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Stay? Play? Eat? Chill? You Can Do It All At The Out NYC For Only $150 a Night
That's right, due to a special opening rate (which they've cleverly called the "Coming Out" special), the first guests who stay at The Out NYC will snag rooms starting at just $150/night. Not bad!
The 152-room "straight-friendly" hotel, which opens on March 1 (but who's counting?), has fallen into our good graces with these revised openings rates, which we originally reported would hover around $229/night. Instead, $150/night for a Superior King—that's right, we're not messing around with one of those sleep share dorm-style rooms, at least not until well after the opening—is waaay more to our liking.
Hotel Rebrandings / Manhattan Hotels / Viceroy Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Cassa Hotel in NYC is Now a Viceroy
Well this is a very bit of surprising news--The Cassa Hotel on West 45th Street in Manhattan now belongs to the Viceroy Hotel Group. Looks like the Year of the Dragon is getting off on a good foot for the hotel!
Management of the Cassa (whose owners filed for bankruptcy last April) was officially transferred to the Viceroy Hotel Group on January 20th and the hotel now belongs to Viceroy's Urban Retreat Collection. This also marks the first NYC hotel for the Viceroy group (finally!)
It doesn't appear as if much will change throughout the hotels 165 rooms and suites but the hotel is getting a new restaurant from Chef Laurent Tourondel--BLT American Brasserie which will serve classic American fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We reported on that opening back in Aprilbut it looks like it's really happening this time, and soon.
Interested in staying at the new, improved and Viceroy-ized Cassa Hotel? Rates for next weekend were going for just $279 a night for a deluxe room with a queen bed. Suites were starting at only $479 a night.
Hotel News / Hotel Renovations / Manhattan Hotels / Viva Vegas / Hotel Music / Hotel Entertainment / Hotel Parties / → All Tags
While New York's Oak Room Closes, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Starts A Music Festival In Vegas
Two main players in the hotel music world are really getting the shake-up this month, and all we can do for now is sit back and watch (or, you know, listen) as the changes come to pass.
For starters, let's face the awful truth that The Algonquin is saying bye-bye forever to the Oak Room, its famed piano lounge that has hosted cabaret legends from Barbara Carroll to Julie Wilson to Steve Ross. According to the NY Times, audiences there have been "declining."
But it's not all doom and gloom! Head west—about 2,200 miles west—and witness a positively burgeoning indie music scene when Sports Illustrated Swimsuit hosts its first-ever music festival at The Cosmopolitan (where else?). The two-day lineup will feature indie acts like The Black Lips (above), Delta Spirit, and Elan Atias among others, and will hopefully do for the Strip what SI's Swimsuit issue has traditionally done for non-sports fans—make everyone sit up and pay attention.
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With A Little Luck, You Could Snag a $47 Room At Cassa Hotel
2012 is Year of the Dragon, and In case you didn't know, the dragon is a pretty big deal on the Chinese zodiac. So, to match the excitement of the new year, New York's Cassa Hotel & Residences is running a pretty nifty Chinese New Year promotion.
Guests who "like" Cassa on Facebook (and prove it by showing their computer or smartphone to the Front Desk) will be given a fortune cookie. Which at first sounds like not such a great trade-off. But hidden inside one of the fortunes is a voucher that will let you book your next stay for only $47.10/night—roughly 80% off the normal rate. All those limestone tubs and minimalist rooms just by eating opening a cookie? This might be our new favorite holiday.
Hotel Openings / Gay Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Out NYC Hotel Is Coming Out on March 1 at $229 a Night
Well, looky here--NYC's first-ever gay hotel, The Out NYC, has just gotten an opening date of March 1!
When we last checked on the hotel in October, we were a little skeptical about when this hotel may open as construction looked pretty far behind. But nonetheless, the hotel is now taking reservations for March 1 starting at $229 a night for a superior room.
Can't pony up the dough? Instead you can opt for a Sleep Share for $99 which will put you in a room with three other people although you do get your own bed, 22" TV, privacy curtains and a cubby to store your belongings.
The hotel will also feature the XL nightclub, the Kitchen 510 restaurant, serving New American classics, a fitness center and a couple of different courtyards.
Hotel Lobbies / Hotel Snacks / Hotel Food / Marriott Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Times Square Hotels / Hotel Amenities / Hotel Toys / Hotel Vending Machines / → All Tags
Instead of Casinos This Month, Try Your Luck At The Marriott Marquis Vending Machine
On a recent evening, we found ourselves in Times Square with some time to kill while waiting for a friend. Unable to think of something better to do, we headed straight for the huge eighth-floor lobby of the Marriott Marquis Times Square.
As it happened, we were also a little snackish, but didn't want to spoil our appetite for dinner (an extravagant feast awaited in K-town). So we hopped on over to the vending machines in search of something salty. Inserted the bill, pressed the button, watched the metal rings coil, and then—nothing. A pack of trail mix hung precariously from the tip of the dispenser. Sadness!
But just when we were about to give the whole machine a much-deserved headbutt, the mechanism sprang into action again to let fall not one, but two packs of trail mix. Score!
