Bathrooms are shared and coed, which won’t appeal to all travelers.S. Sharp new renovations completed last year, though, have given new life to the property: now all rooms have beds with padded headboards and Egyptian cotton linens, ergonomic chairs, and fluffy robes; the common spaces include two spacious balconies (on the 14th and 16th floors) that are surrounded by flowering potted plants.

T+L TIP Aspen Social Club, the hotel’s small-plates restaurant, becomes a raucous lounge nightly by 11 p. The revamped outdoor lounges on floors 14 and 16 offer excellent views, and foodie favorite Fatty Crab opened on the lobby level in January. The perennial hotelier to the hip—and in this case, hip and budget-conscious—has opened his fourth Standard hotel, on a Meatpacking District site surrounded by low-lying warehouses. There’s not much space to store luggage, so pack light.. At full operation later this year, the hotel will have two restaurants and five bars (don’t miss the sunset views from the one on the 18th floor), and the building straddles the High Line, the freight railway that’s being turned into a much-hyped city park. T+L TIP In some rooms, it’s possible to sit in the tub and see the Statue of Liberty. And we’re not talking bare-bones, spartan-style quarters here: some of New York’s freshly unveiled properties feature sceney digs that are thoroughly worthy of their style-obsessed home city.and its outrageous prices. The result: practically every room has stunning skyline or Hudson River vistas.T+L TIP The hotel offers bicycles for loan. Rooms have an old-school rocker sensibility (some of them come with turntables and curated vinyl collections) while referencing the nearby Garment District: instead of closets you’ll find clothing racks made from plumbing pipes. T+L TIP The location is great for Greenwich Village access, and plans for double rooms and a lobby bar are in the works. Like its nickname, The Big Apple, implies, New York is best known for its colossal magnitude: its soaring skyscrapers, its thronging crowds, its night-obliterating neon. Great Value The brick-and-steel Nu Hotel has 93 minimalist-chic rooms appointed with faux-sheepskin rugs, gauzy white curtains, and Brooklyn-centric artwork. Although even some prominent chain properties are offering steep discounts in this economic climate, even better bargains can be found at some of the city’s more intimate boutique hotels. Vast swaths of glass work to that end. Playful touches enhance the clean aesthetic: oversize hammocks in suites, bathroom walls made of chalkboard, and rotary-dial phones in the otherwise modern lobby. Our room during a recent stay had a 27-inch flat-screen TV, an iPod dock, and complimentary water bottled on-site, but the room was too hot, and opening the window wasn’t an option because the property is next to the roaring West Side Highway.

Case in point: Stay, the latest midtown offering from hotelier Vikram Chatwal, where the décor includes Murano glass chandeliers, the rooms are outfitted with 42-inch plasma-screen TVs and slick modern baths, and a happening nightspot (the Aspen Social Club) is just an elevator ride away. The hotel is decorated with Murano glass chandeliers and an 18,000-gallon aquarium, and the compact slate-and-burnt-orange rooms have 42-inch plasma screens and L’Occitane amenities.André Balazs understands that stellar views in New York City have less to do with the height of a building than with its context. T+L TIP Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a popular West Coast chain, is making its New York debut on the ground floor, near a new restaurant from the proprietors of the consistently mobbed Spotted Pig. Other smaller-scale Big Apple hotels, however, have been known among savvy travelers for some time. Draw the curtains if you don’t want to be an accidental exhibitionist..July 31, 2009 If the phrases “New York City” and “easy on the wallet” have always seemed mutually exclusive to you, well, that’s understandable. On the Ave, for example—an Upper West Side hotel that’s easy strolling distance from the Museum of Natural History and Central Park—has been building its fan base for almost two decades.

Ask for a room on the west side, which is much more peaceful.Great Value While the Jane, designed by Sean MacPherson (the Bowery Hotel, the Maritime Hotel), is romantic in theory—an old riverfront building with tiny rooms modeled after European train sleeper cars—keep in mind that a New York hotel with starting rates in the double digits comes with drawbacks. Great Value Vikram Chatwal’s 210-room Stay has joined the midtown scene with panache. Closer to Lincoln Center is the Empire, a Roaring Twenties hot spot that’s been redone with a new pool deck, a rooftop bar, and the Center Cut steakhouse. At the Upper West Side’s On the Ave, guest rooms have been redone and come with ample windows. Cities for Affordable Getaways Quite a few of these hotels are recently opened (which means, in addition to good room rates, spanking-new facilities—a major plus in a town that gets so much guest turnover).China instant water tap electric faucet Suppliers New York also has welcomed a run of renovations at existing hotels.