The Mercer Hotel

Editorial score of 9.2 of 10, the composite average of the three factors above (Rooms, Service, Location). Method at our methodology page. Affiliate disclosure: booking links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you, and never change our verdict.

Why is the Mercer the definitive SoHo hotel?

The Mercer has been the correct SoHo answer since Andre Balazs opened it in 1997, and the decades since have confirmed rather than challenged that verdict. It occupies a Romanesque Revival building constructed in 1890 for John Jacob Astor III, and the cast-iron proportions, the arched windows and the corner light at Mercer and Prince give the 73 rooms a loft quality that later boutiques have tried and failed to reproduce. High ceilings, wide-plank floors, oversized windows and imported-stone bathrooms with soaking tubs are the fixed vocabulary of the house, and the design philosophy is restraint applied to good materials rather than decoration for its own sake. Nothing announces itself, which is precisely the point in a neighborhood that has always prized the understatement.

What keeps the Mercer at the top of SoHo is the accumulated intelligence of a hotel that has watched the neighborhood form around it. The service is quietly expert, the complimentary minibar is stocked with the specificity of a house that knows what its guests actually drink, and the concierge has three decades of relationships with the galleries, studios and restaurants a few steps from the door. Downstairs, Sartiano's has replaced the long-running Mercer Kitchen with a modern Italian room that draws its own crowd, and the Submercer bar sits below it for the late hours. This is urban luxury delivered through space, light and service rather than spectacle, and for a design-minded traveler it remains the SoHo benchmark.

Who is it for? The Mercer rewards a particular kind of guest. A design-literate couple on a honeymoon or a milestone weekend, a repeat New York visitor who has done the uptown grande dames and wants downtown texture instead, and a creative-industry traveler who needs a base in the middle of SoHo will all feel at home. What the Mercer does not offer is spectacle: there is no pool, no rooftop and no sweeping view, and the entry rooms, while larger than most, are not enormous. The value is in the things that do not photograph, the quality of the linens and the stone, the discretion of the service, the stocked minibar, the accumulated neighborhood knowledge. Guests who measure a hotel by its amenity list will undervalue it; guests who measure it by how it feels to come back at the end of a long day will understand why its regulars are so loyal.

The building itself is part of the appeal. Constructed in 1890 for John Jacob Astor III, the six-story Romanesque Revival structure was one of SoHo's early cast-iron-era commercial buildings, and its bones, the arched windows, the deep floor plates, the corner light, are exactly what make the loft rooms work. When Andre Balazs converted it in the mid-1990s, the restraint of the conversion set the template that later SoHo hotels followed. Nearly thirty years on, that first-mover confidence still shows in the feel of the place.

What are the best rooms to request?

Ask for a corner Loft Suite with the grand arched windows, and if you can, one of the units with a working fireplace. The Mercer's rooms run from Studios with a separate sitting area up to the Loft Suites, and the higher categories are where the building's 1890 architecture does its best work: the tall windows pull in SoHo's changing light across the day, the ceilings give the space a genuine loft feel, and the custom furniture and Calacatta-style stone bathrooms keep everything calm rather than showy. Corner rooms at the Mercer and Prince junction catch light on two sides and are the ones regulars request by number.

The honest caveat is scale and pace. This is a boutique of 73 rooms, so the entry categories, while generous by New York standards, are not enormous, and the hotel sells out early around fashion week and the spring and fall gallery seasons. There is no pool and no full spa, so if resort amenities are central to your trip this is the wrong choice. Book a high loft category, tell the desk if you want quiet away from Prince Street, and the room becomes the calm, light-filled SoHo base the hotel is known for.

What is the dining and the bar scene like?

Dining at the Mercer is a genuine reason to book. The basement dining room, which Jean-Georges Vongerichten ran as Mercer Kitchen for a quarter century, reopened in 2023 as Sartiano's, the modern Italian restaurant from Scott Sartiano with James Beard Award winner Alfred Portale as culinary director and Chris Lewnes as executive chef. Studio Sofield designed the moody, brick-and-Carrara room, and it draws a downtown crowd independent of the hotel's guests. Beneath it, the brick-walled Submercer bar handles the late hours as a low-lit cocktail room. Between the restaurant, the bar and 24-hour in-room dining, you can eat and drink well without leaving the building, from a working breakfast to a long celebratory dinner. If you remember the old Jean-Georges room, recalibrate: the kitchen and the crowd have both changed.

Does the Mercer have a spa and pool?

No, and it is worth knowing before you book. The Mercer has no pool and no dedicated spa floor; instead it offers in-room spa treatments on request and access to fitness facilities. This is deliberate. The hotel is a design-led boutique in a landmark building, and it spends its square footage on room size, ceiling height and service rather than on a wellness floor. Guests who need a lap pool or a full spa should look uptown; guests who want a large, light room, a serious restaurant downstairs and the best of SoHo at the door will not miss them.

Signature amenities

On the defining corner of SoHo

The building, the lofts, the restaurant

Facade

Loft room

Bathroom

Sartiano's

How does the Mercer compare with SoHo and downtown's other boutiques?

Against the field, the Mercer is the quiet, restraint-and-service benchmark, and the choice comes down to what character you want around you. The Crosby Street Hotel is the maximalist alternative a block east, Kit Kemp's color-saturated design hotel with a bar and screening room. The Bowery Hotel trades SoHo for the East Village edge, all iron beds, dark wood and a lobby fireplace. 11 Howard sits at the crossroads of SoHo, Chinatown and the Bowery with a cooler, Scandinavian-leaning design. The Mercer's own trade-off is that it keeps things understated and has no pool or spa, which is exactly why its regulars return.

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