The new guestrooms at the Loews Regency Hotel will feel modern, yet classic. // (c) 2013 Loews Hotels
Last summer, while on vacation in New York, I stayed at the Loews Regency Hotel. This Loews, on Park Avenue in Manhattan, is an iconic property and was at the center of the glamorous 1950's and '60s New York social scene. Staying there felt like I was in an episode of "Mad Men" __ I halfway expected to see Don Draper sneaking upstairs for a clandestine rendezvous.
The hotel closed for a massive renovation on Jan. 1 of this year and it is scheduled to reopen in mid-November. The company calls the work being done on the hotel a "reinvention," more than a renovation. Designers are changing virtually everything about the hotel and bringing it up to today's standards __ as well as the standard one might expect from the flagship Loews property.
In particular, bathrooms will be greatly enlarged (they are removing some of the pantries that were in the old rooms), and new amenities will be added, such as soaking tubs and in-mirror televisions.
Also, each of the hotel's six premium suites will have its own designer, which means each one will have its own unique look and feel. (I have feeling those suites are going to be instant classics.)
The public spaces are being redesigned as well. (The Loews Regency lays claim to inventing the power breakfast.)
It seems that the Loews Regency is going to be THE place to be this Christmas.
Until then, visitors can check out a couple of great Hyatt properties I visited in Midtown Manhattan that are sure to please as well.