Gansevoort Park Avenue hotel checks in guests, contrary to exec’s claims

From left: clerks working the desk at Gansevoort Park Avenue hotel this afternoon and the hotel’s exterior

The Gansevoort Park Avenue has accepted reservations, with travelers staying in the hotel as of yesterday, despite prior claims to the contrary made by a Gansevoort Hotel Group executive to The Real Deal .

People in front of the Gansevoort Park Avenue last night told The Real Deal that they were staying at the hotel and a desk clerk today said that the hotel welcomed its first guests “yesterday afternoon,” and that starting rates are $275 per night.

Meanwhile, the source from the hotel group, which manages the Park Avenue South and 29th Street hotel in addition to the well-established Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, told The Real Deal yesterday that the hotel did not have any guests and would not allow them until the building’s roof deck receives its temporary certificate of occupancy.

 When confronted today, the same source told The Real Deal that the hotel is not yet accepting new reservations, but was forced to honor existing reservations. He also said that the hotel is allowing these guests to stay there for free because the rooftop is not yet open.

Michael Achenbaum, president of Gansevoort Hotel Group, declined to comment.

Guests and hotel workers confirmed that the comps were, in fact, being doled out.

The kerfuffle surrounds the hotel’s inability to have the TCO on its rooftop approved. According to a spokesperson for the Gansevoort Hotel Group the TCO for the hotel has been approved for the first 10 floors of the building.

The representative told The Real Deal that he had “hoped this wouldn’t get out,” referring to the hotel’s forcible honoring of guests’ reservations, for free.

With additional reporting by Lauren Elkies