Rapid Travel Chai

The lone US outpost of hotel chain Tryp stands on the barren far west of Manhattan on the way to the Javits Center. The Rapid Traveler made his first trip to that territory for the NYT Travel Show and passed Tryp several times, each time his first reaction was, “Tripe?” Perhaps the name plays better in its Spanish home base. Readers, when you see Tryp, do you think tripe or trip?

Tryp was sold by Sol Meliá to Wyndham in 2010, currently 54 hotels across Spain with a small presence in Germany, France and Portugal, 9 hotels in Brazil and 1 each in several countries in the Americas. The NY outpost is called Tyrp New York City Times Square South, stretching the extent of Times Square, a lonely area except for the nearby police station.

Frankly, The Rapid Traveler has never set foot in one but they seem a reasonable mid-scale choice when traveling in Europe and hoping to earn points in a global loyalty program in cities where there are few such choices. Their focus is to ‘own the city‘ so locations are presumably central.

Still, that name, perhaps a Spinal Tap-esque umlaut over the y would top it off, or even better, stick it over the r.