South Brooklynites rushing to book a room for mom and dad at the new Gowanus Holiday Inn Express are going to have to wait a bit longer, according to newyorkology, which is the source for info about our favorite lodging option near the Big G. The hotel was originally taking reservations for a mid-July opening, which slipped to July 24 and has now slipped again to July 31. (Moral of the story: Don’t book a hotel for its projected opening date if you want a simple out-of-town trip.) The Holiday Inn Express, which has 115 rooms, is on Union Street between Third and Fourth Avenue.
While we salute Gowanus’ first hotel (and any South Brooklyn hotel for that matter), we note with some grumpiness that the Holiday Inn chain is not embracing its Gowanus location and continues to refer to the location as “Park Slope.” (In fact, company officials say “It really is” in Park Slope.) Uh, not exactly. If the hotel’s location is Park Slope, then the Gowanus is Prospect Park Lake. To repeat some common wisdom: If it’s flat ground, it ain’t Park Slope. It’s the Gowanus Holiday Inn Express. Can’t wait for the first vaguely aware tourist to show up, look around and say, “This is Park Slope? But it looked so different in the pictures.”
Gowanus. Gowanus. Gowanus. Got it?