THE BEST NEW HOTELS IN MANHATTAN, NEW YORK, ARE COLOURFUL AND MAKE PEOPLE ‘FEEL SOMETHING’

We take a look at some of the brightest, most colourful hotels recently opened in New York, each packed with 'soul' for a fun stay

No matter what is trending in fashion, the uniform in New York has remained constant - any cut, any style, but make it black. The same has long been true of hotels in the city's Manhattan area, with slick onyx, creamy white and neutral linens serving as reliable antidotes to the city's sensory overload.

Not any more.

"If you think about what the consumer wants today, they don't want beige," says Elizabeth Mullins, managing director of The Fifth Avenue Hotel and chief operating officer of its parent company, FlAneur Hospitality.

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"They want a hotel with soul."

Mullins says this has been true ever since the Covid-19 pandemic left people wanting to reawaken their senses and "feel something" along their travels. Most commonly, they want to feel a sense of place. "But it's hard to evoke much of anything when you're beige," she says.

With New York hotels suddenly awash in saturated hues, there is no more room for a sleepy hotel stay. Here is a look at the brightest, splashiest openings in the city.

1. The Fifth Avenue Hotel

This former Gilded Age mansion is a shockingly rare example of low-rise opulence, but this is less the preserved home of a turn-of-the-century tycoon and more of a fun-filled portal into Manhattan's modern wonderland.

Do not judge this hotel by its traditionally styled lobby, with its elegantly draped double-height windows and crystal chandeliers - instead, form your opinion from the contents of two vintage hutches against the back wall: the cheeky curiosities include a single goldfish cracker in a "plastic baggie" made from crystal.

That sense of humour is a connecting theme for this hotel, fashioned with all sorts of winks and nods by the ever-whimsical designer Martin Brudnizki. In one hallway is a gallery wall of framed eyes - some painted, some drawn, some googly.

Its 153 rooms feature martini carts piled high with spirits and lemon biscuits, all from chef Andrew Carmellini, who runs the Cafe Carmellini restaurant downstairs.

Mercury glass panels behind the headboards create an optical illusion: they reflect the twinkle of star-shaped ceiling lights, making each room feel twice its actual size.

Rooms from US$709.

2. Warren Street Hotel

Designer Kit Kemp is the OG preacher of "anything but beige", and her third New York City property for Firmdale Hotels is every bit as saturated and pattern-happy as its predecessors, the Whitby and Crosby Street.

The lobby can cure jet lag with its bursts of yellow, green and blue. Yet the double-paned, floor-to-ceiling windows in the rooms make for pin-drop-quiet sleep when you need it.

For fans of the UK-based brand, the overall look will be familiar: oversized headboards and upholstered dress forms in mix-and-match patterns are Kemp's signatures.

The same is growing true about other design tropes she has adapted here, such as long displays of white porcelain pots adorned with mushrooms and fairies in glowing, red-painted nooks, or the colour-block leather stools at the bar.

Rooms from US$745.

3. Fouquet's New York

Another Brudnizki special is this French-inflected 97-room gem that has already earned two Michelin Keys - awarded to hotels for outstanding stays - and whose pink-and-green colour palette was inspired by a box of macarons.

By one central staircase you will find a giant sculpture of a gorilla wearing a Team USA-inspired hat and holding the Eiffel Tower in its clenched fist. Custom toile wallpaper in the rooms feature New York street scenes interspersed with cheeky drawings of pigeons snatching croissants.

Thoughtful details abound, including green marble luggage benches built into little foyers.

Rooms from US$900.

4. Virgin Hotel NoMad

The most eye-catching space at the Virgin Hotel is hidden away on the third floor, around the corner from a coffee bar. Do a little exploring, though, and you will wonder how Everdene restaurant has stayed a New York secret. The food is solid, but the space itself feels like a rarefied haven.

On one side, rainbowlike bookshelves arch from floor to ceiling, filled with tomes in bright colours; on the other are swooping blue banquettes that face walls of windows and two massive outdoor terraces. One floor up is a rooftop pool decked out with black-and-white striped loungers, all with killer views of the Empire State Building.

That is a lot of amenities for a hotel with shockingly well-priced rooms - even the entry-level ones have separated, suite-like foyers, a brand standard designed to give solo female travellers extra privacy.

The Halo Salt Journey, which is a quick, 30-minute whirl in the Exhale spa's Himalayan salt chamber, is worth a mention. Staff set you up with thigh-high Theragun compression boots and an LED face mask that stimulates collagen production while you recline in a zero-gravity chair; it is a wellness boost that makes you feel like you have gone straight to outer space.

Rooms from US$305.

5. W Union Square

Nothing stays cool for 20 years, not even the original downtown New York location of the world's first hip hotel brand. But as W's devotees have grown older and more sophisticated, so, too, have its properties.

Nowhere will that be more visible than at this fully redesigned global flagship, slated to wrap its four-year-long renovation in November after numerous lengthy delays.

Part of that is simply shifting the colours to richer and more saturated tones, such as the forest green carpeting and orange leather headboards that stretch all the way to the ceiling in many of the hotel's 256 rooms.

Downstairs, a sizeable gym with a Peloton "studio space" is done in green-and-yellow checkerboard tile; on the second floor, a Beaux Arts "Living Room" replete with ornamental plaster work gets a dose of fun from a mod, ochre-toned fireplace shaped like a giant rainbow.

It is refined and smart but with a cheeky edge - a little like New York itself.

Rooms from US$550.