Le Deep Discount at Both Le Bleu in Gowanus & Le Jolie in Burg

Chalk it up to the mid-January slump, perhaps, but both Hotel Le Bleu in Gowanus and Hotel Le Jolie in Williamsburg have slashed their rates for “winter sales.” Rooms at both establishments are available for as little as $139 a night. We say this as a way of saying that prices for the time being are waaaay down. The biggest price cut is at Le Bleu, where rooms were in the mid-$300s after opening. Our friend Gabby Warshawer, in fact, provided an entertaining history of pricing at Le Bleu on Brownstoner yesterday. Some Le Jolie rooms are down to $139 a night as well, but bear in mind that “Elite” room with view of the city rather than the BQE will set one back $169 a night. Looks like the Le Bleu rates–at least, right now–creep back up later in January and in February, but the cheaper rates at Le Jolie (where the front desk is said to be behind bullet proof plexiglass) are good through the end of February.

GL Recap: Burg’s Hotel Le Jolie Open

On Friday, we ran an item (while most people were away or out shopping) that Hotel Le Jolie, the first hotel to open in Williamsburg/Greenpoint, had opened its doors. We stopped by yesterday to grab a photo of Hotel Le Bleu’s North Brooklyn sister property. Le Bleu rooms, we believe, offer stunning views of the BQE (which would be the dark element in the upper right of the photo) and of the exit ramp down to Meeker Avenue.

Williamsburg’s Hotel Le Jolie Now Open

We’d been checking the website for Hotel Le Jolie in Williamsburg waiting for it to open, but it turned out the low tech method was better. Passing by on the BQE yesterday, we saw a big “Now Open” banner draped across the top of the first hotel to open in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. Le Jolie is a the sister hotel of Gowanus’ Le Bleu. It’s in an, um, interesting spot on Meeker Avenue, right up against the BQE and next to an abandoned gas station. (On the upside, Bamonte’s is right out the back door.) Room rates are in the $200-$300 range, although the hotel’s website is really still a place holder page right now.

Finally: Le Debut of Le Bleu!

This is Hotel Le Bleu, yesterday afternoon around 3PM, when the NOW OPEN signs stopped us dead in our tracks on Fourth Avenue as passed by to see if they’d made their opening date of November 2. They did. We have poked much fun at Le Bleu, but we’re happy to see it open. Things appeared very quiet yesterday afternoon. There were two vehicle in the parking lot, an employee was going inside with a bag and, as we were standing there, a fire alarm went off in the building. Le Bleu’s rooms are $300 and up, so it will be interesting to see how it does.

Hotel Le Jolie by the BQE Looking Ready

Hotel Le Bleu’s sister hotel, Le Jolie, on Meeker Avenue in an almost under the BQE location that on the fringes Williamsburg, is almost ready for action. There’s no solid word on when the hotel will be open and it doesn’t even have a website yet. But, the curtains are in the windows. A big address decal and decal that indicates Le Jolie is Smoke Free have been added to the front door. A big dumpster is in the front parking lot to cart off debris. No word on what the abandoned former gas station next door will be once the property is sold, but it should be an interesting topic of conversation among the parents of Williamsburg residents who stay at Le Jolie. We apologize for calling Le Jolie a “Hot Sheets for Hipsters” kind of place way back when we thought it was going to be a generic place rather than a $200-$300 a night property.

As It Waits, Le Bleu Puts Out Table & Chairs

It’s hard not to look at Hotel Le Bleu on Fourth Avenue in Gowanus and wonder if the hotel will ever open. The culprit is said to be some nasty lost paperwork issues with the Department of Buildings. The hotel’s original opening date was supposed to be around July 4. The revised opening date is November 2. Prices remain in the $300-$400 range, with the bulk in the $320-$350 range.) The table and chairs were outside next to the glassy lobby, offering views of the back and front parking lots.

Is Le Bleu En Retarde Until October 17?

[Photo courtesy of mrthespy/flickr]

It can’t be, can it? Hotel Chatter reported that Le Bleu, the Gowanus hotel on Fourth Avenue with the white-and-blue themed interiors, glass showers and industrial neighborhood views, would be open around October 1. It described the vistas as follows:

As for those views, half the rooms do have a glimpse of the slimy Gowanus Canal and a sweeping panorama of U-Haul filled parking lots. From the higher floors, though, you also get the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. (Not available from Manhattan hotel rooms.)

