Neatly tucked in a little nook on Thompson Street, away from the hustle and bustle of Soho, is this newly renovated boutique. This is one fashionable hotel, but peel through the layers of glam and you’ll find a homely, escapist bolt-hole in the city. The lobby arranged over two floors was big plus, meaning the cheery reception area with its glorious floor-to-ceiling windows was a sanctuary just for guests. Beyond the elevator doors, the grandeur lessened somewhat; we felt that the dark, narrow corridors, our bijou room, some rough finishing and the schizophrenic part-bath, part-shower showed a lack of attention to detail, not to mention the eyesore of a view of not very much from our 5th floor window – the room-allocation fairy wasn’t on our side that day as we know that there are some signature rooms in the hotel. That said, we did love the houndstooth carpet.
The hotel’s staff were super-friendly, but some communication failures ensued – a trainee without supervision on reception made for clumsy and prolonged check-in and the unannounced window cleaner who turned up at our window while we were getting changed was a tad too voyeuristic, even by NYC standards.
