After the apartment building fire made us homeless last week, we became reliant on friends for our accommodation. Judy went to David’s one bed in Gramercy, and JM lent me half her bed in her Murray Hill studio. Lovely people but not an Ideal Situation.

And then I received the kind of unsolicited & staggeringly generous email that makes the heart sing: The Peninsula Hotel New York had heard about the fire &  were offering me Friday & Saturday nights in their hotel as their guest. (I’ve visited The Peninsula in Bangkok, but this would be my first time in the Manhattan one.)

I accepted with alacrity and pitched up on Friday afternoon in a slightly grubby cream jacket that I had grabbed as I ran out of the building on Tuesday, carrying a battered LLBean canvas bag with a change of clothes, to be greeted by the cocooning luxe in these photographs. I felt very unworthy.

The crowning glory of the room was not the vase of peonies (my favourite flowers), the delicious fruit plate, the deep, bubble-filled bath or the spectacular view down Fifth Avenue to Central Park, but the marshmallow cloud that masqueraded as a bed:

And in which I could happily have spent the entire weekend.  I shot a little  2 minute video of my room here which sums up my stay:

After all, how can you not love a hotel that has its own coffee cups?

LLG was a very, very grateful guest of The Peninsula New York

(The rest of my photos are here)