10007 Travel Guide
Tags: Digital Nomad Hotels / Thompson Hotels / Hotel WiFi / Hotel Lobbies / → All Tags
Digital Nomad Lobbies: Working It Out at Smyth Tribeca
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'.
The biggest change on the tech side is the growing popularity of the usb broadband card. As more and more people buy into these cards (and more and more GMs pray to the hotel gods they do) there are a growing number of digital nomads that no longer tap into a hotel WiFi network.
Instead, these nomads are in search of killer hotel lobbies to comfortably work in. That's right, digital nomads have no problem coming in, kicking back on hotel lobby couches and doing an hours worth of work. So once again hotels have a choice -- welcome these folks, pay no mind to them, or actively try to kick them out.
With this in mind, we figured it was time for us to start rating hotel lobbies on their digital nomad quotient. In our latest edition, the The Smyth Tribeca Hotel.
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Why One Dude Loves The Smyth Hotel's Bathrooms
We often travel alone and spend the night in hotel rooms alone but on a recent trip to New York City, we managed to have a few travel buddies come along with us. Our mother stayed with us when we visited The Plaza (she loved the rooms but misses the old feel) and a dude very close to our hearts, who we'll call Mr. Z, stayed with us during our two nights at Smyth Hotel in Tribeca. Thanks to him, we learned what dudes look for in hotel bathrooms.
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HotelChatter Goes Inside Smyth Tribeca
When we spend months stalking a single hotel, getting pumped every time reservations go live and then getting angry when those reservations close up due to delays, we know all of the teasing builds some pretty high expectations for the property.
But when we finally stepped inside Smyth Tribeca's lobby on its first official day of operation, we felt we were ready to take a look at the hotel objectively. Having seen the rooms prior to the opening, we figured we were gauging our expectations accurately.
And yet. Staying at the hotel on Tuesday night was a little bit like meeting a long-time celebrity crush and finding out he's actually super short: still impressive — just not as awesome as you'd anticipated.
Tags: Snapshot / Thompson Hotels / Hotel Openings / → All Tags
Deskless at Smyth Tribeca
Well, it happened: we spent a night at Smyth Tribeca. As we announced on Monday, Thompson's newest several-times-delayed property opened up yesterday — and we got in there last night after we scored a kickass rate of $107 through Quikbook.
We'll have tons of pics, a video tour and a full rundown of our experience tomorrow, but allow us to set the tone: upon check-in, imagine our surprise when we set our computer bag down on top of...this. Which is not a desk. We had no desk!
There was no desk chair (or anything that could be moved from another part of the room to function as a desk chair); though there were outlets, a lamp and a phone — all things that normally indicate that a piece of furniture is meant to be a workstation. Baffling; this was more of a dresser. Even if we had ordered a chair delivered to our room, we wouldn't have been able to sit at this desk because there are, as you can see, drawers and cabinets sitting where our legs would have gone.
We'd taken a tour of the property a couple of weeks ago and we're absolutely certain we'd laid eyes upon desks (with desk chairs!) in all the rooms we saw that day — perhaps room 511 is a rare exception? Anyway, you get the idea; the ol' back is hurting from working from our bed, so we'll bring you more later.
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Smyth Tribeca Opens Tomorrow Starting at $107
On a whim, we called Smyth Tribeca this morning to check in on what was going on with their constantly-delayed, heartbreakingly-confusing opening. Quick recap: it was supposed to open in January and then it didn't — and, uh, that sort of thing happened a couple of times. We toured the unopened property recently and were totally impressed with what we saw, but when we would be able to actually spend the night inside those four walls was anyone's guess.
And now we know: as we were checking to see if they were still on track for the opening that was most recently scheduled for February 6th, imagine our surprise when we were told that the magical opening date is actually tomorrow. Rejoice! Those doors may open after all!
But that's not all we're psyched about: after the staffer told us that the hotel would be ready for its first guests in just 24 hours(ish), we logged onto Quikbook and managed to score a room for $107. Seriously. Well, the room was going for $125, but Quikbook was doing one of their killer "book now and save 15%" promos and the final rate ended up at $107.
So, we'll let you know if the hotel actually opens tomorrow. After the delay-upon-delay saga that has played with our hearts so far, we won't believe it's open until we actually rest our heads upon one of Smyth's pillows.
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Smyth Tribeca To Open On February 6th, But Don't Count On It
We've backed off of our obsessive Smyth Tribeca coverage a little bit lately — we'd gotten a little bit frustrated after all the booking and canceling throughout the never-ending cycle of disappointing delay news that we'd experienced in January (please, by all means, read all about it). Once we'd gotten a tour of the property, we could see that things were pretty close to ready, but the opening date was still up in the air.
Well, we have news for you: it's still sort of up in the air, but we got in touch with the Smyth folks yesterday to check up on the latest. They let us know that they were just waiting on some final permits and whatnot before things could go ahead with the official opening — but it may be closer to early February than to mid-February, as the hotel is aiming to be open before Fashion Week kicks off (February 13th).
