Great prices offered at Manhattan’s newest hotels

Over the last couple of months, a number of new Manhattan hotels have opened, offering great rates, and in some cases good perks, to get visitors to walk through the door.

On December 21, a handful of rooms were made available to visitors at a rate of $195 per night at Andre Balazs’ 18-story, 337-room Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District. The room price included complimentary breakfast room-service, wireless Internet access and free local calls. The hotel, at 848 Washington Street, at 13th Street, was erected on pillars over the old High Line.

Hoteliers are responding to market conditions. Room rates have been dropping as the occupancy rate has been declining, according to October data from hotel tracking firm PKF Consulting, and revenues per available room will decline in 2009. The outlook is grim through second-quarter 2010.

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Earlier in the month all of the rooms were released at the Thompson LES, a new Lower East Side hotel. The 18-story building, located at 190 Allen Street, and East Houston, has a total of 140 rooms, most of which overlook Allen Street. Average room rates are expected to range from $500 to $600, while promotional rates were available during the Christmas holiday weekend at a daily rate ranging from $219 to $259 per night.
 
Also this month, the long awaited Cooper Square Hotel opened at 25 Cooper Square and the Bowery in the East Village. The 21-story, 145-room hotel is charging an introductory rate of $275. Rates are expected to go up to $375 in February.
 
Last month, visitors were able to reserve a room at the Gem Hotel in Chelsea. The new hotel, at 300 West 22nd Street at Eighth Avenue, has 81 rooms. The Gem is part of Choice Hotels’ Ascend Collection and according to a recent post on hotelchatter.com, rooms are going for $159 a night until February 28, down $30 from the initial opening rate. Hotelchatter.com noted that the rooms are small, but guests get free in-room wireless Internet access and a complimentary shoe shine.
 
The same week, Gemini Real Estate Advisors, owners of the Gem Hotel in Chelsea, started operating its newly-acquired 124-room Wyndham Garden Hotel Manhattan Chelsea West, a select-service hotel in the Flatiron District at 37 West 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway.