Freehand New York — Hotel in New York

Update 7/8/24: Since the posting of this review, I've been contacted by higher management, who made sure to express their concerns and share their sympathy. They state the employees mentioned in this review have been trained and have welcomed me back to stay at the hotel if I'm back in the area.

If I could rate it zero, I would!

After a really long day of sight-seeing & night out prior, we got back to our room late on 5/24 and fell asleep within 10 minutes of getting in. Within 15 minutes of us waking up the next day, we get a knock at the door with a woman saying "Housekeeping". Confused, since we're just waking up and still have another night in the room, we had less than 3 seconds to respond before the housekeeper walks into the room. Unfortunately, my partner and I were COMPLETELY UNDRESSED, so I tell the employee we don't want service. They proceed to become argumentative with me, telling me "You need to lock the door on the inside, it's for your safety." This infuriates me, because as a guest, NO GUEST should EVER need to lock their door from the inside to prevent an employee from walking in. This employee never allowed ample time to reply to her announcement. As she continues to berate me from the door, I tell her to get the hell away from the door, as I'm entirely naked in bed, as is my boyfriend.

A Guest Services rep by the name of comes up to the door about 10 minutes later, demanding I go to the door to speak with him. Again, this makes me extremely irate because I'm still just waking up and not able to get my day started. As I'm expressing my frustrations privately within the room with my partner, he proceeds to say from outside the door "Ma'am, I'd rather you say that in front of me than behind the door", which I replied, "Everything I'm saying now, I'll tell you to your face once I'm dressed" At this point, I feel extremely violated and harassed, so naturally I'm beyond upset with the experience, especially when a manager comes to only be more confrontational instead of diffuse the situation.

After I express to him my concern with a housekeeper walking into a room she should know is occupied for another night, he says "Well let me tell YOU how things are done at THIS hotel. " His explanation? The housekeeper has a system where she can digitally see if the inside lock is engaged. Since it wasn't, she entered the room. No one expressed this at check-in, nor do I believe this should be a proper safety protocol for neither staff nor guests! As he's trying to show me how to lock a door, I cut him off to tell him this should have been addressed at check in two days ago to ensure a situation like this never occurred.

The employee tells me my hand gestures are unnecessary and since I "verbally abused" his employee, I had 45 minutes to vacate the premise. When I refused, he expressed security would come to escort. When asked who his manager was so I can escalate my complaint, he refused to tell me and I was told to "Call Europe" to express my concerns, because he was "the alpha and the omega of that building".

I NEVER verbally abused this employee - I asked her to shut the damn room door as I was still unclothed while SHE began to initiate an argument and tell me I'm wrong for not locking the door. Of course my tone was in an irate manner due to the circumstances, which I believe to be more than valid! Never once did the "manager" try to resolve the EXTREME error and lack of care of his staff's behalf. He never once expressed concern on the housekeeper's actions or offered to speak with them to rectify their mistakes.

This "manager" refused to refund money and claimed it was due to me acting "belligerent." He should not be in his position based on his reaction to the situation. Instead of being empathetic or even sympathetic, he decided to gaslight his guests and put the blame on them, rather than him and his staff who are clearly untrained. We felt extremely uncomfortable and concerned with safety and left the premises for the remainder of our...

If I could rate it zero, I would!||After a really long day of sight-seeing & night out prior, we got back to our room late on 5/24 and fell asleep within 10 minutes of getting in. Within 15 minutes of us waking up the next day, we get a knock at the door with a woman saying "Housekeeping". Confused, since we're just waking up and still have another night in the room, we had less than 3 seconds to respond before the housekeeper walks into the room. Unfortunately, my partner and I were COMPLETELY UNDRESSED, so I tell the employee we don't want service. They proceed to become argumentative with me, telling me "You need to lock the door on the inside, it's for your safety." This infuriates me, because as a guest, NO GUEST should EVER need to lock their door from the inside to prevent an employee from walking in. This employee never allowed ample time to reply to her announcement. As she continues to berate me from the door, I tell her to get the hell away from the door, as I'm entirely naked in bed, as is my boyfriend.||||A Guest Services rep by the name of Jermaine comes up to the door about 10 minutes later, demanding I go to the door to speak with him. Again, this makes me extremely irate because I'm still just waking up and not able to get my day started. As I'm expressing my frustrations privately within the room with my partner, Jermaine proceeds to say from outside the door "Ma'am, I'd rather you say that in front of me than behind the door", which I replied, "Everything I'm saying now, I'll tell you to your face once I'm dressed"||||Not ONCE did this "guest services manager" ever apologize about the situation, just states the reason he came to the room was because he heard what happened and wanted to hear it from me. At this point, I feel extremely violated and harassed, so naturally I'm beyond upset with the experience, especially when a manager comes to only be more confrontational instead of diffuse the situation.||||After I express to him my concern with a housekeeper walking into a room she should know is occupied for another night, he says "Well let me tell YOU how things are done at THIS hotel. " His explanation? The housekeeper has a system where she can digitally see if the inside lock is engaged. Since it wasn't, she entered the room. No one expressed this at check-in, nor do I believe this should be a proper safety protocol for neither staff nor guests! As he's trying to show me how to lock a door, I cut him off to tell him this should have been addressed at check in two days ago to ensure a situation like this never occurred.||||Jermaine tells me my hand gestures are unnecessary and since I "verbally abused" his employee, I had 45 minutes to vacate the premise. When I refused, he expressed security would come to escort. When asked who his manager was so I can escalate my complaint, he refused to tell me and I was told to "Call Europe" to express my concerns, because he was "the alpha and the omega of that building".||||I NEVER verbally abused this employee - I asked her to shut the damn room door as I was still unclothed while SHE began to initiate an argument and tell me I'm wrong for not locking the door. Of course my tone was in an irate manner due to the circumstances, which I believe to be more than valid! Never once did the "manager" try to resolve the EXTREME error and lack of care of his staff's behalf. He never once expressed concern on the housekeeper's actions or offered to speak with them to rectify their mistakes.||||Jermaine refused to refund money and claimed it was due to me acting "belligerent." Jermaine should not be in his position based on his reaction to the situation. Instead of being empathetic or even sympathetic, he decided to gaslight his guests and put the blame on them, rather than him and his staff who are clearly untrained. We felt extremely uncomfortable and concerned with safety and left the premises for the remainder of our travels in NYC. ||||I'll never stay in another Generator or Freehand...

