Check In, Check Out

All around town, night after night, we keep hearing the same thing: "Hotels are the new clubs." Of course, the right hotel has always attracted a crowd. Back in the day, it was all the rage to be seen sipping a martini at New York classics like the Algonquin and the Plaza. And not to get too History Channel about it, but our hazy recollection takes us back to West 43rd Street and the Hotel Diplomat. In the '70s there was a discotheque in the basement (Le Jardin), rock bands in the ballroom (Television, New York Dolls) and Abbie Hoffman was getting busted for coke up in room 1015. The Chelsea on 23rd was good for a party in its day, too.

Following New York's nightlife heyday of the late '70s, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager of Studio 54 were released from prison -- a little IRS problem -- and decided to open Morgans Hotel on Madison Avenue, the first hip-hotel. Schrager refined the concept at the Delano in Miami and in New York at the Royalton, the Paramount and the Hudson. Soon every hotelier in town (and out) was on the bandwagon: the Mercer, the Raleigh, the Thompson, the SoHo Grand, the Sagamore and on and on until even the big boys -- the Marriotts, Hiltons and Westins of the world -- could see the dollars. All you had to do was throw out the health club and put in a sound system or hire a DJ for the reception desk. And when bewildered hotel guests complained about the noise? Well, the manager just apologized, refunded the money and cranked up the music.

It's been suggested that one of the reasons for this proliferation of club-hotels, especially here in New York, is how difficult it's become for bars and nightclubs to get a liquor license due to the influence of vocal community groups. Supposedly, it's now easier to get a license for a hotel than for a nightclub. Whatever the case may be, Miami right now has almost as many club-hotels as New York, and with Wall at the W South Beach and Club 50 downtown at the Viceroy opening this year, the city might surpass New York. L.A. has the Roosevelt, two Standards and a spin-off of Victor Drai's Las Vegas nightclubs set to open this winter at the Hollywood W. Mama Shelter in Paris packs in the hipsters with cheap rooms and DJs spinning. And the basement of the Michelberger in Berlin is one of the hottest new party spaces in town. Now the sky is the limit... or was, ever since the Standard in New York opened its fantasy penthouse the Boom Boom Room (whose name may change due to a lawsuit) on the 18th floor.

Here, we've spotlighted several of these party-friendly hotels, located right in our backyard and oceans away -- we even found one in Seoul! We also chat with -- and give the "Guru" treatment to -- club-hotel bigwig Sean MacPherson. What's next? While we were staying at the Paramount in New York last month, the bartender told us that the hotel's new owners were still hoping to reopen the Diamond Horseshoe nightclub in the basement. Why not? After all, that was the hottest club in town back in 1938.

[Above] THE BOOM BOOM ROOM, THE STANDARD 848 WASHINGTON ST. NEW YORK, NEW YORK
For those who like: pre-recession times, Rose Bar, floor-to- ceiling windows, panoramic views of New York, an intoxicated Lindsay Lohan in a hot tub, $25 drinks, André Balazs. Photographed by Patrick McMullan

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