The hardest hitting soft opening: At the Cooper Square Hotel.

 (The view from our room on Sunday morning, after one storm, before another.)

Our enthusiasm for posting about the Cooper Square Hotel right now is tempered by this morning's overbilling of $120 for Saturday night's stay, charging us $350 for a $230 room with no explanation. Not since checking-in to the Hotel on Rivington when they first opened, and being overbilled $3000, wiping out our checking account at the time, all because they kept rebilling instead of refunding us for a portion of our bill, have we had such a problem at a new hotel. It's all the more disappointing because this is the only unfortunate circumstance surrounding our stay at the Cooper. One all the more absurd since we were never asked to provide ID, a signature or a credit card at any point during our stay.

We decided at the last minute Saturday to veer away from our streak of staying at a Thompson hotel every week this month, if only because the Smyth is still delayed and giving somewhere new a try as we try to accomplish a review of 52 unique, local getaways by year's end. (To date there's been New Year's at the Thompson LES, and the Gaza protest at 6 Columbus.)

After finding the right building - we were wrong once, and there's no number or name on the place - we were ushered into the lobby by the same black-clad beautiful people every boutique hotel employs, for a fireside seat to drinks and snacks while one man chatted us up about what brought us there and what they offer and another man made our room keys after only asking for our name. And that's how it started. They just asked for a name. No ID. No credit card. No signature. Sure we made a reservation through Quikbook and gave them a card, but is this really a legitimate way to operate?

   

Finding the first room lacked the requested tub, we were shepherded across the touch tunnel hallway to a larger room providing not only a bath, but a better view than the alley, and a slightly larger television low at the foot of the king size bed. (Pictured above.) The view and working heat were comparable to the LES though for a lot more money, but the bed is the softest we've had yet. Although, like some complaints we read on TripAdvisor, the bed needlessly convinced us of its downiness as we were relentlessly stabbed by feathers until fully settled in to our slumber.

After heading out for the evening to a performance at the Allen Room in the Time-Warner Center book-ended by dinners and drinks first at Bar Masa then the lounge at Cafe des Artistes, we came back to discover the most inexplicable raucous party scene in the lobby of the Cooper, alas we opted for the tub over an investigation, listening to SNL from afar. (Unlike the shuttered doors of the Bowery's bathrooms, you can't watch TV from the tub.) Once morning came, not yet wanting to trek over to Milk Bar for brunch in the fast falling snow, we found ourself in a more sedate lobby offering up a sizable continental breakfast buffet of pastry, bagels, cereals, yogurts, fruit, four kinds of fresh juices, coffee and tea we opted to carry upstairs.

Knowing when Bowser's done hawking 50s CD collections weekly on CBS it must be check-out time, we made our way downstairs and were offered a taxi and assumed like everywhere else, the hotel offers automatic billing. And it must, looking at our AmEx bill today, but how they think they're going to get away with tacking on $120 when their robes are accounted for, there's no offering of in-room movies, no room service, and we would have had to have used two of the minibar's $60 "personal oxygen tanks" is beyond us. In every review we've read everyone praises the smoothness of the check-in operation, and we agree, but no one has ever described check-out maybe because, for them and like us, it still isn't over yet. But other than not being defrauded, there are only five requirements we have in a hotel room, a bar set highest by the Mandarin Oriental: a welcome amenity, soaking tub, soft bed, modern electronics and an expansive view; and this is the closest we've come at a fraction of the cost. If only that fraction wasn't 1/3 too high.

Comments

[Armidale Serviced Apartments]

Looking awesome.Reading it makes me feel that I am there in the room with deep sleep.