7 Great New NYC Hotels to Book in 2022

Despite the pandemic, more than two dozen new hotels opened across New York City in 2021. Of those, the most exciting openings are now welcoming travelers to explore parts of the city they couldn’t access before—like a historic ferry terminal in the Financial District that had been empty for decades—or perhaps never considered venturing to (Roosevelt Island, we’re looking at you).

Of course, New York’s great revival isn’t just about the hotel openings we’ve curated here. There are currently more than 50 other new hotels actively in the pipeline, according to data gathered by the city’s tourism board. In the coming months, Washington Heights will get the Radio Hotel, the shuttered NoMad Hotel will be reborn as the Ned near the upcoming Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad, and the storied Chelsea Hotel will finish its transformation from a residence hotel into a boutique hotel  this summer. Other highly anticipated properties like the Aman and Six Senses will require more patience.

Until then, consider these seven great new NYC hotels, whether you’re coming from out of town or planning a staycation.

Ace Hotel Brooklyn

• What to Expect: A whole new reason to visit Brooklyn for tourists and locals alike
• Neighborhood: Boerum Hill
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Twelve years after Ace Hotel transformed Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood into a destination worth visiting, the brand opened its second NYC property on the edge of Brooklyn’s residential Boerum Hill neighborhood and Downtown Brooklyn in the summer of 2021. Built from the ground up, the 13-story building features a concrete brutalist facade designed by Roman and Williams. Inside, organic elements like green leather couches, wooden walls, and textile and fiber art pieces add warmth to raw concrete pillars and ceilings in the expansive lobby and throughout the 287 rooms.

As You Are, the ground-floor restaurant, uses Brooklyn’s multicultural culinary scene to inspire dishes like octopus ragu radiatore made with mezcal and orange, and lamb ribs served with garlicky yogurt and flatbread. Afterward, mingle with locals over cocktails at the expansive lobby bar. If you must go into Manhattan, the A/C train at Hoyt Schermerhorn is just a block away.

Casa Cipriani

• What to Expect: A throwback to a more luxurious time in an early 20th-century ferry building
• Neighborhood: Financial District
• Book Now

Sure, you may have taken the ferry to Governors Island. But walking through the doors of Casa Cipriani—located in that same Beaux-Arts ferry building—you’ll feel transported back to an era when people dressed to the nines for dinner and took ocean liners across the Atlantic instead of airplanes. Playing on the building’s waterfront location, French architect Thierry Despont worked with the Italian hospitality brand to create a 47-room property that looks more like a vintage cruise ship from the 1930s than a hotel that opened in 2021.

In the elevators and hallways, you’ll find porthole-shaped mirrors and handlebars wrapped in luxe red leather, plus lacquered mahogany walls buffed to a high shine by housekeeping staff dressed in vintage-inspired black and white uniforms. Rooms on the fourth floor have private terraces overlooking New York Harbor, and all of them come with spacious marble bathrooms and walk-in closets that laugh in the face of most New Yorkers’ entire apartments.

Upstairs at the private members club, hotel guests are invited to treat the space like their own living room during their stay. Lounge in front of the fireplace in a velvet armchair, sip a Bellini (invented at Harry’s Bar opened in Venice in 1931 by the Cipriani family) at one of two bars, or enjoy an Italian meal on the rooftop patio spaces. Views of the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty demand your main focus, but don’t miss out on other vintage-inspired details like the shuffleboard court embedded in the floor. If that’s not relaxing enough, head down to the 15,000-square-foot health and wellness floor for a massage, steam, or cryotherapy in the full-service spa. When it’s time to head to the airport, check the traffic. The downtown Manhattan heliport at Pier 6 is right there, and sometimes it’s actually more affordable to take an Uber Copter to JFK than it is to book a car. Seriously.

Pendry Manhattan West

• What to Expect: A warm and inviting haven in the middle of it all
• Neighborhood: Hudson Yards/Manhattan West
• Book Now

Following openings in Chicago and West Hollywood, the upscale Pendry brand opened its first New York hotel in September 2021 on the block directly between Hudson Yards and Penn Station’s shiny new Moynihan Train Hall. Part of the Manhattan West development project that’s also home to the new Amazon and Peloton headquarters, the 164-room hotel is a respite from the burgeoning neighborhood growing around it. The warm interiors by Gachot Studios rely on natural wood details and tons of light from floor-to-ceiling windows to create a natural and peaceful mood.

Instead of just one lobby bar, there are nearly half a dozen options from which to choose. Start at Bar Pendry, a gilded jewel box of a lounge where you can order classic cocktails and casual fare like herbed french fries and burgers. If you’re still hungry for something else, head over to Zou Zou’s for eastern Mediterranean fare from the hospitality group behind other beloved Manhattan restaurants like Don Angie and Quality Meats.

