I Went To the Hotel Man Repeller Weekend So You Did Not Have To!! (But You Should’ve Cuz It Was Greaaat)
You know when you come back from an amazing weekend vacation in Cancun or something and you say to your friends (or social media followers) that this was THE. BEST. VACATION. OF. YOUR. LIFE!! And then the next vacation comes and you say the same thing again? Yeah well, I’m here to tell you once and for all that the Hotel Man Repeller weekend was the best 48 hours of my life and that’s not likely to change any time soon!
For those of you who are not familiar with the online platform, here is how they describe themselves:
“Man Repeller explores the expansive constellation of things women care about from a place of openness and humor, with the conviction that an interest in fashion doesn’t minimize one’s intellect.”
I have been a loyal follower of Man Repeller since 2014 so when they announced that they’re taking over four floors of the Free Hand hotel in NYC to have a weekend long sleepover for the MR community, I had a heart attack!
Not really… but that was the closest I’ve felt to having one. Anyway, after two whole minutes of self-deliberation, I decided that I must take part in this weekend no matter the cost! Which takes me to my next point:
I have been a loyal follower of Man Repeller since 2014. I frequent their website for the latest trends in fashion, to meet like-minded individuals, and finally I go to the Man Repeller site just for some good old fashion inspo. Over the years, I've grown to love this community and what it has to offer so, when they announced that they would be taking over four floors of the Freehand hotel in NYC for a weekend long sleepover with the MR community, I had a heart attack!
Not really… but that was the closest I’ve felt to having one. Anyway, after two whole minutes of self-deliberation, I decided that I must take part in this weekend no matter the cost! Which takes me to my next point:
Was it free?
No… But at this point, one should know: in life nothing is free. Room rates at MR hotel were as follows:
Single: $606
Double: $984
Triple: $1134
Quad: $1512
Yikessss – I know! I ended up booking a double room with someone I had met in the comment section of the website who also wanted to go! I wasn’t sure about rooming with a complete stranger at first but then I was like, screw it, YOLO.
What did they have in store for us?
By the time I arrived at the hotel at 5pm on Friday, there were MR team members all around us just welcoming me (and a bunch of other strangers) to the best weekend of our lives. I checked in and went straight to my room where I found a whole bag of swag! (the rhyme there was a happy accident)
We’re talking custom MR socks, Kate Spade shades and business card holder, candles, face and body products, more socks, hats, and my personal favorite: fake nipples!?
I barely had any time to look through the contents of my swag bag, though. The MR activities were already in full swing. Just hours after checking in we started our very first activity of the weekend where we met everyone from the MR team (yes, INCLUDING LEANDRA AND ABIE!!!) at the Canal Street Market for food and drinks. A few hours later we hopped to a different location for movie night!
Fast forward to Saturday morning and we are awake bright and early for breakfast, which included the usual coffee, muesli yogurt, and aura reading?! I quickly had to say goodbye to my aura reading-person because I had to go to the next thing on the agenda: dance class. I am in no ways a dancer myself, but this particular dance class was for everyone, whether or not you can dance. The dance class was an absolute blast, but my roommate and I had to rush back to the hotel to shower and take a double-decker bus on a tour of NYC lead by the incredible Amelia & Haley from MR.
Whoa -- it's only like 3 pm at this point and it feels like it's been 3 days already but in a good way you know? Anyway, we had some time to get ready for the only party of the weekend hosted by MR in VNYL.
We partied (and then some) before heading back to our hotel rooms only to deal with the fact that the weekend was coming to an end. But I am happy to say that our last day couldn't have wrapped up any better -- on Sunday morning, we were all invited to the magical unicorn filled space aka the Man Repeller headquarters! It was everything I pictured it to be: Beautiful shoes as far as the eye can see, walls covered with pieces of art, and a sea of iMacs.
What was great about MR weekend?
The whole experience! It was great to see the comment section from the website come together IRL and just hang out and have a good time! Everyone was incredibly nice and they were all genuinely interested in meeting people and making friends!
Also, the MR team worked very hard to make sure everyone felt welcome and well taking care of. I mean they would even text us really cute reminders of events, which made the experience feel even more personal.
Is there anything that coulda been better?
Yeah but I honestly had to rack my brain before I could think of anything. Nonetheless, I felt like maybe hosting 250 people all at once was a bit too much on some occasions. For example, the dance class I was assigned to had way too many people compared to other classes, which made it kind of hard to move around in the space. We made it work though--and it was super fun!!
Another thing I wasn't a huge fan of is the movie they picked for me to watch. Here is how they decided which person got what movie. A week before the long awaited weekend, we were sent a survey to fill out about our preferences. My roommate and I had indicated that we weren't interested in romantic movies yet we ended up having to watch Spectacular Now -- a coming of age love story. I know they can’t accommodate to the tastes of all of us but I asked around and almost everyone I talked to was not a big fan of the movie that got picked for them. Nonetheless, the experience of going to the movies with like 50 of your (new) best friends was a joy.
All in all, this whole experience was one for the books! And if for some reason the MR team decided to host us again tomorrow, I would be the first one to fly out cause’ man it was FUN!
Would you go to a MR weekend now that you know what it's about? What would've been your favorite part of the weekend if you had gone? Let me know down below!
