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The Empire Hotel

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The Empire Hotel in New York City is a great hotel with a rooftop bar, swanky decor, a seafood restaurant, and a great location. Plus, it’s been immortalized for an entire generation by Gossip Girl as the hotel that boy-billionare Chuck Bass owns and lives in. But does being a popular, stylish hotel give you the right to deceive potential guests? We vote no. Which is why the photos of the hotel’s pool that are featured on the hotel’s website irk us. Although a nice hotel pool deck is a rarity in Manhattan, and we give the hotel props for that, the reality is that the Empire’s pool is tiny, tiny, tiny. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the marketing images, which show you just a corner of the pool — leaving the rest to your imagination. If you’re intrigued, you can see plenty more real, honest photos of the Empire Hotel’s pool, from every angle.

See all of our hotel Photo Fakeouts.

See the full Empire Hotel review, or see all of our Empire Hotel photographs.