New York City Photo Fakeout: Careful of what you assume…

See recent posts by William Begeny

In New York City, a typical guest room can be about half the size of a standard room elsewhere in the United States. Too often, hotels go to great lengths to hide this fact by deceptively cropping room photos on their website or, in many cases, simply not showing you a single photo of their smallest room type. In such cramped quarters you can't always rely on even the most basic in-room amenities, such as a desk. As you can see in the case of the Ameritania Hotel in midtown New York (shown below), a hotel can take advantage of your natural assumptions by cleverly arranging the furniture.

Based on this photo on the Ameritania Hotel's website, you might assume there's a desk behind the chair.

Based on this photo on the Ameritania Hotel’s website, you might assume there’s a desk behind the chair.

But you'd be wrong. As you can see in Oyster's photo, if you were to sit in that chair you'd be looking at a wall.

But you’d be wrong. As you can see in Oyster’s photo, if you were to sit in that chair you’d be looking at a wall.

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