DSK / Hotel Videos / Sofitel / Hotel Woes / → All Tags
Now You Can See The Sofitel's Security Camera Footage For Yourself
A French news network has been the first to broadcast security camera footage from that fateful day at Sofitel New York. We admit, we pretty much stopped caring about this saga once we learned about the DSK hotel porno. But now, with hard video evidence, we feel compelled to look.
Not that the footage shows what actually happened in the room itself. Instead, what we get is a clip of Diallo sitting in a corridor (in the background, you can hear someone reporting a sexual assault over the phone), DSK checking out of the hotel, and perhaps most importantly, the controversial "celebratory dance" between two of the hotel's staffers. And yes, it still looks weird.
DSK / Sofitels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Woes / Hotel Security Footage / Hotel Sex / Hotel Employees / Hotel Dancing / → All Tags
The Three-Minute Celebratory Dance At Sofitel. Or Was It Eight Seconds?
An in-depth article published by The New York Review of Books recently laid out DSK's every move on the morning of May 14, 2011. Now, several news sources are now trying to figure out the meaning (if any) of a three-minute celebratory dance performed by Sofitel employees immediately after their colleague, Nafissatou Diallo, gave her testimony to police.
Um, what?
Apparently, there is footage of hotel staffers high-fiving each other right after Diallo's sexual assault charges were made official—as if they had 'pulled off' some kind of premeditated plot. Though the hotel released a statement saying the dance only "lasted eight seconds," and that it had nothing to do with DSK whatsoever, it is still unclear why they were frolicking in the first place.
Hotel Woes / Hotel Inspections / Animal Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Historic Hotels / Hotel Lobbies / → All Tags
The Algonquin Kitty Forced To Wear A Leash
For the second time this month, Mayor Bloomberg's administration has forced the exodus of someone who really wasn't doing any harm to anybody in the first place. This time, we're talking about The Algonquin's resident kitty, Matilda III. After Matilda II retired to Brooklyn last winter, Matilda III has been holding down the fort, greeting guests, and generally keeping up her reputation as the coolest cat in all of New York.
But one thing she wasn't doing: helping the hotel stay within health code. According to the NY Post, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene sent a "reminder" to the hotel that its routine health inspections were being compromised by the presence of Matilda III in the lobby. And so as a precaution, she has been banished to a new leashed-up post behind the Front Desk.
Hey, if she's looking for new digs (and why wouldn't she?), might we suggest the W DC? We hear the animal service is great there.
Hotel Spas / Hotel Deals / Hotel Contests / Chatwal Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags
Want A Discounted Spa Treatment? First You Have to Count Some Tennis Balls
We recently tested out a Men's Elixir Facial at the Chatwal Spa, a 60-minute full facial treatment that involves a lot of rubbing, steaming, exfoliating, and some massage. Not to mention a slightly uncomfortable procedure known as "extraction" (basically, they squeeze your blackheads). Nevertheless, we left the facility feeling incredibly relaxed. As if our face, in all its blackhead-purged, fresh-scrubbed radiance, had tricked the rest of our body into feeling just as exhilarated as it did.
Remaining just as playful as ever, The Chatwal is now running a promotion that exclusively benefits spa guests, and involves a little out-of-the-box thinking. In order to receive 25% off your next treatment, all you have to do is guess the number of tennis balls that make up The Hex Chair chair (above). Easy?
Hotel Closings / Hotel Renovations / Manhattan Hotels / Autograph Collection / Hotel News / → All Tags
The Algonquin Hotel to Close This Winter for Renovations
The Algonqin, circa 2009.
Looks like Hotel Renovations are all the rage these days and the latest hotel to get in on the action is the historic Algonquin Hotel in New York.
USA Today reports that the hotel will actually close for three months at the start of the new year to complete a major overhaul of the guest rooms.
The hotel already did a refurbishment of its lobby back in 2007 along with some guestroom soft good upgrades but the hotel must have needed more, perhaps to keep up with its affiliation as a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel. (Speaking of Autograph, the collection just unveiled a new fancy website you should check-out here. Snazzy!)
Hotel Openings / Manhattan Hotels / Gay Hotels / Times Square Hotels / Hotel Bars / → All Tags
The Out NYC, When It Opens, Could Revitalize An Entire Neighborhood
New York's imminent, first-ever gay hotel, The Out NYC, is slowly transforming a remote block along W 42nd St between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues with practically nothing else around it. Two avenues over, you'll find a veritable slew of mid-range hotel options (Distrikt, Four Points by Sheraton, Fairfield Inn), but pretty much anything west of Ninth Avenue is the No Man's Land of New York hotels.
Sure, Yotel changed up the scene on Tenth Avenue with its moody purple lights and futuristic, robot-operated lobby. But Yotel will almost certainly be catering to a different crowd than The Out NYC, which is built specifically for gay travelers. So whether that means bright pastels in the lobby or fun-sounding elopement packages (or both), this developing property should be considered a game-changer for the neighborhood, and has the potential to turn an otherwise barren slice of the island into a hip destination spot.
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