We all need a hotel room in New York City from time to time – for an overnight stay following a late business dinner, perhaps; a pre- or post-celebration; or a suggestion for friends visiting from out of town. The list is endless.
Whatever your reason, it’s all too easy to default to Expedia or apps like Hotel Tonight to find an inexpensive bed for the night. Only, what you’ll find instead is that there are no longer bargain beds in New York City, only a handful that are less eye-wateringly expensive than the rest.
One of that handful is The Muse New York, which is this year celebrating its silver anniversary as a hotel. Converted in the 2000s, the hotel was acquired by the California-based hotel investor Chartres Lodging Group in 2022, which gave the 130 West 46th St. property a complete makeover, including a full repositioning of its eight balcony suites. The new accommodations have large layouts, with some suites also featuring flexible living spaces for extended stays.
One of the last “independents” in the city – meaning it is unaffiliated – and with a perfect location, slap-bang in the heart of midtown, the hotel includes an especially friendly and accommodating lobby and housekeeping staff; spiffy, updated rooms that, on the three random dates I recently checked, were offered on the hotel’s own website at a good 15% below their nearest equivalents; and a real sense of being a “non-chain” hotel – if being a “non”-something can communicate a sense of what it actually is.
Let me elaborate on that midtown location. Step into The Muse, only minutes away from Times Square, and what you experience is a welcome sense of calm, a “reprieve” from the neighborhood, as the hotel’s dedicated general manager, Natalie Bogan, whom I met on my recent visit, described it.
Staying just a night at this handy, pet-friendly hostelry, I noticed from the moment of my arrival how The Muse stood out from the crowd of faceless chain hotels in the immediate area. Greeted enthusiastically by concierge Daniel Mitchell, who dealt with check-in under a minute, I was whisked via a dedicated upper floors elevator directly to my 18th floor suite. (I never had to wait more than a few seconds for an elevator.)
At the hotel’s Little Opus café and bar, I met bartender Aurelio Rojas, a trained chef and former “MasterChef” contender who has worked at restaurants and especially restaurants and stores around the city. When I asked him for a cocktail recommendation, he said the one he most enjoys making is an Old-Fashioned. His not-so-secret twist on this classic cocktail? Cooking off the sugar syrup so that it has a whisper of caramel, and then adding a touch of salt – not even a pinch, more like a few grains. The care really tells in the taste. (I’d forgotten how much I like an Old-Fashioned.)
Plus, the small menu is streets ahead of the usual plodding midtown hotel fare. The pretzel beef sliders and piping hot French fries, for instance, were award-worthy. I rarely eat a restaurant hamburger or sliders these days, mainly because I reckon I can grill a perfectly good beef patty at home but also because I want to avoid the terrific calorie bomb. So when I do, it’s going to need to be good. And these sliders were extremely good – excellent, indeed.
There’s also a cool ATM by the elevators that looks more like a futuristic TV screen. If you have to withdraw your hard-earned cash out of a machine, the experience might as well be fun, right?
Although there is no dedicated event or meeting space, The Muse partners with Convene, a full-service venue for meetings and workshops and small private events, situated diagonally across the street from the hotel. And spa services are provided by the Joanna Vargas spa, just a couple of blocks away on Fifth Avenue, where Muse guests receive a 20% discount on treatments.
But perhaps the biggest news since the 2022 takeover of the property is the upcoming opening of a 4,000-square-foot jazz club in The Muse’s basement, a space that previously housed meeting rooms and a fitness area. Slated for a spring 2026 launch, the club will feature high caliber programming with Grammy-Award-winning artists, so that it looks like it’s becoming a major new asset, not just for the neighborhood, but for the entire city.
General manager Natalie Bogan, meanwhile, makes no secret of her passion for The Muse and her dedication to seeing it succeed. As a former general manager at The Smyth, Tribeca, which she successfully rebranded and reopened, and more recently as general manager of the more corporate Crowne Plaza Times Square, she paid tribute to The Muse’s owners, who, she said, gave her “freedom of creativity and independence.”
And single-minded in her mission, she added: “I want The Muse to be the biggest and the best. I want it to be my legacy.”
Jeremy Wayne is a travel adviser with Superior Travel of New York. Email him at jeremy@superiortravel.com.