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Smyth Tribeca Looks Good, But Won't Open Until February
After a bit of a disastrous run with booking rooms for the beginning of the month at the yet-to-open, twice-delayed Smyth Tribeca, the kind folks that run the hotel invited us over to get a sneak peek and a personal tour of the property before doors opened to the public.
Yes, people: yesterday, we were able to debunk the great Myth of Smyth as we strolled through the fabled hallways of the building on the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street. The hotel is real, and it is going to open. Soon. Sometime. Most likely at the beginning of February.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to take any of our own photographs (trust us, we tried), so the best we can give you is a look at these professional shots and the scoop on some of the cool stuff we saw inside.
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Smyth Tribeca Delayed Yet Again
Fool us once, shame on you; fool us twice, shame on... no, still shame on you. Yes, it is with a heavy heart that we report that Smyth Tribeca's opening has been delayed again. However, on the bright side, we have been able to find great humor in the unfortunate coincidence that is the presence of the "myth" in the hotel's name since, uh, this hotel's opening might actually have been a myth.
To recap: Thompson's hotly-anticipated Tribeca outpost was supposed to open up on January 6th. We booked a room for the 12th through Quikbook at $119 and we were psyched to get in there and check it out. And then, sadly, we received an email from Quikbook letting us know that the hotel's opening had been delayed. We were offered the opportunity to transfer our reservations over to the Thompson LES for the same rate (which we politely declined); then, a couple days later, Smyth Tribeca's website displayed a new opening date of January 12th.
This time, even more eager to find out what sort of awesomeness was worth delaying the opening and relocating all the guests who'd reserved yet-to-be-finished rooms, we were determined to try again: we booked a room for January 18th. Imagine our surprise when we received another Smyth-related disappointment, this time in the form of an email from the hotel's Assistant Front Office Manager on Saturday morning:
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Smyth Tribeca Now Scheduled for January 12th
Rejoice! We have a new opening date for Smyth Tribeca!
As we all know by now, Thompson's newest NYC outpost was originally scheduled to open its doors tomorrow (January 6th), but we received heartbreaking news last week that the hotel was going to be delayed — which was especially disappointing to us because we'd made reservations to stay there on January 11th at the killer rate of $119.
Tags: Hotel Delays / Thompson Hotels / Quikbook / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
And Now We Have the Quikbook-Smyth Relocation Email
Looks like Smyth Tribeca won't be opening up by January 11th either. We just got an email from Quikbook, who we booked the hotel room through, explaining that we would be relocated to Thompson Lower East Side:
I am writing to you to inform you that the Smyth hotel has delayed their opening. I know this is disappointing, but we have secured you a new reservation at their sister hotel the Thompson Lower East Side at the same rate you booked for the Smyth hotel. Thompson Lower East Side just opened in 2008 and we have received excellent customer feedback on this property.
This sort of relocation also happened to us when we were trying to book a room for the LES opening over the summer. Instead we were moved over to 60 Thompson for the same rate that we paid for LES. The same thing will happen here. Our rate for Smyth will be the same for LES. And we wouldn't be surprised in Quikbook or Thompson threw in an upgrade. Or at least, they better. The Lower East Side is a vastly different location than Tribeca. Sigh. Thompson Hotels, what are we going to do with you?
Any more relocation stories out there? Send 'em to us.
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Smyth Tribeca Won't Be Opening on January 6th
This just in: Smyth Tribeca from Thompson Hotels will not be opening on January 6 as was initially reported earlier this month. However, Thompson Hotels is promising that it will opening soon after that, sometime around the 11th. That's not too bad, considering we didn't even think Smyth would open until at least the Spring.
We've booked our room for the hotel in mid-January through Quikbook and we haven't heard anything yet about a cancellation or a change. Right now, if you log onto Smyth Tribeca's website, an opening date of January 6th is still being promoted. Yet when you go to reserve a room, a message pops up saying rooms are unavailable.
We'll keep you updated on how it plays out. If you have any of your own Smyth-booking stories to tell, we're ready to listen.
Tags: Hotel Opening Rates / Thompson Hotels / Hotel Openings / Quikbook / Hotel News / → All Tags
Smyth Tribeca Will Start at $119 on January 11
Once again Quikbook is the place to look and book when considering a new Thompson Hotel. The newest addition to their collection will be Smyth Tribeca which we learned was opening in January. January 6th to be exact at $205 a night. But if you can hold out for five more days you will get a super deal.
Today we learned via Quikbook's email newsletter that starting January 11, you can get rooms averaging at $142 a night. We went to book two nights on Jan. 11 and 12 and the rates Quikbook returned to us were $119 and $166 for a queen superior room. (Those rates were about $159 on the hotel's own website.) Good lord. There are no words for this here.
Granted, we know what to expect from a Thompson Hotel opening--not all the rooms will be finished and more likely than not the restaurant will not be open. And this is just a way for Thompson Hotels to let everyone "taste" the hotel before they begin to jack up the rates. (FYI: The Quikbook promo runs until end of February 2009.) Still, $119 a night for a new hotel in Tribeca that doesn't belong to a budget brand? Unreal.
A screenshot of some other low room rates for Smyth is after the jump.
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