By Chrissy Iley
There are so many hotels in New York. You flick up booking.com and they fall into two distinct categories. Firstly – Soho chic bohemia really expensive. Old school gorgeousness of the upper east side and upper west side for that matter, you look longingly and then you see the price.
Then you look at the 2 stars. The cheap ones that sit grimly in mid town under the shadows of the sky scrappers, dark dingy, you see bed bugs. You see hotels which were formerly splendid turned into seedy tourist hellholes. You see fake mahogany furniture, swirly carpet and a trouser press, you see your skin itching, you see large families stuffed into their trainers and hiking outfits, you see pleberia, but you see it’s within your budget – you squirm. You look at this cheap and see that you have to pay for wifi, $25 a day for a four day stay thats another 100 bucks. Eek.
Then you see the words affordable luxury, you flick through the pictures of Citizen M and you see modern quirkiness, a living room full of books, 24 hour coffee, a roof top bar and rooms that are all white with big comfy beds for which you control the world – well you have an Ipad that controls mood lighting, apple TV and free movies, the heating and the air con.
It tells you that there is no valet or room service and instead they give you other treats.
I’ve always hated the valet. A little man that comes to grab my suitcase to take it away somewhere and then I arrive in my room without my essentials and I wait and then eventually he comes up to show me how to turn the lights on and expects $10. I’m super pleased that there’s not one of those.
For £165 per night, it seemed a bargain and when I got there I loved it even more. Citizen M is owned by dutch people, the odd windmill and Delph plate lurks in the living room. They have a couple of hotels at airports which are the affordable luxury version of the Pod Hotel – compact rooms but everything you need and white, or at least white until you get to change the lights to pink or violet or whatever colour you fancy.
It has the feel of a boutique bohemian village hotel yet in the centre of Manhattan. I loved the downstairs bar which was just the right size. I loved the roof top bar which was nothing short of splendid. Rose wine from Provence and smoky pineapple margaritas again it was intimate but big enough for everyone to get their own space and it’s only available for hotel guests. I did some fantastic meetings up there, it put everyone in a good mood and felt classy.
The first night I arrived. I fell straight into the cosy bed with extra pillows but woke up freezing, I needed to turn the air con off but I turned all the lights off and couldn’t find the iPad to operate the air con, but the iPad also operates the lights. It had fallen off its charge and I had to fumble in the dark for quite some time, that was the only time I wished it wasn’t quite so modern.
The rest of the time I thought it was super cool, I liked the mirror behind which was a closet. There are two closets and drawers under the bed. In the morning they do fantastic coffee and juices they also have the best fluffiest croissants ever! There’s also a full breakfast buffet with dutch pancakes. They say if you’re in New York, you don’t spend much time in your hotel – but I actually looked forward to coming back to mine. I’d stay there again in a heartbeat.
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