Graduate Roosevelt Island

• What to Expect: Affordable rates and stunning views from an unexpected locale
• Neighborhood: Roosevelt Island
• Book Now

Though most locals and tourists have had little reason to set foot on Roosevelt Island before, the 2021 opening of Graduate Hotels’ first NYC outpost near Cornell Tech’s campus should make everyone reprioritize a visit to this narrow island in the East River sandwiched between Midtown Manhattan and Long Island City in Queens. Like Graduate’s other boutique properties in college towns across the United States and United Kingdom, the 224-room Graduate Roosevelt Island pays homage to its local community with its own brand of quirky and futuristic design. A 13-foot-tall statue of artist Hebru Brantley’s Flyboy looms over the check-in desk, while the rooms feature technologic details like lamp bases decorated with Morse code of the Cornell fight song and a neon light fixture inspired by a science project from a Cornell alum.

On the 18th floor, New York unfolds before you at the rooftop Panorama Room. While the eye-catching neon and acrylic chandelier over the bar will be the first thing you notice, the lounge’s key feature is its wall of windows that open to create an indoor-outdoor space and provide unobstructed views of the city. Don’t know how to get there? There are plenty of options, including the F train, the East River Ferry, and the Roosevelt Island Tram. Taking an Uber from LGA? Without traffic, you can get to the Graduate in less than 20 minutes.

Park Lane

• What to Expect: A NYC classic reimagined as a whimsical and inclusive retreat on the park
• Neighborhood: Midtown
• Book Now

When the original Park Lane hotel opened on Central Park South in 1971, it had a certain European glamour about it. Over the decades, that glamor faded into a rather stodgy beige look. Cut to fall 2021, when the 47-story property debuted a full redesign courtesy of design firm Yabu Pushelberg that transformed the stuffy hotel into something wholly untraditional and much more inviting—especially compared to its neighbors, the Plaza Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton. 

Fans of Ludwig Bemelmans and Mark Chagall will love the whimsical illustrated murals by NYC-based artists En Viu woven throughout the property. Look at the ceiling above the check-in desk for a spring-green scene or along the saturated blue walls of the staircase leading up to the redone Harry’s New York Bar on the second floor. In the 610 rooms, murals of Central Park scenes are found behind the beds and dressers. You’ll notice darker navy blue tones in the City View rooms, while the Park View rooms take on softer tones of pink and beige to let the greenery of Central Park take center stage.

The staircase up to Darling—the only rooftop bar on Central Park South—has a more dramatic design with a mural reminiscent of floral still life paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. The space, which used to be a private apartment, has both indoor and outdoor areas where you can order seafood towers and Boulevardiers made with Japanese whiskey and ume plum liquor. But once the weather warms up, there’s really no choice when you have those expansive Central Park views as an option.

Thompson Central Park

• What to Expect: A Midtown stalwart reborn as a stylish hotel
• Neighborhood: Midtown
• Book Now

Those familiar with the Thompson’s downtown hotels—the Beekman and Gild Hall—know to expect a certain level of detail and style. Reborn under the Hyatt lifestyle hotel brand in November 2021, this uptown hotel plays on its location on the same block as Carnegie Hall with music-centric decor. For example, throughout the 587 rooms designed by Stonehill Taylor, you’ll find framed photographs of guitars and brass instruments on the walls. The rest of the decor veers toward midcentury with navy leather headboards against ribbed wooden walls, velvet couches, and Tivoli radios.

Though Per Se and Nobu are just a short walk away, you’ll want to try something  casual at Burger Joint, the hole-in-the-wall restaurant that’s remained untouched since the hotel used to be Le Parker Meridien. And while the lobby bar SRO (Standing Room Only) is currently open, stay tuned for another upcoming bar space in the atrium that connects 56th and 57th Streets on the ground floor of the hotel.

Civilian

• What to Expect: A cozy Broadway-themed retreat steps from the Theater District
• Neighborhood: Hell’s Kitchen
• Book Now

For those whose main purpose visiting New York is to see as many Broadway shows as possible, there’s no shortage of hotels to choose from in Times Square. But at Civilian—located just off Eighth Avenue on a quiet residential block of West 48th Street—you can be a world away from the hubbub while also being just a two-minute walk from the Longacre Theater (where Macbeth starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga is showing currently).

Civilian, which opened in November 2021, is the brainchild of hotelier Jason Pomeranc, who cofounded the Sixty Collective of boutique hotels in New York and Los Angeles and the Thompson Hotel group with his father and brothers. Though the prices are less intimidating at this 203-room hotel (for now, they’re starting around $250), you’ll notice the same level of detail that you’d find at these other boutique brands. Here, the inspiration behind the Rockwell Group’s design is Broadway. In the main second-floor lounge, framed archival photographs from live shows, as well as miniature set designs from Company and Moulin Rouge, adorn the walls. Tucked away in the more intimate Blue Room cocktail lounge on the second floor is a mini museum of Broadway memorabilia from Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and more.

The theatrical design extends to the rooms as well, with stage-curtain-like velvet drapes hung over four-poster beds. Though the rooms are certainly a cozy New York size, you’ll still find fully private bathrooms that contain the sink, shower, and toilet, unlike many other hotels that disperse some of these elements into the common spaces of the room.

A ground-floor restaurant and rooftop bar are scheduled to open in time for summer.

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