The bad reviews weren't kidding. I didn't read these until after I booked and I'm here to say the same things, they're no lie or exaggeration. Read the reviews and please know the 1-3 star ratings are accurate. I wish I had read the reviews first, it wasn't until after I booked the room I saw the 1-star Google reviews and thought, meh, I'll find out for myself - and I did, they're not wrong or exaggerating.||First, upon arrival, it was raining and I was wet and cold, I stood at the desk while the guy stared into his computer trying to fix other guests' mistakes they made - they booked one bed when the guests needed two. I didn't get any "welcome, hello, I'll be a while have a seat" or "let me call someone", he just ignored me and left me standing there. Never once said hello.||Second, I asked the girl if she could change sheets and if the hotel charges and she said "no". Later I got a charge on my bill for her changing the sheets. I asked her again when I saw her later and she again said "no", then said a moment later, "well, maybe. I don't really know". Our phone in the room was broken which is why I didn't call the desk, absurd for anyone to think I'd be going up + down to ask simple questions. Also totally took for granted she'd know and wouldn't lie to a guest. She should've said she didn't know from the start.||Third, I went to their cafe and ordered a coffee. I knew it was going to be bad when he told me to taste it first and then said it would be "a waste" to make another pot but upsold me on an Americano, which I should've passed and just gone to the deli right outside the doors and across the street.||Everything in the hotel was closed (as in rooftop, artsy rooms), so all their "art" and "rooftop" selling points are just prints (there's a George Washington portrait if you're really into that) and the rooftop was closed all three days and completely inaccessible.||I didn't even know the hotel had public toilets. |They do not make the rooftop accessible. |They need an air filter for the gym. We went down there and there were six ppl, no windows, and it was stuffy and stunk. |They need to hire people who know how to be hospitable and at the very least say hello at the front desk. |They need to hire someone to make a pot of coffee and learn how to repurpose it so it's not "a waste", people who wouldn't tell guests it's a waste to fulfill their order, that's insane. |Please fix that water fountain so it doesn't take so long to fill up a water bottle. |Hire people who don't lie to guests and actually know the prices of changing bedsheets. |Stop fooling people with your phony "artwork" and "rooftop" that's not ever accessible to guests (unless you reserve it and that's just a lot of money out of your pocket for a subpar view. Take a walk outside or a ferry ride, you see so much more of the city than this rooftop.)||There is an extra $40/day charge "water and business services", which, again, is insane. There's no drinking water in the room, you can't even fill up a small Poland Spring water bottle in the bathroom sink bc that sink is too small, you have to go down to the lobby where there's a fountain (that's mislabeled, has a very slow pour, and you have to stand in line for). I don't know what business services they're talking about - again, absolutely absurd and a total ripoff. ||We didn't go for business, we didn't use it, yet we were charged $40/day to not use the business center. Make that some optional thing for the business class.||They're a scam, whoever is running this place doesn't know anything about hospitality and it shows.||The reviews aren't exaggerating, no iron, no snacks, no storage, no amenities whatsoever in the room, no coffee maker with coffee, no heat (showers were lukewarm at best, no steamy showers after getting caught in the rain), no working phone, up and down in the elevator if you needed anything. Just go to a real hotel with professionals, this isn't worth the aggravation...