NY Hotel Sets New Standard for Public Sex

We all know sex sells. But a luxurious New York City hotel has created a unique brand of free publicity with its floor-to-ceiling picture windows in each room. The windows provide guests with a spectacular view of the NYC skyline and nearby High Line Park in the meatpacking district. But they also create quite a spectacle for outsiders looking in.

A racy ad referring to the 18-story Standard Hotel’s opening during construction had a sexy lady clad only in a tool belt declaring, “We’ll put up with your banging if you put up with ours.” And the hotel’s blog and Facebook page specifically requested erotic photos of hotel guests.

Everything, from the full-length windows to the all-glass shower located in the center of the all-glass room, declares the Standard an exhibitionist’s paradise. And New Yorkers and out-of-towners have taken advantage, having sex, masturbating, or simply posing nude in front of the windows, much to the joy of camera-wielding passersbys. One report even cited a naked girl jumping up and down on a trampoline right in front of a window.

Then the New York Post and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn decided to rain on this naked parade. After a report in Monday’s Post, Quinn phoned hotel management, who vowed to make “a concerted effort to remind guests of the transparency of the guest room windows.”

However, Post reporters following up undercover as hotel guests received no such reminder, although the request for erotic photos had vanished from the hotel’s Web site.

Clearly, I’m no prude. And I’m definitely not offended by sex acts – public or otherwise. But I have to agree with the politicians and the Post in this situation. 1). Hotel guests are engaged in illegal acts of indecent exposure. 2). There are children in the park. Anyone who’s been around children should know it’s nearly impossible to keep children from looking at something you don’t want them to see, short of removing the offending material or removing the children from the area.

Then the cynical New Yorker in me thinks, if people having sex 18 stories up is the worst thing your kids see in the city, it’s a good day.

As I come to the close of this report, though, I remember the original idea of exposure in front of the full-length windows began as a PR ploy, with hotel staff posing nude in front of the windows during the hotel’s opening to attract attention. I’d never heard of the Standard prior to the Post’s report, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Brilliant marketing. And it worked for nearly a year.

Both the exhibitionist and voyeur in me thinks a visit to the Standard might be fun. I better hurry, before the curtains close (and rightfully so) in this unique New York City landmark.

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