The Mark Hotel, the Alexico Group’s high-end hotel and residences at 25 East 77th Street and Madison Avenue, has officially reopened after a $150 million renovation by interior designer Jacques Grange. Grange gave the Upper East Side property an art deco-style upgrade, complete with marble soaking tubs, Italian linens by Quagliotti and Bang Olufson audio systems. Rates for this weekend range from roughly $495 per night for a courtyard queen-sized room to $3,815 per night for the Mark’s “premier two-bedroom suite,” a 1,640-square foot room with Central Park and city views, according to the hotel’s Web site. The Mark has 118 rooms for guests and 42 co-op apartments. [Hotel Chatter]

It is a great and all too rare pleasure to be able to greet any
architectural development in New York City with unreserved praise. But
such is the case at the reborn Mark Hotel
at 25 East 77th Street at Madison Avenue (see image of the building after the jump). From the exterior, the hotel
(now, plus residences) looks much as it always did, spruced up to be
sure, but preserving the demure pre-war dignity that it had when it
opened back in 1927. The real pleasure of the place is revealed the moment you enter and
behold one of the most exhilarating interiors in the city. It was
conceived by Frenchman Jacques Grange,
whom the New York Times described two years ago as “France’s most
famous interior designer.” In these parts, he is best known for his
work on Francois Pinault’s Manhattan digs. [more]

After four months of weakness in hotel occupancy, the outlook is getting brighter for the local hospitality industry. According to Smith Travel Research, the U.S. hotel industry posted
declines in the three key performance measurements during the week of
April 26 to May 2, 2009. Year-over-year, the room occupancy rate fell 11.6 percent to 55.7
percent in the week ending May 2. The average daily room rate dropped
8.6 percent to $99.41, the data shows. The revenue per available room,
or revpar, for the week decreased 19.1 percent to $55.53. [more]