(Winter vestibule being installed outside Thompson LES, January 2nd, 2009.)How better to bring an end to a turbulent 2008 than by watching C-SPAN's campaign speech highlights on the 31st followed by a comped screening of W. in bed at the Thompson LES on New Year's Day? Few things could better than this sate our decadent inner geek while nestled in a spacious Queen Superior room with a skyline view for $99 a night, at the hotel housing Shang, home to Susur Lee, our site's first celebrity chef interviewee. But the highs and lows of staying at a hotel under soft opening didn't stop there. Hidden value, technical glitches, neurotic elevators, intrusive indiscretion and lots more pics after the jump...
SERVICE: We arrived early for check-in at 130 but no rooms were clean or available. We checked our bags and were asked to come back at 3pm, the correct check-in time. We were then told our room wouldn't be ready for a half-hour at 330. We were then told we could be immediately accommodated with a room on a lower floor than the clerk blocked for us when we arrived ninety minutes earlier and made a point to clarify this would not be an upgrade before we could even ask. (Who makes a point to tell you this?) This began our ascension to room 1108. (Ask for it by name!)
(Queen bed under a Lee Friedlander in a lightbox, left. Right, the echo chamber.)
TECHNOLOGY: We read on HotelChatter how at check-in the clerk scans the license of the guest when asking for it along with their credit card. This is something no other hotel does and a curious intrusion to us. But it turns out the intrusion doesn't end there. They take to scan the ID of all guests in the room. Whether this is for insurance or blackmail we don't know, but if you're looking to have a discreet affair, be warned, there will be an electronic paper trail. Another issue we read about, the elevators. Let's say you're in the lobby, and the elevator is on 5. It will first go to the top floor, then the bottom floor, then the lobby before picking you up. And when they open to accept or release you, they do it with the insecurity of a next-generation robot programmed with neuroses. But still, $99! And there's a happy ending to all these glitches: The in-room entertainment. The rooms have large flat-screen TVs. When we activated ours, the screen read a welcome to us, "Ms. Bell." Well, no idea who Ms. Bell is, it's not the ID the clerk scanned, so we're guessing she had the room before us. No problem as after settling in and watching W. on demand for $13.95, we noticed at the end of the film the menu read our correct name. When we received our bill the next day, the movie wasn't on it. (Thanks lady!)
TECHNOLOGY: We read on HotelChatter how at check-in the clerk scans the license of the guest when asking for it along with their credit card. This is something no other hotel does and a curious intrusion to us. But it turns out the intrusion doesn't end there. They take to scan the ID of all guests in the room. Whether this is for insurance or blackmail we don't know, but if you're looking to have a discreet affair, be warned, there will be an electronic paper trail. Another issue we read about, the elevators. Let's say you're in the lobby, and the elevator is on 5. It will first go to the top floor, then the bottom floor, then the lobby before picking you up. And when they open to accept or release you, they do it with the insecurity of a next-generation robot programmed with neuroses. But still, $99! And there's a happy ending to all these glitches: The in-room entertainment. The rooms have large flat-screen TVs. When we activated ours, the screen read a welcome to us, "Ms. Bell." Well, no idea who Ms. Bell is, it's not the ID the clerk scanned, so we're guessing she had the room before us. No problem as after settling in and watching W. on demand for $13.95, we noticed at the end of the film the menu read our correct name. When we received our bill the next day, the movie wasn't on it. (Thanks lady!)
(View, left. TV over a floating orchid. right, with the drinks half of the minibar in background.)ROOM: Queen bed. Flatscreen TV. Floor to ceiling windows overlooking Manhattan from Battery Park to the south and the Empire State Building to the north (if you press your face against the window and look to the right.) Awesome sunlight. Functional windows let in fresh air, alleviate the fully functional and quiet heat, and remind you the city below is thriving, otherwise those windows are remarkably soundproof. What's not? The doors and walls. The floors outside the elevators are remarkably small so we couldn't comprehend the amount of noise the staff could create out there. The perk of the small public space up on 11 however meant it was easy to find our room. Our room was the only one missing the number 1108. (Later the clerk told us it fell off.) What else fell off? The soapdish in the shower. We told this to the clerk at checkout and she asked us if we informed maintenance yet. (Not our job!) But who cares? It's neither the best nor worst thing about the shower. The rainfall shower is a tranquil and airy space, a great complement to the bedroom. Just don't sing in it. Any noise you make, conversation, flirtation, humming along to the audio moods the TV offers, you best hope there are earplugs in the minibar alongside the Kiki de Montparnasse intimacy kit. (Which at $175 costs $76 more than a night in the room.) Which brings us to...BARGAIN: They're going to figure everything out and when they do, they're going to figure out what this room is really worth. So follow our lead and use Quikbook, get a rate for $99 any night you can in January and just use it to detox before or after Above Allen, the hotel's new lounge officially opens. (It hosted a preview event on New Year's Eve but wasn't entertaining yet beyond that.) In this economy the little things, like your own sanity matter, and the Thompson LES is a welcome respite after a show at Mercury Lounge and likely a better investment in seduction than dinner for two at Shang. And even if you don't get free Pay Per View, you get a pile of magazines (Time Out New York, V, Gotham and the Thompson's Suite 100,) and the Post the next morning which combined with the Kiehl's toiletries make a night here just a fraction more expensive than a run to Duane Reade even if check-out there is comparable to check-in here. So next time your girlfriend tries to drag you to the drug store on the way home from work take her here instead, just make sure you went elsewhere for your own "intimacy kit" beforehand.Related:
Name of Susur Lee's new restaurant revealed. (07/29/08)
Living vicariously through... Susur Lee. (11/06/08)
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