The newly named New York Hilton-Midtown.

Is the hottest New York hotel amenity a new name?

Consider: In recent months Stay morphed into Night Times Square (never mind that the original Night Hotel is just two blocks away). And the Sheraton New York Hotel & Tower changed its name to Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel (never mind that it’s not all that close to Times Square).

This week comes the news that the Hilton New York is now the New York Hilton-Midtown.

The new moniker marks a return to the name founder Conrad Hilton bestowed on his fledgling property in 1963 – New York Hilton Rockefeller Center, according to hotel general manager Mark Lauer. Only it’s not quite  because Rockefeller Center and Midtown, while close, aren’t precisely synonymous. (more…)

When hotel historians – hey, they’re out there somewhere — look back on 2012, they’ll say what we already know: it was, for the most part, a very good year.

Bookish: the NoMad library.

New York City boasts 91,500 hotel rooms – up from 90,000 in 2011. Put another way, 29 million hotel room nights were sold in New York City in 2012.

Manhattan’s newest hotels were among its cleverest (cheers to the NoMad, Conrad New York, Pod 39 and TRYP New York Times Square South). And hotels you’d actually want to visit are popping up in the outer boroughs – even Staten Island – with Brooklyn (and the hipster Wythe) leading the charge.

No one will say 2012 was always easy. Killer hurricanes that flood lobbies, kill the lights and uproot guests when nearby building cranes become unhinged don’t blow in every year (we hope).  But as we slip into 2013, for most hotels – and current guests — Sandy is mere memory.

Here is our second annual list of what struck us as the best of the new. (more…)

A last look at the old sign.

Anyone who has seen the movie Taxi Driver knows that Times Square wasn’t always a desirable location for a hotel. But that was a long time ago. Now even hotels that aren’t all that close to Times Square are adding the spot-where-the-New-Year’s-Eve-ball-drops to their name.

The latest Times Square pretender is the Sheraton New York Hotel, which today augmented its name to become the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel – even though the hotel is ten blocks north of the Times Square’s throbbing heart, where Broadway, Seventh Avenue and 42^nd Street meet.

At least you can see Times Square from the Sheraton.  The same cannot be said for the TRYP New York Times Square South, which is a lot closer to Madison Square Garden and Penn Station than Times Square. (more…)

TRYP lobby — home to LobbyFriend.

Hotel guests fall into two categories – those who want to meet and mingle with other guests and those who can’t think of anything worse.

At first glance, LobbyFriend, a new travel app that lets guests connect with others registered at the hotel, seems aimed squarely at the first group. But LobbyFriend is nimble. Even if you’re in the second camp keep reading. This app could be for you, too.

The app — available on iPhones, Androids, Blackberries (coming in June), the new Nokia Lumia 900 (in the works) and in a web version – made its debut at Manhattan’s new TRYP New York Times Square South and is up and running at some 130 properties around the world. To learn more, we talked with Jason Ayoub, a Canadian chartered accountant with an entrepreneurial streak who co-founded the company. (more…)

First, a word about the name. Even with “south” tacked on, associating a hotel on West 35^th Street with Times Square is a stretch, especially a hotel situated between 8^th and 9^th avenues. But once you accept that TRYP is a lot closer to Madison Square Garden and Macy’s than to where the New Year’s Eve ball drops, things get interesting.

TRYP’s lobby.

Billeted in a 14-story yellow brick office building from 1925 the hotel, which opened in early February, has character. (Peek behind the metal TRYP sign, and you’ll spot the words Rose Building carved above the entrance.)

It’s moderately priced. Rooms start at $229 for now, and they’re bigger than closets, which makes up for TRYP’s west-of-the-thick-of-things location on a ho-hum block (warehouses, offices buildings and a police precinct next door).

You’ll also rack up Wyndham points if you stay, thanks to the hotel group’s acquisition of TRYP, a mid-price hotel chain that originated in Barcelona and specializes in urban properties (Madrid, Paris, Lisbon, Frankfurt and Buenos Aires, to name a few). TRYP Times Square is the group’s first US venture. Expect more.

TRYP isn’t one of those fey boutique hotels that makes you hunt down its name. This is a hotel with nothing to hide.  TRYP’s royal blue sign stands out like a beacon. And the entire ground floor – lobby, check-in, restaurant and bar – is on display through a wall of windows. (more…)