Swanky Midtown Hotel Converts Empty Rooms Into Tiny Gyms

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Facing the same steep drop-off in customers as the rest of the hospitality industry during the pandemic, one Midtown hotel has gotten creative by converting its empty rooms into tiny gyms.

The Park Central Hotel, a nearly century-old building on Seventh Avenue near West 55th Street, is now offering a set of rooms as private workout pods, which can be rented out for 90-minute sessions at $30 each.

Each so-called "FitPod" is aimed at "locals who aren't ready or able to return to the gym," the hotel said in a news release.

Each one is set up with Peloton bikes, equipment from the company Technogym, free weights, an LED TV hooked up with Chromecast and medicine balls.

Like any hotel room, each FitPod also has a private bathroom and shower stocked with personal hygiene products, the hotel said. Each room is sanitized between uses.

"FitPods are an ideal way to workout in your own bubble, or with a member of your pod in a convenient location in Midtown," the hotel said.

First opened in 1927, the Park Central Hotel has welcomed guests from Eleanor Roosevelt to Jackie Gleason to Mae West, according to its website. A standard room currently costs $107 per night.

Read more or book a session at the Park Central website.