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hotel · New York City
Two Hundred Square Feet, and More History Than Any Room in New York
Review of Hotel Chelsea
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Share your experienceRooms at the Hotel Chelsea start small: the Petite Chelsea is a queen bed at 200 sq ft, about 19 sq m. Accessible rooms are larger, with a king bed at approximately 450 sq ft, and are booked by emailing the hotel rather than online. Nightly rates are not published as a fixed figure. The building on West 23rd Street housed Dylan Thomas, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin and Sid Vicious, and spent a decade closed for a restoration that was widely expected to sand all of that away. It did not: the staircase, the ironwork and a good deal of the art survived. There is a lobby bar, El Quijote next door, and a Japanese restaurant in the building, which between them mean you need not leave in the evening.
What was great
A building with a genuine claim on twentieth-century culture, restored rather than gutted. The staircase and the lobby art. El Quijote, which reopened with the hotel and is worth a table on its own.
What nearly ruined the trip
Standard rooms are genuinely small at 200 sq ft. The history draws people who want to look rather than stay, so the lobby is busy. No published rates, and accessible rooms cannot be booked online at all.
Value for money
★★★☆☆ FairSafety
★★★★★ Felt safeMore from New York City
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