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Off limits come night time if you’re a hotel guest

As you may have gathered from our review yesterday, we didn’t exactly dig our stay at The Jane NYC. But what we lacked as regards a clean room and a pleasant environment, we told ourselves, we were gaining in street cred, as staying there would surely get us entry into the fabled Ballroom, which reopened in May.

What were we thinking? Of course they’re not going to let plebs who pay $89 for a room into One Of The Most Exclusive Spaces In Manhattan. We would ruin the hipster vibe if we dared enter, smelling of The Jane.

We got in around midnight on

If you think that paying $400+ per night for a luxury room in a New York City hotel means you don't have to share the pillow with bedbugs, then you're wrong. Not to make you super paranoid, but it's the truth; with a rash of recent bedbug infestations in everything from flagship retail stores to entire office floors, there's no guarantee that the little blood suckers aren't also in your hotel sheets.

Pop singer Lauren Hildebrandt tells USA Today that she recently emerged from a stay at a "luxury hotel in New York City's Union Square neighborhood" with bites on her body and now—even though we've never heard of her until this incident—she wants to

In need of a good read this Labor Day Weekend? One of our VIP hotel reviewers (and disclosure, a close friend of HotelChatter), Gabe Rotter has just published his second book, The Human Bobby, and we're geeking out because a big hotel makes an appearance.

Since writing about books about hotels is one of our things, we decided to ask Gabe a few questions about his book and his own hotel habits. And awaaay we go!

Your book has a long section that takes place at Shutters on The Beach in Santa Monica. Why did you choose this particular hotel for the setting?
The Human Bobby is about a wealthy man's fall from

If you are a fan of downtown NYC hotels, these just might be the moving and still pixels you've been waiting for -- a look inside the Soho Grand Hotel's brand spanking new "Grand Suites".

In order to get to any of the ten suites you must nab an exclusive key card from the front desk that will get you up to the 16th floor, where all the suites are located. How do you

Southwest Airlines dropped some big news today with their announcement of new routes out of Newark Airport in 2011 but us hotel geeks are rather excited about Southwest's new partnership with Four Points by Sheraton.

Previously, we've dug Four Points for their reasonable prices, free WiFi, localized beer selections and even the apple pie scents that once wafted through the lobbies (It's been replaced with an outdoorsy scent.)

But now when you stay at a Four Points hotel you will earn one Southwest Rapid Rewards credit per stay.

Just because New York Fashion Week is moving from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center beginning this season doesn't mean that W Hotels will stop sponsoring it. For as many fashion weeks as we've known, the W Hotels have set up a full backstage VIP lounge, complete with free drinks, POP burgers, TVs screening the runway shows live, and previews of designer merchandise and new hotels. The lounge may be taking a break this year, but W Hotels is determined to make their impression.

For this next fashion week, which begins on Thursday, September 9, the W Hotels will again be rolling out a slew of new items for its Global Glam collection. However, they're going big

Vikram Chatwal lives! The WSJ has an in-depth look at the hotel business of Vik and his father, Sant Singh Chatwal, who just opened his Chatwal Hotel the other week. You can see our tours of the hotel here and here.

From the article, we learn some rather interesting things like the genesis of Sant Singh's hotel business in America and his trips and falls along the way. We also learn Vikram has moved in across the street from the Soho Grand Hotel into a $5.4 million townhouse at Soho Mews. (pic of Vik's building.)

But the most surprising news is that aside from opening The Dream Downtown, the

To mark its one-year anniversary after a 2.5-year renovation, the Jefferson will be throwing a key party. Not those gross kinda key parties where swingers swap keys and partners. Instead, the hotel is selling antique keys for a contest to see who can unlock various prizes from the hotel.

On August 31 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., five locked boxes full of swag will be waiting to be unlocked in the lobby. People who have purchased keys will be invited to try their luck to see if they can open the boxes.

It was on our list of The Top 10 New Rooftop Hotel Bars in New York City and over the weekend it made our list of low-key spots for an evening beer. We're talking about Glass Bar at the Hotel Indigo Chelsea.

When it opened, we predicted that it could be 'a more affordable and low-key alternative to the more scene-tastic rooftop bars in the city'—and that's just what we found when we dropped by around 6 p.m. on Saturday. In fact, when we first stepped off the elevator and approached the bar, we were the only drinkers in sight.

This was fine with us, but scenesters looking for a little companionship and conviviality may need

SUITE:
Finally! Inside The Chatwal New York 10 Tricked Out Hotel House Cars Finally! Inside the W New York Downtown

ALSO: Gansevoort Park now officially open

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