New hotels in Times Square, New York

Strictly speaking, Times Square is two small triangles. Broadway cuts diagonally across Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th Streets, and the crossing leaves a shape New Yorkers call the Bow Tie: the southern triangle is officially Times Square, the northern one Duffy Square. The name dates from April 8, 1904, when Adolph S. Ochs moved The New York Times into a new tower on what was then Longacre Square. That building, now One Times Square, still carries the New Year's Eve ball, dropped for the first time on December 31, 1907.

None of the hotels we follow stands inside the Bow Tie itself. Seven ring it, from Seventh Avenue at 40th Street to Broadway at 54th, and they are arranged below by the side of the Square they face. For the Broadway houses that line the side streets, see our Theater District guide; for New York as a whole, the city guide.

The plaza, block by block

Since 2009 the Bow Tie has been a pedestrian space. Mayor Michael Bloomberg closed Broadway to cars between 42nd and 47th Streets as a trial from Memorial Day that year, made the change permanent in February 2010, and hired the Norwegian firm Snøhetta to redesign the ground. Their granite pavers and long benches went in by phases, the last of them finished just before New Year's Eve 2016. A visitor can now stand in the middle of Broadway and look up without a taxi behind them.

The southern triangle is where most people stop, under the screens wrapped around One Times Square at 42nd Street. Walk north and the plaza narrows at 45th, then widens again into Duffy Square at 46th and 47th. Two statues stand there: Charles Keck's Father Francis P. Duffy, dedicated in May 1937, and George M. Cohan, the songwriter of "Give My Regards to Broadway". Behind them rise the red steps of the TKTS booth.

TKTS is the Theatre Development Fund's discount box office, open on this spot since June 1973. The glass bleachers above it, lit red from inside, were added in 2008 and serve as free seating with a view straight down the Square. Same-day tickets are sold below at reduced prices for whatever shows still have seats that day.

Crowds are the defining condition. About 330,000 people cross Times Square on an ordinary day, and more than 460,000 on the busiest ones. Around a million gather for the ball drop, inside police pens set up hours before midnight, and the streets around the plaza close to traffic for most of December 31. Anyone booking a room for that night should expect checkpoints between the hotel door and the street.

Getting in and out: the 42nd Street station

Under the plaza is the subway complex that makes the area practical. Times Square–42nd Street and the connected 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal station are served by the 1, 2, 3, 7, A, C, E, N, Q, R and W lines, plus the 42nd Street Shuttle, which runs back and forth to Grand Central in about two minutes. Uptown, downtown, Queens and Brooklyn are all one train away, and the 7 reaches Hudson Yards to the west and Flushing to the east.

Port Authority, the city's main long-distance bus terminal, fills the blocks between 40th and 42nd Streets west of Eighth Avenue. It explains much of the foot traffic on the southwest corner of the Square, and it is a few minutes' walk from Margaritaville's front door.

West 42nd Street itself, the old "Deuce", was rebuilt in the 1990s through a public-private redevelopment in which Disney restored the New Amsterdam Theatre. The New Amsterdam still runs Aladdin, the Lyric across the block plays Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Madame Tussauds and an AMC multiplex fill the rest of the street toward Eighth Avenue.

Where the new hotels sit around the Square

South: Seventh Avenue at 40th Street

Two blocks below the Bow Tie's southern point, Margaritaville Resort Times Square opened on July 6, 2021, a 32-story tower with 234 island-themed rooms built by Soho Properties for about $370 million. It does not hide the theme. A 32-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty holds a margarita where the torch should be, the two-story restaurant claims New York's largest tiki bar, and the 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar spans the 31st and 32nd floors with a view in every direction. The rooftop pool is marketed as the only year-round outdoor heated pool in Times Square.

From the hotel, Bryant Park is a block east and the Nederlander Theatre a block north on 41st Street. The Square is three minutes on foot, close enough to see the screens, far enough that the lobby is not part of the crowd.

East: the side streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues

The blocks of 44th and 45th Street east of the plaza are calmer than anything facing it, and two of the most interesting projects in this list are here, neither open yet.

At 130 West 44th Street, The Wolseley Hotel New York is due in early 2027 inside the 1905 clubhouse that McKim, Mead & White designed for The Lambs, the first club in the United States for professional theater people. The building already works as a 76-room hotel, The Chatwal, which Minor Hotels is converting into the first property of a brand built on The Wolseley, the London brasserie on Piccadilly. Plans call for an all-day brasserie on the ground floor and a cellar-level speakeasy.

One street north, back to back with it, Only YOU Hotel New York is converting a 1928 office building at 125 West 45th Street into 138 rooms, scheduled for Q4 2026. It is the first US hotel for Palladium Hotel Group's Only YOU brand, with interiors by Lázaro Rosa-Violán and a rooftop bar planned for guests and outside visitors. From either address the Square is a two-minute walk west, and the 42nd Street–Bryant Park station on Sixth Avenue is equally close.

