On a recent Thursday night, a group of men — most of them married — gathered in a hotel room to pay women $20 a song for X-rated lap dances. A week earlier, partiers wearing masks met at the same spot for orgies and live sex shows. Just 24 hours after that, a faction of foot fetishists showed up for an evening of toe worship.
All of these private, illicit soirees are held in the same presidential suite, at the luxe Dream Downtown hotel in Chelsea.
The two-story, 2,500 square-foot penthouse — outfitted with a glass-bottom jacuzzi, rooftop garden terrace, spiraling staircase and crystal chandelier — is the epicenter of some of New York City’s most lascivious parties.
“[The suite is] secluded and private with great views, multiple levels and looks super high class,” said an attendee of a Snctm party held in the suite.
The elite sex club reportedly counts Gwyneth Paltrow and Bill Maher among its fans. An annual VIP membership costs $75,000, and male members pay between $1,500 to $1,875 to attend individual parties that, The Post has previously reported, sometimes turn into orgies. (Women attend for free.)
“Plus,” the Snctm attendee said of the parties held at the Dream’s room 734, “people have tons of sex in the hot tub.”
But, according to an inside source familiar with the “super down-low” operations of various local hotels, including the Dream, “[the hoteliers] definitely don’t want the public knowing about it. A large portion of the [tourist] clientele might not want to rent a room that had a huge swingers’ party the night before.”
Other regular renters of the space include a Big Apple-based foot-fetishist society and WLVS — a private club for wealthy men seeking intimate lap dances with more lenient touching rules than at many strip clubs.
But that roster is “just scratching the surface,” said the insider. “Every weird fetish you can think of, they have a party, too.”
On July 25 at the Dream, The Post attended a private WLVS gathering called “Mr. Wolf” and watched as several middle-aged Wall Street bankers — who each paid $350 to attend — circled a group of scantily clad women.
“Why don’t you join me, honey?” said Jack, who declined to give his last name, to a woman in lingerie.
He pulled out $20 bills that the raven-haired woman, who goes by Tina, snatched before climbing on his lap and peeling off her bra.
Later, Jack admitted he was having a “midlife crisis” and “sleeping in the basement” at the request of his wife — who did not know he was at the party.
“I realized this was an experience men were looking for . . . an escape from their stressful lives and families,” said Kalin Moon, who founded WLVS in 2014. Boasting some 550 members, WLVS is part of a larger umbrella of sexy events, Die Happy Tonight, that also includes the Hudson Yards gentleman’s club Rosewood. Membership is $1,200 to $20,000 a year.
“Some VIP members will stay the night [at the hotel],” said Moon. “They rented the other three rooms on the floor.”
And some of the women, it turns out, might stay the night, too.
Though Dream’s executives “know exactly what’s going on” during the raunchy raves, they look the other way, said the insider, adding, “It’s just business.”
“As a policy, Dream Hotels does not comment on its guests,” said a hotel spokeswoman.
And the covert affairs also aren’t just limited to the Dream.
“These f–king parties are all over the place, and they exist by the hundreds,” said the insider.
“Every year during Comic-Con, people dressed up like superheroes rent rooms and bang each other. There’s also older swingers and every type of dominatrix.”
Other private boutique hotels such as Gansevoort and The Standard also rent out rooms for these parties.
“The hotel team has not sanctioned or organized any events of this nature,” said a spokeswoman for the Gansevoort. A representative for The Standard did not get back to The Post with comment.
“[Organizers] know that a boutique is more likely to let them do their weird s–t because they have bars, nightclubs and a party vibe,” said the insider.
In his experience, large corporate chains like Marriott or Four Seasons say “no if someone calls them for a sex party,” said the insider. “It’s not worth the risk of potentially damaging their reputation.”
Most sex groups are willing to pay big bucks to let their members carry out their fantasies.
“Big suites go for a lot of money, and with these events, [hotels] can charge even more,” said the insider, adding that he has seen a $5,000 room go for $20,000 a night. “If there are a lot of people attending, the price also gets jacked up.”
THE Dream’s owner, Vikram Chatwal, is no stranger to the party life — or controversy.
The 47-year-old former flame of Lindsay Lohan married model Priya Sachdev in a 2006 ceremony, spread across 10 days and three cities and attended by guests including Naomi Campbell, Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and Bill Clinton.
Chatwal was accused of allegedly attempting to light gallerist Sean Kelly’s two Jack Russell terriers on fire in 2017. He was slapped with a felony charge of criminal mischief and misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, reckless endangerment and arson, and received five days community service.
The mogul was also arrested in 2013 for attempting to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and prescription pills onto a plane. Charges were dropped after he agreed to attend a yearlong rehab.
One party organizer said it’s the Dream’s party image that attracts some of the events.
“We used to use Gansevoort, but Dream was bigger and more of a ‘wow’ factor, so we went with them,” said a former Snctm associate. “[They] knew exactly what we were up to.”
Yet when a Post story about the group was published in April 2017, Dream’s management “freaked” that the photos might out the hotel, said the Snctm associate. “We got in trouble for it.”
“This is just part of the hotel business,” said the insider.
“People are always f–king each other left and right,” said the insider. “And hotels are the perfect place to do it.”
Additional reporting by Heather Hauswirth