Richard Branson’s quirky-cool take on urban hotels arrived in NYC in February 2023, adding another hotel to the Nomad neighborhood that’s already packed with options (the Ned, Ritz-Carlton, and the original Ace are all around the corner, along with a slew of budget spots).
But what sets the Virgin apart is what always sets Virgin apart: its attitude. Playful and edgy from top to bottom, the hotel is all bright red accents, big windows, and a spacious bar-restaurant with a sprawling outdoor patio and DJs or live music nearly every night.
Upstairs, the 460 “chambers” as they’re called (including 39 one-bedroom suites and a penthouse suite dubbed Sir Richard’s Flat), are compact but cleverly efficient. In a standard room, a rolling barn-style door separates the sleeping section from the entryway, which itself doubles as the vanity-and-sink area; and the bed’s headboard extends a couple feet beyond the mattress, curving into a couch.
A guests-only outdoor pool (adjacent to a snazzy bar, of course), an art collection of more than 100 works (including a “Where’s Richard?” mural in the lobby, a la Where’s Waldo), a spa expected in December 2023, and a red-velvet, 70s-style lounge called the Shag Room round out the Bransonisms and make this Virgin addition feel both very New York and very swinging London at the same time.
