The Jane – from $99 a night
The Jane is a hot hotel in a hot district, and the bar was so hot that it reportedly had to close because the neighbours complained about the noise. Nevermind though, there are plenty of fashionable watering holes in the West Village and bordering Meatpacking District.
The hotel opened after an imaginative refurbishment in July 2009 and bills itself as a “200-room micro hotel for young travellers with more dash than cash”. The budget bit means you’ll save money on accommodation, but the cheapest rooms require that you share a bathroom, albeit a modern clean, spacious bathroom with rainsoak showerheads and huge sinks.
The bedrooms are wonderful – inspired by luxury train cabins, with lots of storage on period-style rails and hooks and tucked under the beds, which stretch wall to wall with sheets tucked neatly around comfortable mattresses. Rooms also have televisions, air conditioning, large mirrors, windows that open, fans, ipod docks and free wifi.
The lobby is where the theatrical experience starts – a former ballroom, its is divided by huge columns and crowned with elegant plasterwork and a marble fountain.
The adjoining Cafe Gitane does a wonderful North African-inspired breakfast and will soon be open for dinner and evening drinks. The hotel owners also plan to restore a hand-tiled swimming pool and sauna in the basement.
Rooms start at $99 a night for shared bathroom.
113 Jane Street, New York, NY 10014
From Henry H Higgins:
Be careful with the Jane Hotel.
The rooms are tiny and you can only fit into their beds if you are tiny too – some beds are only 24 inches wide!
And they allow you to book two people into a single room, which is ridiculous when there’s one 24 inch wide bed. What do they expect the second person to do?!?
Also, the bathrooms are nice, but only if you’re on the right floor. End up on the wrong floor and the bathroom is cold and grotty. And you better get up early to wash or you’ll be queuing.
If they’d have dealt with my complaints correctly while I was there, I wouldn’t be complaining here, would I?