The Jane Hotel

It’s a long-standing critique of urban boutique hotels that underneath it all they’re simply nightspots with rooms attached. For a hotel like the Jane, however, it’s less a criticism than a simple statement of fact. Sean McPherson and Eric Goode might be annoyed if you called their Bowery or Maritime hotel rooms an afterthought — but at the Jane they’d have to admit that the nightlife is probably the star of the show.

That’s less true in fact than it was before. In its first phase the Jane was little more than the Jane Ballroom plus a selection of bunk rooms, small even by New York standards, which felt more like the cabins of an ocean liner than anything else. Rather than run from it, though, they’ve embraced the resemblance: the newest phase of the Jane adds 40 “captain’s cabins,” full-sized bedrooms with stylish all-white en suite bathrooms, very much cut from the same bohemian cloth as the Bowery Hotel’s excellent bedrooms.

Ironically, then, the Jane is more like an old-fashioned ocean liner than ever, complete with two very distinct classes of accommodation. The tiny cabins and bunk rooms are ideal for budget travelers and young revelers for whom a Manhattan location trumps all else, while the first-class rooms offer a more typically lavish New York boutique-hotel experience.

The Ballroom is still a major draw — the space and the crowd are unique among New York’s nightspots — and the neighborhood is tough to beat, with the Hudson River, the Meatpacking District and the West Village surrounding the Jane on three sides. Maybe it’s not for everybody — but that’s true of most anything good.

The Jane contains both traditional hotel rooms and shared, hostel-style rooms; only the fully private hotel-style rooms are available for booking here.