Hank Freid Creates New Hotel Niche: Chic Budget

New 125-Room Marrakech Hotel NYC On The Upper West Side Offers Schrager-like Ambience For Only $129

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. October 14, 2008

NEW YORK, NY, AUgust 9, 2006. You are a young traveler to New York City and you want to stay somewhere hip and trendy. But you've outgrown youth hostels and you can't afford a W or a Schrager hotel. Where do you stay?

"Until now, the option just hasn't existed," said Hank Freid, President and CEO of Impulsive Group, a NYC firm specializing in hotel development and management.

Freid's new Marrakech Hotel NYC (www.Marrakechhotelnyc.com) at 103rd Street and Broadway is transforming the budget hotel landscape in the City. The hotel is not just comfortable and affordable, but chic and fashionable, too.

Marrakech rooms all boast upscale amenities such as flat screen TVs, European bed linens, Ecco bath essentials, in-room coffee makers, CD clock radio and curved shower rods. Guests can also enjoy high-speed Internet access, concierge services, daily maid service, laundry valet service, and guided tours of New York City. Exposed brick in the rooms and authentic Moroccan decorations add to the hotel's "downtown" vibe, as do the fashionable doormen, clad in head-to-toe black.

"The original purpose of a hostel was as an inexpensive place for travelers, especially young travelers, to lodge and get to know people from other cultures. With the Marrakech, I am hoping to recapture that ideal, minus the barebones part, in a modern and stylish setting," said Freid, noting that many of the hotel guests hail from diverse locals such as Australia, Italy, Japan, France, the UK and Amsterdam. "Everyone wants to stay in a Schrager hotel, but not everyone can afford it; the Marrakech is a fashionable and inexpensive alternative," he adds.

The hotel's Moroccan theme was brought to life by Lionel Ohayon of Icrave, a leading design firm in New York City. Ohayon -- whose nightclubs and lounges include the super-trendy Aer Lounge, Hyde Los Angeles, One, Crobar and Koi Restaurant -- created a Salon Arabe as the hotel's centerpiece and lobby/lounge. It features a bar, fireplace (surrounded by candles and candelabra), intimate arrangements of low, comfortable seating and cocktail tables, a 42-inch plasma TV and an impressive state-of-the-art surround sound system from which music emanates day and night.

The Marrakech's location on the Upper West Side has for over 15 years been an important one to young travelers. Hostelling International, the largest youth hostel in the world, opened in 1990 with 640 beds and is just down the block on 103rd Street, and tourist attractions in the area abound. Adding to the allure of the hotel are the more than 50 restaurants in a three-block radius, and coming soon to the Marrakech as a retail tenant: a Starbucks.

Freid's other projects include the expansion of his 212-room four-star Ameritania hotel at 54th and Broadway -- 100 new rooms are planned, and the upgrading of his Broadway Hotel (a hostel/hotel) at 101st Street and Broadway, which will be renamed The Aspen. Also in development is a new hotel at 47th Street and Times Square, which is in the early design phase. Freid is calling this hotel the Sanctuary and is developing it to be "a sophisticated oasis from the hustle and bustle of New York City." One of the hotel's many elegant features will be an in-room bath, surrounded by adjustable drapery, to allow for an instant luxurious setting, or a private bath, at the guest's discretion. Freid is positioning The Sanctuary as an upscale destination catering to "publishing and corporate executives, modeling agencies, and movie studios," he explained.