Shane Krige

A Peek Inside the Plaza Hotel in New York (with Video)

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Video

The Plaza Hotel recently reopened the newly renovated Palm Court.

Luxist recently sat down with Shane Krige, general manager of New York's famous Plaza Hotel, to discuss (see video below) and view the newly renovated landmark building across from New York's Central Park.

The hotel, which will celebrate its 103rd anniversary in October, underwent a complete restoration which cost more than $450 million. Every guest room was completely renovated and provide elegant accomodations inspired by the richly decorative style of Louis XV. Every guest bathroom is finished with inlaid earth stone mosaics in floral motifs and 24-carat gold plated faucets and accessories.

The Royal Plaza Suite, as seen in the video, is a magnificient three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite accessed by private elevator and located in a private area of the hotel overlooking Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. The exquisitely designed living room features a grand piano while the gracious dining room seats up to 12 guests. There's even a wood-paneled library stocked with titles hand-selected by Prosper Assouline, the founder of Assouline, the luxury book publisher. The state-of-the-art kitchen outfitted with Viking appliances is ideal for guests who travel with a personal chef.

As part of the restoration, the Palm Court was returned to its original design not seen for years. Its newly launched afternoon tea service is not to be missed. Known as the heart and soul of The Plaza, the Palm Court is a vast landmark space bordered by mirrored doors, fleur-de-peche marble columns and crowned with a domed yellow-and-green skylight. The $6.5 million restoration included the re-creation of the original 1,800 square foot stained-glass lay light that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. The airy, romantic space within the legendary hotel is nothing short of breathtaking.

Tags: assouline, AssoulinePublishing, awards-main, luxist-awards, Plaza Hotel, Prosper Assouline, Shane Krige

The Plaza in New York Offers iPads in all Guest Rooms and Suites (with Video)

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

The Plaza is offering iPads in each of its guest rooms and suites. The program, which launched in January, makes the landmark hotel on Central Park South the first hotel in the world to provide guests services and room controls using iPads and Intelity's ICE (Interactive Customer Experience) software to all of its guests.

The Plaza's iPads feature a multimedia video welcome and provide guests easy, touch screen access to control their entire hotel experience. At the touch of a screen, guests are able to order room service, make restaurant reservations, communicate directly with the concierge, request wake-up calls, explore NYC destination guides, and even check airline schedules and print boarding passes (which are promptly delivered to their room). Guests can even use the iPad to control the lights in their room as well as the heat and air conditioning systems.

"Before in the guest rooms, we had another digital panel that controlled the lights, the temperature and some guest services," Shane Krige, general manager of The Plaza explained to Luxist. "But it wasn't sophisticated enough for what we wanted to do. So we teamed up with Intelity to devise the software for the program."

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