The real negative with the Hudson is the rooms. When I travel for work, I get stuck in a single on a cheap corporate rate. These rooms are tiny, but have some design flair. Since this visit was on our own tab, we opted for a suite, which is about three times bigger, a great plus. But the last time I had seen wood paneling was in the house I grew up in as a young kid before we went "uptown", or at least "upstreet". I think they were going for some sort of Adirondack lodge look, and granted it was more expensive material than the cheap wood paneling of my youth, but it still looked darkly depressing and cheap. (Room: 5, Facilities: 9, Service: 5, Overall: 6).

Some more shots of the Hudson, including the scarily lit lounge off the lobby, and some great outdoor terraces. By the way, this should seem familiar to Pomme and Stoli, since you came in to stay here for a day or two with us. We went to see Little Shop of Horrors, then had dinner at a French restaurant that wasn't bad, but a bit quiet. Jog any memories?

Fortunately I only had to work a couple of days so I was able to move out of the W and into a much nicer hotel, the Hudson. One of many Ian Shrager creations around the city, this is probably my favorite, and I've stayed here a dozen or so times. The exterior isn't up to much, just a cement slab, but it makes the lavish, Alice in Wonderland interior all the more pleasantly surprising. Pictured here is the lobby, the library/pool hall, and the restaurant, which serves the best hotel breakfast in New York.

My first non-photo entry, I think. I'm starting a new feature in the blog that reveals a bit of my anal retentive nature. In addition to my travel journal keeping, (which hasn't kicked in yet, but the trip where I finally buy the journal is coming up in a few months on this blog chronology) I also keep ratings of hotels and restaurants. The restaurant ratings come in a bit later, but I've always kept a detailed rating of hotels for business and vacations. I wasn't including the ratings so far because there are lots of numbers and it will be quite boring, but I've rejigged it for blog purposes so I can summarize along a few key categories. So from now on, when I describe a hotel we've stayed at, I give it an overall rating, then break it down further into room, facilities, service and wow factor. Room is probably the least fair variable since all rooms are different so a hotel will be judged unfairly on the particular room we get, but includes size, decor, and view from the room. Facilities is a catchall for the exterior, location, lobby and public spaces, food/restaurants and others like gyms and pools. Since these aren't really related, the score will be a composite of not much use to anyone, so if you're really curious, I'm happy to provide ratings for specific items. Service is self explanatory, and again a personal choice, some people like obsequiousness in service, while I find it offputting so my scores will reflect that. The wow factor is anything that makes the hotel stand out and stick in your head, shows that the hotel is going out of its way to differentiate itself in some way. Unlike the other categories, wow factor is always a plus, so for example an average hotel would have a 5 for room, it would probably have a zero for wow factor. So a score of 1 for service is deadly, but for wow factor, it means it at least has a little. Good business hotels and high end chain will find it relatively easy to get good overall ratings, but will almost never have the wow factor that's needed for great overall scores. All the scales are on a 1 to 10 basis.

With that long introduction, I'm also going to periodically discuss scores for a particular location that I've already discussed, and I'll include all the hotels I've stayed at in each location in one post so it's easier to compare. Since we just finished with New York, let's kick this off with New York hotels (which unfortunately generally suck). Listed best to worst, number in parentheses after the hotel is overall rating, followed by subratings:

1. St. Regis (8): Room-9, Facilities-6, Service-8, Wow-3 (great marriage of high tech with grande dame architecture)
2. Mercer (7): Room-8, Facilities-7, Service-6, Wow-3 (celebrity spotting, i.e. Russell Crowe and the phone incident)
3. Mandarin Oriental (7): Room-6, Facilities-7, Service-7, Wow-2 (Central Park views that are nice though overrated, glam bar)
4. Hudson Hotel (6): Room-4, Facilities-7, Service-6, Wow-4 (lobby, bars and restaurants ablaze with high design and cool crowd, but stops at your room door)
5. SoHo Grand (6): Room-4, Facilities-7, Service-7, Wow-2 (same as Hudson but pulled back a couple notches)
6. Parker Meridien (5): Room-5, Facilities-5, Service-6, Wow-1 (best hotel gym in NYC)
7. The Mark (5): Room-5, Facilities-4, Service-5, Wow-0
8. Waldorf Astoria (4): Room-5, Facilities-5, Service-3, Wow-1 (grand lobby, though mobbed with nametag wearing groups)
9. Pierre (3): Room-3, Facilities-3, Service-3, Wow-0
10. W Hotel (midtown) (1): Room-1, Facilities-1, Service-1, Wow-take a guess