When we glanced at the Le Bleu website, we found they’re not accepting reservations until October 17. (We have seen that online calendar shift around many, many times since July, when the hotel was originally slated to open.) There are apparently issues with getting city inspections completed, although there has been some ongoing work on the building. (The video above was posted by Hotel Chatter. You can see pics of Rm. 602 here.) Construction, in fact, will continue on the rooftop restaurant, which won’t be open for months. See from a distance from the back, the top floor still shows yellow wallboard, so there may be some work ahead.

Gowanus Hotel News: Le Bleu Est En Retard

Merde! After an original expected opening in early July, we’ve sat by helplessly as Hotel Le Bleu, the Fourth Avenue boutique hotel sandwiched between the taxi depot and the dialysis clinic, right near the Pep Boys and the Staples, has punted on repeated opening days. And so, the flagship hotel of the Gowanus hotel boom is close, but not there yet.

Now, according to newyorkology, which checked Le Bleu’s website, the new target date is August 13. Indeed, a look at the site confirms: No reservations until that date. We don’t know what happened to those that already had Le Reservation. Room prices are in the mid-$300s per night, although some online rates are $289. So close, yet so very far.

Brooklyn is a Hotel "Haven," But Don’t Tell Anyone A Lot of Them Are in Gowanus

The Brooklyn hotel boomlet gets another dose of publicity with a NY1 story surveying the scene and taking note of the expanded Brooklyn Marriott, the Gowanus Holiday Inn Express, the Gowanus Comfort Inn and the Hotel Le Bleu as evidence of a developing “haven” for “Outer Borough tourists.” (Translation: your mother-in-law from Chicago visiting you in Park Slope that you want to put far enough away that she can’t walk over to the apartment.)

We’ve had our share of fun with these places. It’s not because we don’t believe that Brooklyn should have hotels–everybody needs a place to stow visitors or to, you know, do whatever one goes to a hotel to do. No, it’s the length to which some of these hotels have gone to hide their true location that has caused us great writing joy.

The Holiday Inn, which is so close to the Gowanus that someone with a good arm could get a baseball part of the way there, is the “Park Slope Holiday Inn Express.” The Comfort Inn, as we noted last week, claims proximity to Prospect Park and calls itself the “Comfort Inn Brooklyn Bridge” whereas the only bridge to which it is close is the Union Street one.

From the NY1 report:

“We’re serving a great need in the neighborhood. We have a lot of people for weddings and first-time grandparents coming to the neighborhood, and a lot of people relocating to Brooklyn, as well,” says Comfort Inn Brooklyn general manager Richard Murphy.

Owners say for several nights this week the 104-room hotel was at 100 percent capacity, even though the area is not exactly touristy, with warehouses and city housing nearby.

“Inside the building is where we excel,” says Murphy. “This is where we give our personalized service.”

It had never dawned on us, until this very moment, that a hotel could excel outside the building, but we somewhat understand why he would be motivated to say that.

And, then, there is the Hotel Le Bleu, Gowanus’ first boutique hotel, which is bound to cause more than one tourist to hyperventilate when the pedestrian reality of Fourth Avenue trumps the bucolic online rendering. Le Bleu, as always, promotes le view from le roof. We wonder how many tourists are going to dig the Gowanus panorama as much as, say, us?

Gowanus Hotel Boom #2: Comfort Inn Open, Tourists Spotted

The Comfort Inn on Butler Street in Gowanus is open. We even observed tourists coming out of the hotel. They appeared to be getting directions from an employee to what we assume was the subway. (Continue to read and you might understand why they potentially would be befuddled about their whereabouts.) Rooms we were glancing at start at $189 a night and run up to $219 and more. The hotel describes the environs this way:

The Comfort Inn® hotel is ideally located in the heart of downtown, within walking distance of the world-famous Brooklyn Academy of Music. This Brooklyn, NY hotel is minutes from Brooklyn College, the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the famous Coney Island and the Brooklyn Museum.

Additional nearby points of interest include:

* Central Park
* Ellis Island
* Empire State Building
* Madison Square Garden arena
* Statue of Liberty

Several theaters, universities, shopping areas and entertainment venues are minutes from the hotel. Enjoy biking and walking at one of the many nearby parks. The hotel is close to the subway system. A variety of restaurants and cocktail lounges are located in the surrounding area.

Ideally located in the heart of downtown? Really? On the bright side, at least they’re not trying to call the neighborhood Park Slope.

Related Post:
Gowanus Comfort Inn Closing in on Opening Day