New York in springtime – it’s lots better than New York in January, and hotel rates reflect this. What better time to unveil a new online booking site promising low prices?

Tingo purports to offer that elusive but delectable commodity – the sure thing.

You book your room at the price listed on Tingo’s jazzy red, white and blue site. But hotel prices rise and fall like ocean waves or elevators and can change repeatedly during a week (or day). If the price drops before you check in, the site automatically rebooks the same room at the lower price. And if the price goes up, you’re locked in at the rate you booked originally. (more…)

60 Centre Street.

Many are called – and last week we were among them, taking a seat in the gigantic two-room juror’s bullpen at 60 Centre Street.

Jury duty isn’t as onerous as it once was. The officers explaining the rules deliver good patter. The free WiFi is strong. Even the $1.50 coffee at the courthouse cart has improved. Better still, once you’ve served, you won’t be called back for six years.

But New York’s courthouses are still big, brute, soul-deadening places (the wait to get through security was 25 minutes on a Monday morning). Come lunchtime, we wanted out.

Two hotels with inviting restaurants are within walking distance, provided you score an elongated lunch break (think twice you’re if assigned the standard 1-to-2-p.m. window). (more…)

What the Titanic survivors saw.

On Sunday the Titanic Memorial Cruise left Southampton, England for New York City tracing the path of the doomed luxury liner that sank on April 14, 1912.  The 1,309 passengers, ranging from relatives of survivors to Titanic groupies, paid from $4,445 to $9,320 for the 12-might cruise.

It’s a lot cheaper to check into The Jane hotel where rooms start at $99 a night. And the Titanic connection runs deep.

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A good egg.

Whenever a holiday rolls around, we head to Jumeriah Essex House in the hope of seeing a grand-scale edible work of art. Last Christmas a 10-foot-tall tree constructed from 500 lbs. of white chocolate commanded a corner of the lobby. The year before, a minutely detailed rendering of the hotel in gingerbread doubled as a mouth-watering photo op.

And with Easter nearly upon us? The lobby and adjoining South Gate restaurant are showcasing Faberge eggs rendered in chocolate. Two of the eggs are three feet tall and weigh 35 lbs. All are gorgeous. And yes, they’re edible, but really, it’s much more fun to look at them. (And the signs say Do Not Touch.)

We asked Deden Putra, executive pastry chef at the hotel, all about eggs, crafting art out of chocolate and whether those creations ever get eaten. (more…)

"Loopy Doopy" lobby.

Walking into the new Conrad New York hotel gave us weird déjà vu.

Greeting us at the top of a wide marble staircase was Sol LeWitt’s towering Loopy Doopy, a feast of purple swirls plotted on a blue grid. But what was it doing on that wall?

We’d seen the space before, of course. The Conrad occupies the 16-story brick structure built in 2000 to house an outskirts-of-the-Financial District outpost of Embassy Suites. We spent a night and wrote about it shortly after it opened. Then as now, Loopy Doopy, 100 feet tall and 80 feet wide, was entrancing and imposing (it gobbled up 100 gallons of paint). But the lobby looked so altered, with  futuristic furniture lighted from beneath and bursts of orange punctuating the cool gray and white surroundings, the mural’s location seemed different, too. (more…)

She scored big in movie theaters, won an Academy Award nomination for Rooney Mara and even picked up a gold statue at the Big Show.  (Hey, no one said soundmixing wasn’t important.) So small surprise The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo cleaned up last month as the most-watched Hollywood movie in hotel rooms in New York and across the nation. (more…)

On the wall.

What happens when a hip, budget-minded hotel decides to do a take on the classic hotel Sunday brunch?

You get Eat Yo Brunch at Yotel.

From our perch overlooking the hotel’s sprawling eating area on a recent Sunday, we sized up the food on our table and pictured the management tossing around ideas.

What’s the 21^st-century version of buffet tables lined with Eggs Benedict, carved meats and pancake soufflé in silver tureens? (more…)

Donuts -- baked not fried.

One reason we like hotels is that the best are laboratories for design, jam-packed with decorating ideas you can try at home. So, of course, we love home design shows, and this is one of our favorites (full disclosure: we moderated the show’s New York Times designer seminars, but we’d be fans anyway).

This year’s Architectural Digest Home Design Show spilled into every nook and cranny of New York’s cavernous Pier 94. As always, the DIFFA by Design table settings created by a panoply of design teams were fantasy arrangements at their best. (more…)

dEmo bear.

It’s as if someone filled a room with Gummy Bears, only these are big enough to eat you instead of the other way around.

We’re talking about Bear Forest, the Spanish artist dEmo’s installation of 30 life-size bear sculptures, identical in style though not in size or color, in the LAB Gallery, the corner storefront art gallery at the Roger Smith Hotel near Grand Central Station.

Each month or so the LAB displays a new installation meant to be viewed 24/7 through the windows. Viewers can’t enter the space. But you can see the art from different angles and perspectives depending upon where you stand. (more…)

Hello, spring.

We know – winter wasn’t a big deal this year, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t ready for spring. So bring it on. These big bouquets of lilies and blossoms come courtesy of the Barclay, or to be formal about it the Intercontinental New York Barclay, a hotel that can always be depended upon for fresh flowers in the lobby. The message? Spring’s here – we’re in the pink!