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IT'S ALWAYS tricky when friends are coming from out of town to find an appropriate Manhattan hotel for them. Or for yourselves, if you choose to spend some time or celebrate an occasion at a hotel.
Here is a selection of small hotels that represent both the fashionable and the traditional. Some are affordable, others are in the $200-and-up range that seem more suited to the expense-account crowd. Taxes are extra - and they are hefty: a 13.25 percent New York State tax, a 5 percent New York City tax and a $2 occupancy tax.
Among hoteliers is Ian Schrager, the one-time operator of Manhattan's Studio 54 disco who now owns Morgans, the chic little mid-Manhattan hotel that attracts pop stars, rockers and other trendy types. The rooms (small though they be) feature window seats for snugglers, loads of blackand-white tile and stainless-steel sinks. The lobby is somber, as are the halls. But the combination works. With 24-hour room service, valets, a concierge, a cassette and video library, telephones in the baths, refrigerators and nightly turn-down service, it is crowded constantly, a slick little boutique hotel where guests' preferences are computerized for future reference.
A similar formula proved successful at the 205-room Royalton, another Schrager property, which faces the venerable Algonquin on West 44th Street. It is an avant-garde caravansary that Schrager considers the "hotel of the '90s." The long, narrow lobby (where bellmen and women sport black mandarin uniforms) could accommodate a Super Bowl game. A landmark since 1898, the Royalton has hosted the likes of Noel Coward, Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando.
Across the street, the Algonquin Hotel is being restored top to bottom with an emphasis on perpetuating the gracious, old-world mood of the lobby, the Oak Room and the Oak Bar. Much of the hotel's fame was borne of its Round Table and the writers who gathered there in the '20s and '30s: Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, James Thurber, Marc Connelly, Alexander Woollcott, Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman and Franklin P. Adams.
Ghosts of the great are sensed in every corner. Fresh flowers brighten the Oak Room. The familiar grandfather clock ticks away the hour. And guests seated on sofas still ring librarian's bells to summon the waiter.
Within the...