No Vacancy, New York

By Rebecca Isenberg

Who wouldn't want to stay at a hotel where the smallest room is called the Playpen? Just ask Nicole Kidman, Jude Law or Adrien Brody, all of whom frequent Soho House, New York City's members-only hotel. Given its huge, funky rooms designed by onetime British Elle Decoration editor Ilse Crawford and unique services such as child care on weekends and private movie screenings, it's no surprise the hotel has starred in a Sex and the City episode. If the reported 500-plus waitlist is a turnoff, no need to leave the neighborhood: Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson--of The Park restaurant--have opened the porthole-punctuated Maritime Hotel on Ninth Avenue at 16th Street. With its 10,000-sq.-ft. outdoor public garden and '60s-style Pop Art decor, this place is already a magnet for Victoria's Secret models and Marc Jacobs acolytes. Up next: the 187-room Hotel Gansevoort, across the street from Soho House, with a rooftop pool, loftlike rooms and two restaurants. The meat-packing district used to be strictly for cows and transvestites. There goes the neighborhood. --By Rebecca Isenberg