As a visitor you had to be pretty resourceful to find a place to stay in Williamsburg, a friend’s couch, an artist loft in Bushwick, Airbnb, or some sketchy hotel. It wasn’t until last fall when Hotel Williamsburg, now King & Grove, opened up that it became a convenience. Williamsburg will see another hotel opening in May right across the street from Brooklyn Bowl, one that is shaped towards the neighborhood. The Wythe Hotel launched its site last week unveiling more details. As it indicates, there will be room for “artists, friends, brewmasters, musicians, concertgoers, mothers, brothers, grandmothers, bowlers, interns, twins, engineers, chefs & staycationers.” In other words, it’s open to all, from rockstars to starving students. And what would a hotel be without a great restaurant? Andrew Tarlow of Marlow and Sons fame will be taking care of that with Reynolds, a restaurant that specializes in whole animal, wood-fire cooking. Everything sounds good so far, we just wish they didn’t use the word “staycationers.”

About 75 miles east of Austin, TX resides a property so picturesque one would think it’s a movie set. But it’s not, the Prairie is hotel on 46 acres that has been around since the mid 1800’s. The property was beautifully restored by its previous owners and was recently given new life by designer Rachel Ashwell, known for her signature style of combining the rawness with the refined. The Prairie consists of five buildings, four of which can be rented out. As you browse the photos of the Prairie, you can almost hear the birds chirping, the breeze blowing, and Hal Riney’s calm and subtle voice telling you everything is going to be ok. See more of the property on the Prairie’s site.

Musician and photographer, Michael Muller isn’t one for settling down. Hailing from Austin, Texas and currently residing in Brooklyn, he’s been touring around the world with his band Balmorhea for the last several years and clocking in some serious miles while photo-documenting his life from his blog. Muller takes us on a recent trip to the Ames Hotel in Boston, a historic building that was converted into a luxury hotel by the Morgans Hotel Group in November 2009. He’ll be contributing to our new column called the Journal. Have a read.

Hotel Americano in Chelsea is poised to open any day now. Latest word is that it will be ready in early August. This will be the first attempt by Grupo Habita to venture outside of Mexico. A big step that’s been well covered in the media from T Mag to the Wall Street Journal. Until its opening, Americano is doing what any good neighbor would do, profiling the Chelsea community on their blog. To date they’ve visited Paul Kasmin, Karim Rashid, Nicole Fasolino, and followed Chef Olivier Reginensi while sourcing ingredients throughout the city. Even though the hotel isn’t ready, you can still book a room or a table now.

We’re quickly approaching our one year anniversary and have been diligently working on new content. The first in our documentary series with Billykirk is due out in September. New features include interviews with architects, hoteliers, and interior designers. And something that we’ve been wanting to start since the beginning, a Hotels section. We’ll include some local hotels in Manhattan as well as upstate getaways. It’s been a busy summer, you’ll see what we’ve been up to soon enough.

Rock stars and hotels go hand in hand, so it was a perfect combo last week when Ace landed in SXSW. Only this time it was the hotel that went to the rock stars, tempting every musician’s fantasy of trashing a hotel room. It was all a part of a promotion organized by Levi’s and Fader Magazine which invited musical acts ranging from Peter, Bjorn, and John to Rick Ross. Levi’s asked Ace to set up a lounge that was dubbed Room 501. Sampling from their Portland and New York hotels, the lounge included signature items like a Music Hall turntable, an Epiphone acoustic guitar, Pendleton wool blankets and of course a decked out Smeg refrigerator.