Marcel Hotel, New York City

...the Big Apple at the Marcel Hotel for £450 was a steal and although I'm not usually one to book more than a week in advance, I knew we had to act fast. I wasn't wrong, the price had gone up within days and as it turned out our trip was every bit as good as we'd hoped.

The Marcel Hotel is a 3* modern 'boutique' hotel which basically means it is small and stylish and not part of a chain. The decor is tasteful and calming with walls and ...
...in the morning. At the Marcel we rarely saw another guest and the staff were confined to the front desk, all were pleasant and polite but typical New Yorkers - never keen to stop and chat!
Our room was very small but perfectly formed. Luckily we spent very little time in it but as the shopping bags mounted up, there was less and less space to move about in.
Given that it was January we had packed for freezing temperatures however New ... more

For my sixth visit to New York, I chose to go for New Year and more importantly the winter sales!
My boyfriend and I found an offer on lastminute.com that seemed too good to be true - a package of flights and five days in the Big Apple at the Marcel Hotel for £450 was a steal and although I'm not usually one to book more than a week in advance, I knew we had to act fast. I wasn't wrong, the price had gone up within days and as it turned out our trip was every bit as good as we'd hoped.

The Marcel Hotel is a 3* modern 'boutique' hotel which basically means it is small and stylish and not part of a chain. The decor is tasteful and calming with walls and floors decorated in neutral browns and pale blues.
The moment we walked through the door, I knew we had made the right choice. I like a hotel to be chic but not so fashionable that you are scared to come down in your trainers in the morning. At the Marcel we rarely saw another guest and the staff were confined to the front desk, all were pleasant and polite but typical New Yorkers - never keen to stop and chat!
Our room was very small but perfectly formed. Luckily we spent very little time in it but as the shopping bags mounted up, there was less and less space to move about in.
Given that it was January we had packed for freezing temperatures however New York welcomed in 2005 with unseasonably warm weather and on New Year's Day we found ourselves sitting outside a cafe in t-shirts. That night our room was so stifling that I had to sit by the open window (not the quietest past time in a city like Manhattan) and there was nothing we could do to alter the temperature. We were possibly just unlucky due to the unexpected warmth but it did make it rather stuffy in such a confined space.

As with a lot of hotels in New York, the Marcel does not offer breakfast on site which is fine by me as half the fun is getting up and going for donuts or bagels. However if you do like something before you start the day then there is a complimentary coffee machine in the foyer. For very British types like me who like their cuppa in the morning, there is a deli across the street that serves takeaway tea and surprisingly it's not bad at all!

I would recommend the Marcel to anyone who has perhaps been to New York before and is looking for a hotel that's conveniently placed for downtown and yet an easy cab ride away from Central Park and uptown. The Empire State Building and Flatiron Building are the closest landmarks which is handy for getting your bearings and while 24th street may not be the most glamorous of locations you really can be almost anywhere on the island within ten minutes, traffic permitting.
It is an inexpensive place to stay and if you literally want a bolt-hole, then you could do worse. If it's your first visit to New York, I'd advise you to go somewhere a bit more central because otherwise you might not experience first hand why NYC earned the title of the city that never sleeps.  

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