Check In, Check Out

New York City: Hotel 17

By CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON

Published: January 7, 2007

James at the Front Desk Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

THE BASICS

There are not many hotels in Manhattan with reasonably priced rooms, and perhaps fewer still with an interesting back story. The 120-room Hotel 17 has both. Woody Allen used the different-as-snowflakes rooms, with their throwback feel, as the setting for his film "Manhattan Murder Mystery." A pre-fame Madonna lived in this building, as did the singer Jon Secada. Today the reigning diva is Amanda Lepore, a blond knockout of somewhat hazy gender who is a staple of the downtown New York club scene. It's a cozy hotel, even a little cramped, with slender hallways and a shoebox of a lobby that urges visitors out into the city.

THE LOCATION

The hotel, on the Lower East Side, is centrally positioned to get to the East Village (three blocks away), Union Square (three blocks) and Gramercy Park (four blocks). It's also just a few blocks from the major Union Square-14th Street subway station, where multiple lines stop.

THE ROOMS

It's easy to see why the rooms of Hotel 17 have been popular photo shoot locations for magazines like Vogue. My corner room on the eighth floor had adjacent walls with different wallpapers, neither of which quite matched the bedspread. Red blinds. Blue carpet. The dark furniture had the heavy look of an older era, and the molding was lacquered so heavily it seemed encased in amber. Everything combined to give a pleasantly noir-ish feel. Despite a renovation completed in 2005 that tried to update the look while keeping the place's flavor — carpeting in the hallways, modern phones in the rooms — some shabbiness here can't pass for shabby-chic: wallpaper was peeling in one spot; the carpet had a ripple. And yet I've stayed in rooms that cost twice as much that weren't so clean. Moreover, the comfortable, unpretentious mattress did its job and delivered the sleep I'd hoped for.

THE BATHROOMS

The hotel is predominantly shared-bath — anywhere from two to four rooms a floor share a toilet/shower/tub. This potentially unpleasant arrangement is rescued by two happy facts: the tiled bathrooms were all completely renovated in bright tiles by late 2005, and they're kept immaculate by a crew around the clock. (Now if only those bath towels were more generous, in case you forget the hotel-supplied Breck shampoo across the hall.) Most rooms have also have their own sink and hair dryer.

THE CROWD

About 30 full-time tenants like Ms. Lepore live at Hotel 17, which is also partly an apartment building. "Most of them are nice," the general manager said. I never encountered any celebrity tenants in the small lobby during my stay, but I did see a parade of Europeans, and some British tourists in their late 20s who marched to their rooms or headed out to experience Gotham. Why so many? Simply the good rates, and perhaps also a cultural ease with the notion of sharing a W.C. with strangers.

AMENITIES

This is an old-school, tourist-class hotel. No business center. No fitness center. No day spa. But as the manager said helpfully, "We have an ice machine on the first floor."

ROOM SERVICE

No restaurant or room service.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The motto over the door could be: "You don't come to New York City to stay in your hotel room." A clean, safe, offbeat place to crash for a night or two without wiping out your I.R.A. — but not the place for a snuggly anniversary weekend with your sweetie. Doubles starting at $99 low season (January to mid-March) with shared bath, up to $200 in high season (June into October); 225 East 17th Street, 212-475-2845;

Hotel 17

New York Times