hotels

Is This Glass-Encased Las Vegas Hotel a Giant 'Death Ray'?

Adrian Chen · 09/29/10 01:31AM

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Unless what happens in Vegas is that a glass-encased, concave hotel creates a "death ray" of concentrated sunlight and burns a guest. This is something everyone should know about.

New York City's Nastiest Hotel

cityfile · 01/26/10 10:58AM

The Hotel Carter must have cleaned up its act. Although the Midtown cesspool came in at No. 1 on TripAdvisor's list of the "dirtiest hotels in America" last year—the third time it had received the award in the past four years—it's nowhere to be found on the travel site's 2010 list. Congrats, though, to the New York Inn on 8th Avenue for landing the No. 6 spot. In the newly cleaned-up Times Square, it isn't easy finding a place that features drugged-up prostitutes, floors crawling with mice, and urine-soaked sheets. But it's good to see someone is keeping history alive. [TripAdvisor, previously]

Standard Hotel: Too Sexy for Its Own Good, Perhaps

cityfile · 11/11/09 09:54AM

All that unbridled sexual energy at the Standard has a downside, it seems. A guest staying at the hotel was arrested on Saturday after he forced himself on a maid and has since been charged with attempted rape, sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment. Needless to say, when the hotel was informing guests that the Standard was "all about sex all the time" and "you're our star," this wasn't quite what they had in mind. [NYP]

cityfile · 10/29/09 05:02PM

• The hotel bar is experiencing a resurgence, as you've probably noticed. [VF]
• Indochine is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a new book. [GoaG]
• Does Danny Meyer have a new restaurant in store for the church on 21st Street and Park Avenue South? That's the rumor anyway. [Eater]
• A Q&A with Locanda Verde's Andrew Carmellini. [Blackbook]
• The annual Chocolate Show goes down this weekend. [ChocolateShow]
• A few suggestions on where to carbo-load if you're planning to run the marathon this Sunday. Or where to just pig out if you're not. [SE]

Eating & Drinking: Friday Edition

cityfile · 10/09/09 03:57PM

• The New York City Wine & Food Festival is underway, although if you haven't secured tickets by now, you can forget about attending any of the events. [GS]
• What should Andre Balazs call the Standard's Boom Boom Room now that legal issues have forced a name change? "Mile High Club" gets one vote. [NYT]
• Buddha Bar has been sued over 400K in unpaid legal bills. [Eater]
• There's a pasta renaissance taking place in the city, apparently. [NYP]
• A Q&A with Katie Lee Joel, who has a new cookbook (and who says she'd be just as well known today even if she'd never married Billy Joel). [TONY]
• The Times Magazine's "food issue" is now online. [NYT]

The Plaza Gets (Even More) Desperate

cityfile · 09/17/09 12:08PM

Designer Betsey Johnson is creating an Eloise-themed suite at The Plaza, which is also where she held her Fashion Week show on Tuesday. According to the press release, "The Plaza's two-bedroom Eloise Suite will be whimsically decorated in a color palette of 'Eloise pink' and black, and will be full of surprises and distinct "Eloise moments" throughout the guest room."

NYC To Become One Big Hotel

cityfile · 08/27/09 03:29PM

Were you having difficulty keeping track of all the new hotels sprouting up around the city? Get ready to be even more confused. According to a study prepared by NYU's Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management (who knew?), 61 new hotels—with more than 10,000 rooms in total—will be added to the city's supply between the beginning of 2009 and the end of 2011. [HVS.com via Curbed]

The Standard's Strip Show Gets Spanked

cityfile · 08/24/09 09:48AM

The Standard's campaign to make the hotel synonymous with sex appears to be backfiring. The Post caught on to shenanigans over the weekend, and in an "exclusive" today, breaks the big news that some of the Standard's neighbors in the meatpacking district are being routinely exposed to hanky-panky in the hotel's windows. And some of the witnesses to these acts have been innocent children! Even more outrageous: The hotel even appears to be encouraging this behavior on its own website!