Crosby Street Hotel

Creatively kitsch 86-room hotel with 11 floors of modern art and NYC cool

If location is everything, Brit boutique hoteliers Tim and Kit Kemp certainly pulled off a coup squeezing this sizeable addition to the Firmdale chain into the thriving heart of trendy Soho. A former parking lot, its metamorphosis into 11 storeys of exposed brick and loft-style casements has made the hip hotel look so at home that locals struggle to remember what was there before.

Fall asleep to a sparkling NYC skyline, wake up to a Big Apple brunch, and find superlative shopping on the doorstep, trendy screenings in the basement and perfectly muddled cocktails at the bar - the kind of travel pursuits that set tourist and traveller apart. But there are no prizes for guessing who’s catered for here.

Throwing bland, boring and beige out of the window, at its candy-coloured centre you’ll find a modern-art melange that falls somewhere between a Tim Burton film set and an exhibition at the MoMA. And although you may wonder how much creativity you can cram into a place, thanks to a surprising sense of synergy and a comforting opulence, it really does work.

Highs

• New York's most eco hotel with a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification
• Original modern art at every turn, including a 10ft-tall Jaume Plensa human head sculpture and Peter Clark dog collage
• Luxurious attention to detail in the bedrooms: anti-misting bathroom mirrors, Frette linens, Miller Harris products
• Plenty of communal areas, including a guest-only lounge and garden terrace
• Fantastic downtown location, seconds from Broadway, the subway and Soho’s chi-chi shops

Lows

• Some bedroom interiors are rather feminine; if this bothers you, qualify your colour scheme on booking
• The quirky modern-art design may not be to everyone’s taste
• The restaurant and bar are attached so meals can feel more raucous than relaxed
• Service in the restaurant wasn’t ‘world class’ as advertised, though it was in the rest of the hotel
• The cinema is only open for private screenings and events, rather than being a feature for guests