North: Seventh Avenue at 48th Street

The newest open hotel in the area stands one block above Duffy Square. IHG's voco opened here on February 24, 2026, a 32-story new-build with 419 rooms and the largest voco in the Americas. Its selling point is the view: the Velvet Fox, a 2,400-square-foot indoor-outdoor rooftop bar, is billed as the only hotel rooftop in Times Square with an unobstructed panorama, and it is open to non-guests. The interiors follow a Prohibition-era speakeasy theme. TKTS is a one-minute walk south.

Around the corner, Hard Rock Hotel New York occupies a 36-story Extell tower at 159 West 48th Street, opened in April 2022 with 446 rooms and suites. The block is the old Music Row, once lined with instrument shops, and the hotel leans on it: memorabilia from John Lennon, Joey Ramone and Lady Gaga, record players and Fender guitars on request, a performance space called The Venue on Music Row. RT60, the bar on the 34th floor, looks out over the Midtown skyline; NYY Steak, run with the Yankees, is downstairs.

West: Eighth Avenue between 45th and 46th Streets

One avenue west of the plaza, the tallest building now under construction in New York is rising at 740 Eighth Avenue. The Torch, designed by ODA under Eran Chen for Extell, is planned at 52 stories and about 1,067 feet, with an 825-room hotel beneath a glass spire, an observation deck open to the public, and a drop ride. Work stopped in March 2024, restarted in June 2025 after Extell lined up close to $1.3 billion in financing, and was half built by August 2026. No hotel brand and no opening date have been announced. The A, C and E trains stop at 42nd Street, four blocks south.

Further north: Broadway at 54th Street

Seven blocks above Duffy Square, about ten minutes on foot, RIU Plaza New York is climbing on the northeast corner of Broadway and West 54th Street: 54 stories, 633 feet, 673 rooms and two 300-seat restaurants, with completion targeted for 2027. It will be RIU's third hotel in Manhattan and its largest. The address sits closer to Carnegie Hall and the 57th Street–Seventh Avenue station than to the plaza, which is the point for anyone who wants the Square nearby rather than outside the window.

Timing your hours on the plaza

Early morning is the only time the Bow Tie is close to empty. Between about 7 and 9am the screens are still running, the benches are free, and the steps above TKTS can be photographed without a crowd on them. By late morning tour groups arrive, and in the early evening the plaza fills again with theater audiences heading for the side streets. When the shows let out, usually between 10 and 11pm, the flow reverses.

For dinner, the restaurants facing the plaza are priced for footfall. Two avenues west, Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen lines up neighborhood places from 42nd to 57th Street; Restaurant Row, on West 46th Street between Eighth and Ninth, is described in our Theater District guide. For an evening view without the street, the rooftops of the voco, the Hard Rock and Margaritaville all overlook the lights from above.

A daytime loop from here takes in Bryant Park and the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, both five minutes east, then Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall on Sixth Avenue around 50th. The Museum of Modern Art, on 53rd Street, is about twelve minutes away. For the hotels clustered on Fifth Avenue and around Grand Central, see our Midtown Manhattan guide; Central Park's southern edge is fifteen minutes north, covered in the Central Park guide.

Which hotel for which Times Square trip

Families come first to Margaritaville, the only hotel in this group with a pool, and the one most openly designed as entertainment: tiki bar, Liberty replica, five places to eat and drink under one roof.

For a first visit built around shows and the TKTS line, the voco and the Hard Rock are the two open hotels closest to Duffy Square. The Hard Rock suits a music trip as much as a theater one.

Travelers who want Times Square within reach but not in the window should watch the side streets: Only YOU on 45th Street from late 2026, The Wolseley on 44th from early 2027. Both are conversions of old buildings with fewer than 140 rooms, a different scale from the towers on Seventh Avenue.

The Torch and RIU Plaza are for later. Both are large, both are still under construction, and only RIU has a target year.

Frequently asked questions

Which new hotel is closest to the TKTS booth?

The voco, IHG's 419-room tower at Seventh Avenue and 48th Street, one block north of the red steps in Duffy Square. Hard Rock Hotel New York, on West 48th Street just east of Seventh Avenue, is a two-minute walk.

Is there a new hotel with a pool near Times Square?

Yes, one. Margaritaville Resort Times Square, at Seventh Avenue and 40th Street, has a rooftop pool heated year-round. None of the other hotels listed here has announced one; The Torch plans a guest pool deck, but it has no opening date.

Which subway station serves Times Square?

Times Square–42nd Street, linked underground to 42nd Street–Port Authority Bus Terminal. Together they serve the 1, 2, 3, 7, A, C, E, N, Q, R and W lines and the shuttle to Grand Central.

Can I stay in Times Square on New Year's Eve?

Yes, but the streets around the plaza close to traffic for most of December 31, and pedestrians pass through police checkpoints. Ask the hotel in advance how guests reach the door that evening.

When will The Torch open?

No date has been given. The tower passed its halfway point in August 2026, and no hotel operator had been named at that stage.