Top 10: the best boutique hotels in New York
An insider's guide to the best boutique hotels in New York, featuring the top places to stay for cool cocktail bars, rooftop terraces, excellent restaurants, designer bedrooms and stylish interiors, in locations including SoHo, the Lower East Side, Midtown, Tribeca and Williamsburg
Soho Grand Hotel
New York, United States
9Telegraph expert rating
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The design pays tribute to old New York and two vital periods in SoHo's history – the 1870s Gilded Age and the offbeat and artist-driven 1970s. Designed by Hall-of-Famer Bill Sofield, the spaces in this hotel sing. Concrete floors, leather, plush fabrics, cast-iron detailing, exquisite art from local galleries, as well as a medley of other nuances contribute to the tenor of this hotel. A grand glass-bottle staircase leads from the ground-floor entrance to the reception and lobby area on the second level. If you've ever entered somewhere and wished you could call the place home, be prepared to feel that here.
Crosby Street Hotel
New York, United States
9Telegraph expert rating
Read expert review From £452per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
In the heart of happening SoHo, but on a quiet cobblestone street, the glass façade and electric-blue light of the Crosby promises a flashy boutique hotel, but inside it's all understated elegance: dark woods, dark floors, subtle tones of grey, mauve, red and white, and numerous art pieces. Rooms feel more like posh private apartments. Each space is uniquely decorated with exquisite designer fabrics and furnishings and they all have floor-to-ceiling windows (get a Meadow Suite with a private terrace garden). The spacious ground-floor Crosby Bar and Terrace does signature cocktails and burgers at night.
The Greenwich Hotel
New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
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This chic design hotel, part-owned by Robert De Niro, has a Morocco meets the tropics aesthetic, with elements of Europe and the Orient thrown in. The free-flowing ground floor mimics a Tribeca loft, but instead of cold minimalism you get warm, polished oak floors, comfy floral sofas, lush palms and Moorish tiles. None of the 88 rooms and suites are alike, some, like the elegant white-and-cream-coloured Courtyard rooms channel classical Europe; others, such as the Studio suites with their private saunas are more Scandinavian in influence. High corner rooms come with Hudson River views.
Ace Hotel New York
New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
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Opened in 1904 as the Breslin Hotel, this historic building in a nondescript section of The Flatiron was the famous West Coast Ace Hotel brand’s first East Coast opening. It has all the reclaimed building trademarks of other Ace Hotels with a mix of industrial décor and retro styling. The 280 rooms range from Suites to Smalls and Bunks and are as eclectic as the clientele. Expect en-suite bathrooms in the suites; while the smallest rooms are literally two bunks in a room with a sink and plain-white décor. Michelin-starred Brit chef April Bloomfield's Breslin Bar and Restaurant is worth a visit alone.
Wythe Hotel
Brooklyn, New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
Read expert review From £175per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
This hip 70-room hotel housed in a converted 1901 factory building on the Williamsburg waterfront has great views of Manhattan from the upper floors. The style is industrial meets contemporary: solid original brickwork spruced up with addition of a three-storey glass-and-aluminum structure, to the original rooftop and loft-sized guest rooms with timber ceilings and over-sized windows. Many have floor-to-ceiling views of the Manhattan skyline and East River. Farm-to-table ground-floor restaurant Reynard is a hit, but don't miss cocktails at sunset at sixth-floor bar and terrace, Ides.
The Ludlow
New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
Read expert review From £159per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
This Lower East Side debut for hipster hotelier Sean MacPherson and partners is set in reclaimed and abandoned red-brick building around the corner from the iconic Katz’s Deli. The design pays homage to the neighbourhood’s gritty, creative past when you could rent large lofts for small change. Elements of the décor have been handpicked by MacPherson, including the mosaic-tiled floors and chandeliers in the lobby, sheepskin throws in guestrooms, and ornate lamps and rugs personally sourced from Morocco, India and Indonesia. The room to get: the Skybox Loft with 180-degree views.
Gramercy Park Hotel
New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
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Ian Schrager went all out when he partnered with artist Julian Schnabel to re-imagine this landmark on the northern edge of private Gramercy Park. Celebrities, suburbanites on dirty weekends and successful artists retreat to this dark and moody hotel, which has a rotating collection of 20th-century art, including pieces by Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The 185 guest rooms and suites show off Schnabel's quirky sense of taste, with leather desks, velvet curtains, mahogany drinking cabinets and marble vanities in the bathrooms. They all come with amenities you'll want to stuff in your suitcase.
Refinery Hotel
New York, United States
9Telegraph expert rating
Read expert review From £161per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
This Midtown stunner shows no sign of slowing down. The live music at Winnie’s Jazz Bar in the lobby greets guests most nights, though you may need to raise your voice to be heard above the sax. The tools displayed behind the front desk are the first of several nods to the building’s past as a hub for the Garment District’s millinery trade. Much of the charm of the original Gothic skyscraper has been preserved, from the high ceilings to the wood-floor rooms, although the décor is never overdone. And while hipster touches abound, there's nothing too over the top. Some rooms have views of the Empire State Building.
The Mercer
New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
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Hipster hotelier André Balazs may be most famous for his slate of uber-trendy Standard hotels, but this elegant boutique property on a cobbled street in SoHo opened long before they did, and, like its sister property Chateau Marmont in LA, it has stood the test of time and trend. The open-plan feel and loft-like rooms are a perfect fit for SoHo, and the ground-floor Mercer Kitchen is a hit with the fashion set, among them Karl Lagerfeld. The landmark structure was built in 1890 for John Jacob Astor II and later became artist lofts and studios. Which is what it is today in a sense: a home-from-home for international creatives.
The NoMad Hotel
New York, United States
8Telegraph expert rating
Read expert review From £208per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
French designer Jacques Garcia gives a bohemian-chic makeover to a 12-storey turn-of-the-century Beaux Arts building in the Flatiron District. The 168 sumptuous rooms, two swanky bars and a restaurant overseen by superstar chef Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park fame, make it one of the hottest hotels in town. Inspired by the Paris apartment he lived in as a child, Jacques Garcia's interiors combine European elegance – white walls, soaring ceilings, tiled floors – with funky, decadent touches such as tapestry-covered antique furniture, worn and faded Persian rugs, a 200-year-old fireplace, and a glass atrium-like structure on the ground floor that houses the restaurant.
