The Hotel Rooftop: Expensive Drinks, Priceless Views<br />On weekends, he said, many of the hotel’s guests “stay only to get to the rooftop.”<br />Mr. Brandman of Journal Hotels said hotel rooftop amenities “truly create a connection.”<br />“The rooftop is really about an extension of the community,” he said.<br />Priority access is given to guests at the Envoy Hotel, a 136-room Autograph Collection hotel in Boston, whose Lookout Rooftop and Bar became<br />that city’s “place to see and be seen” after it opened several years ago, said Neil H. Shah, president of Hersha Hospitality Trust, the Envoy’s owner.<br />Earlier examples in New York include the Salon de Ning rooftop bar<br />and terrace at the Peninsula on Fifth Avenue and the Plunge Rooftop Bar and Lounge at the Gansevoort Meatpacking NYC hotel.<br />Developers are taking those social media moments into consideration when building a rooftop<br />experience, said Jonah Chusid, vice president of hotel operations for Espresso Hospitality.<br />Beverage sales are the second-most profitable part of hotel operations in the United States, after room revenue, he said, adding<br />that hotels can charge a premium for rooftop drinks, making them even more profitable.
