Room Mate Grace, New York, United States
Room Mate Grace 3 Stars
"An eccentric Room Mate sibling that does cheap-chic with style in midtown Manhattan, complete with a lobby pool and platform beds."
Hotel Overview
Review of Room Mate Grace, by The TI Review Team
By TI Reviewer James Page:
An oasis of collected calm in the heart of busy Manhattan, Room Mate Grace welcomes you in the manner of a louche and ultra-hip friend. Part of the Room Mate stable, it's light on frills but high on cool factor, and one of the most tempting budget-friendly boutique hotels in New York.
Sipping on a cocktail at the swim-up bar or chatting to the friendly bar staff while surrounded by scantily-clad socialites, it's easy to be seduced into feeling like you're in South Beach Miami rather than a stone's throw (minute's walk) from Times Square.
If partying around the pool - which gets decidedly lively, with DJs most nights - leaves you thick-headed the next morning, then you can sweat it out in the sauna or steam room. For those with extra energy to burn off, the small but well-equipped gym is a handy asset for quickly whipping yourself into NYC shape.
When it's finally time to get some sleep you can retire to your room, where some of the most comfortable beds imaginable are on hand to provide for a blissful night's sleep (securely cushioned from the noise and blinking lights outside). The rooms themselves have the feel of a chic urban pad with funky wallpaper, walk-in showers, sliding doors and a raft of high-tech toys such as iPod docs and flat-screen TVs.
Facilities-wise, Room Mate Grace certainly doesn't err too much towards the elaborately luxurious end of the spectrum, though. What it manages to do, however, is nimbly pull off the stunt of being hip and funky without sacrificing a warmly inviting atmosphere.
Facilities
Hotel Policies
Rooms
139Who stays here?
Young trendies and the super-styled.
Come for...
- The lobby with pool, bar and DJ
- Manhattan value-for-money: a rare thing indeed
- Location, location, location
Not Suitable for...
- Conventional, all-round hotel services
- Poolside traditionalists
Children
There are large rooms available that can accommodate families but the hotel more suited to older children as the beds are standard and platform type, with no cots offered.
Eating in
There is no restaurant or room service, but there are plenty of places to order in what you need.
The Press Say
"Hostels didn't used to come with poolside cocktail bars in the middle of Times Square. But Room Mate Grace proves that good design in great locations can still be made inexpensive." Guardian 08Reviews
Review of Hotel Grace, by Alison Tyler
Young, fresh and irreverent, Hotel Grace is a stylish stop-over for travel-savvy artists, theatre actors and shopping bargainistas on a budget. Positioned bang in the heart of midtown, a New-York minute from Times Square and Broadway, Bryant Park and the Rockerfeller Center, Hotel Grace is perfect for hipsters who don't mind forgoing such luxuries as a bath tub and a few extra square metres of bedroom.
You won't find butlers or room service at this design hotel, but the staff are friendly and more than happy to help with any concierge questions. There's also a 24-hour kiosk in the lobby where you can stock your own mini-bar (each room has an empty fridge) at prices somewhere between the supermarket and average hotel prices.
A small pool, steam room, sauna and gym are available for guests, while the buzzing low-lit ground floor bar hosts a different DJ every night. And while you won't get a complimentary newspaper delivered to your room, continental breakfast and in-room wifi are included in the room rate.
Oh, and if the free paper is really important to you, there's a stack of Metro Internationals sitting in the lobby to be grabbed on your way out. If only all hotels could be this groovy and thoughtful…
Hotel Grace doesn't scrimp where it counts. The beds are raised ostrich-leather platforms and are gloriously comfortable, and the 140 rooms are all slickly designed. The showers are as powerful as a monsoon, and the cheeky Kiss my Face bath products are as effective as you'd find at the Four Seasons (better, in fact - and we've tried both).
Review of Hotel Grace, by Mark Jolly
Entering the Hotel Grace in New York for the first time, you could be forgiven for mistaking it for a sweet shop. That's because the front desk of this budget boutique hotel is dressed in the guise of - and actually doubles as - a kiosk, selling magazines, cigarettes and sodas. Opened in 2005 by Andre Balazs - whose portfolio includes Chateau Marmont and the Standard hotels in Los Angeles - Hotel Grace is not your typical Times Square bolthole by any measure.
Falling somewhere in between an upscale hostel and a waggish, few-frills boutique property, Hotel Grace boasts some of the most inexpensive rooms in midtown Manhattan. Yet its rates belie its stylish signature.
Sure, there's no restaurant (take-away menus are provided), no room service and no business centre. Instead, you are treated to a Scandinavian-style lobby bar with a chic indoor pool as its centrepiece in this budget boutique hotel. With reduced rates offered to under-25s, a buzzing bar scene and a crossroads-of-the-world location, this is hardly the place to come and get away.
Unlike far too many hotels, Hotel Grace doesn't short-change on the private spaces. Each of the 140 guest rooms - remodelled from a former office block - has its own size and shape. The standards are 200-240 square feet, though some of the deluxe rooms at this boutique hotel are 270 square feet and tend to feel more like junior suites. The three junior suites themselves are simply more of the same on a slightly bigger scale.
Instead of endless toiletries, turndown service and bath robes, Hotel Grace showcases modern-day comforts like plasma-screen TVs, secured WiFi access (you pick up your free password at check-in), and iHome radio-alarm clocks (bring your own iPod). Bathroom design is based on open flowing spaces at this budget boutique hotel, with toilet, wash and shower areas bleeding into one another. But the real spark of imagination is the leather platform beds and the well-soundproofed rooms.