John Farrell and his wife booked a US$1,000 (RM4,140) room in the morning and were in New York hours later for their one-night stay. The couple is part of a new local and last-minute clientele keeping the lights on at the city’s most luxurious hotels now that the coronavirus has chased off the international jet set.

NYC launches pilot to expand use of parent advocates in foster care

Prices at New York City hotels have plunged as the hospitality industry continues to try and grapple with the effects of the global pandemic.

Craig Deitelzweig made his mark in real estate by buying office buildings and making them look and feel like hotels. “Why shouldn’t you feel like you’re on vacation when you’re at work?” he asks. His redevelopment of the offices at 10 Grand Central is evocative of a chic, boutique hotel with a signature scent pumping through its ducts.

State Supreme Court Justice Debra James on Friday rebuffed a legal motion by Downtown New Yorkers, Inc.—which organized in recent weeks to mobilize against a plan by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to relocate more than 200 homeless men to a vacant hotel in the Financial District—to halt the transfer, pending further litigation.

A planned move of homeless men from the Lucerne Hotel on the Upper West Side to another hotel in the Financial District will proceed after a state Supreme Court judge declined to block the move.

With travel to New York banned from 35 US states, the city’s economy is struggling to stay afloat.