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Every once in a while, when Bobby Short sits down at his Baldwin at the Cafe Carlyle, just for fun he belts out a sorry tale of a woman stuck in a sleazy hotel.
"I've got the four-walls-and-one-dirty-window blues," croons the cherub-faced singer. "If I hadn't spent all my money when I was young and well, I wouldn't be sweating in this crummy hotel."
Nothing could be further from the truth about the city's only five-star establishment where he sings. As the celebrated cabaret star says, "The Carlyle can take it. It's certainly not a cheap hotel."
In fact, no one except Mr. Short, who has made the cafe his personal lair for 21 years, ever sings the blues about the ultra-chic Carlyle Hotel. Guests, competitors and travel writers sing only praises about the landmark hostelry on 76th Street and Madison Avenue and its perfection, stemming from obsessive attention to the most minute detail.
Privacy is equally an obsession at the Carlyle. Its management initially agreed to cooperate on this article, then reneged, still smarting from a 1983 New York magazine profile which compromised the hotel's cherished reputation for discretion.
Still, the Carlyle is considered by many, including Institutional Investor, to be the best hotel in this country. It consistently receives accolades for outstanding service and beautiful decor. And even though New York has its share of luxury establishments in the Pierre, the Plaza Athenee and the Mayfair Regent, connoisseurs say the Carlyle is first among equals because of its independent ownership, staff, size and location -- and the cachet of Bobby Short.
At a time when the price of luxury hotels is skyrocketing, experts say the Carlyle could easily fetch $400,000 per room, or $72 million, for its 180 transient accommodations. (The hotel also has 300 co-op apartments.) Sources familiar with the establishment estimate it generates about $17 million in revenues and turns a $4.4 million profit from hotel operations. Its retail space brings in about $1.6 million per year.
It's no wonder that the new hotel owners crowding the Manhattan scene often declare, "We want to be like the Carlyle," or for the truly ambitious, "We want to be better than the Carlyle."
But it will not be easy to replicate the...