Best Luxury Hotels in Soho, New York City

The Crosby Street is the first property outside of London for Firmdale Hotels, a small boutique chain that's privately owned by husband-and-wife team Tim and Kit Kemp. The hotel is beautiful, and manages to feel both sophisticated and accessible -- you can make yourself comfortable in the gorgeously designed "drawing room" without feeling like you're violating some kind of etiquette. With a mix of new and vintage design pieces, textured fabrics, and bold splashes of color, Crosby's 89 rooms (starting at 340 square feet) are some of the most understated and beautiful -- and expensive -- in New York. No two are exactly alike, but all feature minibars, Tivoli radios, thick cotton robes and slippers, and supremely comfortable beds with Frette linens, down pillows, and duvets. Spacious bathrooms have heated towel racks and custom toiletries. The overall effect is as whimsical as it is comfortable, a combination that's often absent from downtown's monochrome glass-walled design hotels, like The Standard, East Village and SIXTY LES.

Popular with celebrities and fashion and entertainment executives, SIXTY SoHo attracts a young, well-heeled crowd. Rooms aren't as exquisite and memorable as the ones at the Crosby, but they start at a decent 300 square feet and include flat-screen TVs, Dean & Deluca minibars, Sferra robes, and marble bathrooms with mosaic floors. While the hotel oozes hipness and sophistication via its two bars and restaurant, it's low on additional features. A simple gym and a 24-hour concierge are about it.

Mixing whimsical touches and elaborate boho-industrial design, the Soho Grand Hotel creates a casual atmosphere that also draws a chic party scene. A diverse group of scarf-loving Europeans, well-heeled West Coasters, and businessmen redoing their PowerPoint presentations over a second round of scotch all happily share space in this laid-back yet elegant property. With leather headboards, patterned wallpaper, and white-subway-tiled bathrooms, the 353 rooms echo the neighborhood's tasteful but understated sensibility. Both SIXTY and Soho Grand have 24-hour room service, but Soho Grand lacks SIXTY's ultra-hip rooftop bar.

With a stylish rooftop pool and bar, on-site restaurant by celebrity chef David Burke, free daily wine and cheese reception, and huge local-art focus (with a public street mural and indoor installations), this 114-room Soho boutique embodies the hip, creative neighborhood it inhabits. Rooms are minimalist and industrial -- think reclaimed wood floors, white walls, high ceilings, giant concrete pipes in corner rooms. They're less plush than the three competitors above, but the rooms are full of enough thoughtful details -- like natural linen bedspreads, turndown treats, floor heating in the bathrooms, eco-friendly pillow menus, and high-end toiletries -- to make up for that fact.

In the southern part of stylish SoHo, this 270-room hotel has a romantic yet contemporary design inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film “La Belle et la Bete.” NoMo's rooms are beautiful and high-tech, with large flat-screen TVs and iPads. Many units have jaw-dropping views from the floor-to-ceiling windows. The hotel has a small but state-of-the-art fitness center, free bike rentals, and an on-site restaurant and bar in greenhouse setting. But missing here are the sort of special extras found at the James, such as free Downtown car service (pending availability), 24-hour room service, and a rooftop bar and pool.

The tourists and shoppers that crowd the sidewalks in the Mercer's SoHo neighborhood would have a hard time picking out the hotel; there's no sign, and the red-brick Romanesque Revival building blends in fairly seamlessly with its fancy surroundings. Inside, the caliber of service reflects a hotel of its price range -- guests receive a personal escort to their rooms and porters are as knowledgeable about the neighborhood as a concierge would be at another hotel. The 75 rooms' high-ceilings, luxe amenities, great minibars, and French doors make the loft-style pads especially welcoming.