When planning our annual trip to New York, I wanted to get away from the midtown hotels and stay more towards Greenwich Village. We have walked around the Village numerous times, but have always gotten lost, what with its narrow streets intersecting this way and that, without the perfect grid system of midtown streets. We also have been following the High Line project--the redevelopment of an old elevated railroad platform into a lovingly and cleverly designed landscaped walkway-- as well as the construction of the Standard Hotel straddling it. So when we discovered the Standard would be open during our planned visit, we eagerly booked there. We were able to get a good web-only rate similar to the soft opening rate the hotel initially offered.
The Neighbourhood.
The hotel is located in the Meatpacking district just north of the West Village. It straddles the High Line and is quite an impressive sight, 18 stories tall. We first visited this area when the boutique Jeffrey opened on 14th St. a number of years ago . Back then the area truly did consist of mostly meatpacking facilities. A few of these still remain, but most have become designer shops, clubs, lounges and restaurants. The nightlife here is very active--weekdays and weekends we witnessed crowds at 2 am and later--people who require very little sleep and/or don't go to work until the afternoon, if at all. Over the course of our 6 day stay, we saw exactly 3 children in the area, all during daylight hours and none within the hotel itself. The hotel offers queen or king rooms only; 2 people maximum per room.
The nearest subway stop is about a 5 minute walk away.
The Hotel Public Rooms.
There is a large outdoor seating area in front of the lobby, which is smallish but stylish, a bit retro looking. The elevators all have 2 unique video screens playing a mesmerizing continuously scrolling presentation, with music. There are several lounge spaces on the ground floor, both indoors and out, with the largest being outdoors under (and protected by) the High Line--very popular. The restaurant The Standard Grill is adjacent, also with indoor and outdoor seating. Not yet opened is the top (18th) floor lounge/club, which apparently will have pool, and is certain to be a hot spot once it opens in about a month. It will surely be a velvet rope type of place, and I would expect there may be difficulty (or at least a wait) for guests just trying to return to their rooms. Even now, over the weekend there was security at the elevators, asking for room keys and checking guest names from a list. There is a large gym on the 17th floor with fabulous views in 3 directions, including the Hudson River. There is no business center (but Wifi is free) or spa.
The Guestrooms.
Our web rate was for a Standard Queen, but we were upgraded to a south-facing Superior Queen, a slightly smaller room but with a better view. Apparently all the Standard rooms face north, where one gets a glimpse of the river. High Line and Empire State Building, but mostly one sees a large building being built one block north. From the south-facing rooms, there are virtually no buildings taller that the hotel, so one can clearly see Downtown, the southern tip of the High Line, much better views of the Hudson River, New Jersey and the Statue of Liberty.
We were informed at check-in as well as via a letter delivered to the room that the floor-to-ceiling windows were non-reflective, so without your drapes drawn, people below can see EVERYTHING, and this apparently has been an issue, based on things we'd read online. Indeed, whenever we looked down at the High Line, there were always people staring up at the hotel.
The room was not large, but I've seen smaller in New York, and things were designed to maximize space--a built-in seating area, 2 sides of the bed placed flush against the wall (the person with the stronger bladder should sleep against the wall). The colour scheme is black, white and beige. The flat screen HD TV froze a lot.
The bathroom was tiled in black with a laboratory-like sink and counter fixture. The bath products were cleverly packaged. Very early TA reviews of the hotel mentioned the flooding situation involving the shower, and we bore witness to this in our room. The shower is not enclosed, with only a small glass partition between it and the sink. Only the water temperature can be controlled, not the volume (this is true of practically every hotel shower we've used for the past few years), so the water naturally flows out onto the floor, which is not sloped enough towards the drain. We learned quickly to form a dam using a towel (very large and fluffy by the way) to contain the water. Indeed, after showering, the driest place in the bathroom was in the bathtub, which was huge and open to the bedroom with shutters. The toilet was in a separate water closet.
The Staff and Service.
The staff was all quite young and stylish, courteous and helpful for the most part. Male staffers seem to outnumber the females. Our one exception was with an unfriendly room service attendant, but this was after midnight and he was doing double duty--taking an order on a mobile phone while delivering our order.
This was a fun hotel in a fun location. It's not a 5 star place, nor does it strive to be, but it delivered on most fronts. Again, it's not a place for families with small children or friends who are not intimate with each other. or for business. Coming from Los Angeles, we think this Standard has more to offer than either of the LA Standards.
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