We stepped out of our taxi into the slightly seedy night air of 44th street. No sign heralded our destination, but we knew our way: this is where you go when you don''t want to be seen. Past the unmarked door made of rich, dark wood, we entered a pulsing, narrow space, the left side sunken and filled with young, well-dressed revelers, all rich and beautiful, reflected in the narcissistic gaze of a gigantic mirror that hung on a rakish angle from the wall above. Music throbbed as if we were in a nightclub, not a hotel lobby. No one looked up at our arrival. This was the Royalton''s bar.
Designer Philippe Starck''s exquisite sense of style showed through in the tiniest details – the curve of a chair back, the cut of a desk clerk''s somber jacket. Mood lighting was carried to an absurd extreme as we fumbled to find the correct button in the dark, tiny elevator. The midnight blue-painted hallway was as quiet as the lobby was loud, a long curving arc disrupted by doors in the same dark, rich stained wood. Each door was numbered with a round glass marker recalling a porthole. We felt like the furtive couple in "Titanic", creeping stealthily down the hallway of a luxury liner in near-darkness. Our door was at the end of the hall, so dimly lit that putting key to lock almost required kneeling.
Inside was all silver, white, and more dark, brooding wood. Infinitely simple, yet expertly realized. Like any Manhattan hideaway, the room was small, but it mattered not as our gaze fell squarely on the large, irresistible bed. Piles of oversized square pillows, edged with a lovely hemstitch pattern, filled the corners of the bed and built-in lounge. A single candle in a silver sconce waited by the bedside to be lit.
The bathroom was a stage set for temptation. Every surface was covered with either a rough slate tile shaded a mossy green, or strategically placed mirrors. Standing at the sink, I was able to see myself at angles I had never seen before. Orchids in a silver vase graced one corner of the triangular sink area, and a candle the other. Wonderful-smelling products with intriguing names like "Body Conditioner" rested on silver trays amidst bowls of dried lavender. The shower, sized for two, was separated from the rest of the room by glass doors, and hosted a variety of knobs and dials, controlling both a shower head with obscenely lavish water pressure, and a mysterious-looking wand-like instrument whose purpose you are free to guess at.
And so it was here that we began our torrid affair – with IgoUgo''s Travel Club. How could we resist, when this night of hedonism cost us only $25? The bill we got the next morning for $345 was a shock. It was a mistake, of course, quickly corrected by IgoUgo, but one that showed us just exactly how much we were saving.