

| March 4, 2009 at 1:45 PM | 1 Comment

You know what's the worst? The music on hotel websites. It's a vicious cross-breed of elevator music, lounge beats and a "grown-up film" soundtrack — and since we spend an inordinate amount of time on hotel websites every day, our patience for said music is, well, thin. Very thin. On more than one occasion, we've left a tab on our browser open to the Thompson site for hours without realizing it — with the sound on — and we're certain that the music both infiltrated our dreams and kick-started a slow descent into crazytown.

However! One of us was on Vikram Chatwal's VCH Hotels' website the other day and, inexplicably, caught herself doin' a little head-bop to the music. Another one of us visited the same site this morning and, upon further discussion we both agreed that, um, we seem to have stumbled upon some hotel website music that doesn't suck. After some major Google sleuthing, we found out that the jam we're diggin' at the VCH site is a song by The Incredible Moses Leroy called "1983."

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NYT Doesn't Seem to Mind Stay.Hotel's Teensy Rooms

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 157 W. 47th St. [map], New York, NY, United States, 10036

| March 2, 2009 at 11:12 AM | 0 Comments

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.)

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Vikram Chatwal Taking His 'Dream' to South Beach

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 1111 Collins Avenue [map], Miami Beach, FL, United States, 33139

| February 27, 2009 at 11:44 AM | 0 Comments

Earlier this week, we did a drive-by of Miami Hotels and in our short report, we had you guess the hotelier and sometime movie actor who was planning a joint for South Beach. And really, you dear readers make us so proud. While a couple of you guessed Trump, a few others knew it was the one and only Vikram Chatwal.

Yes, Vik is coming to South Beach. Right now, the hotel is still under may-jah construction as it is turning the old Tudor and Palmer House buildings on Collins Avenue into The Dream South Beach. From South Beach USA:

The two historic structures in the heart of South Beach will be renovated and re-designed into a 110-room hotel connected via a glass-enclosed walkway. Dream South Beach will be a high-end, luxury boutique hotel and will contain two food and beverage establishments including a ground-floor restaurant and a glass-enclosed roof-top lounge offering a sophisticated and relaxing environment.

Reportedly, chef Geoffrey Zakarian of Town and Country at the Chambers and Carlton Hotels in NYC, will bring a restaurant to the Dream. There will also be a rooftop lounge.

We contacted a rep for Vikram Chatwal hotels but no further updates about the hotel were given. And the Vikram Chatwal Hotels website says "opening early 2009" but um...yeah.

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Mel Gibson Hangs with Vikram Chatwal at the Dream Hotel

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 210 W 55th St [map], New York, NY, United States, 10019

| December 15, 2008 at 12:00 PM | 0 Comments

Perhaps the only thing more exhilarating to us than spotting a hotelier out in the wild is spotting a celebrity with a hotelier out in the wild... but usually Page Six does that for us and we get to read about it in the New York Post a few days later.

Such was the case this week with a rather curious celeb/hotelier pairing: according to the gossip rag, Vikram Chatwal — the hotelier behind properties like Dream, Night, Stay.Hotel and the upcoming Chatwal — was spotted at the Ava Lounge in the Dream Hotel having drinks with once-dreamy, now-nutty Mel Gibson. Gibson was staying at the Dream while he was in town for last week's Global Green USA Sustainable Design Awards.

Let's hope Vikram was soliciting Mel's advice on how to become a notorious household name and pray that Gibson wasn't hitting up Tricky Vikky for tips on how to go into the hotel business.

[Photo: Global Green USA]

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We Finally Have an Opening Date for The Chatwal

| December 8, 2008 at 2:05 PM | 0 Comments

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).

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