The Brooklyn Hotel — Hotel in New York

We really wanted to like this hotel, but we are going to leave an honest review. Here are the Pros: Fair price, it wasn’t cheap but less than Manhattan Huge rooms, biggest I have even seen in NYC Super friendly and attentive staff Clean and comfortable beds Large ‘waterfall’ shower head Fridge and Microwave in room Decent coffee (maybe Nespresso Machine and pods, or possibly dupes) Free water bottles Very accommodating when our bathroom flooded from the shower upstairs Place to leave luggage if you checkout but have a later flight Cons: The neighborhood. We did not feel safe on the street at all, but especially at night. There was a police presence near the subway when you exited, but we still had to walk like 4-6 blocks further and into a much worse element. While the hotel can’t control this, there were homeless tents under the bridge you had to walk past to get to the hotel. I saw an unfortunate incident of a man shooting something into a homeless woman’s wrist on the hood of one of the many mail trucks parked under the window. You could hear very loud conversations, yelling and sirens throughout the day/night. We were ‘cat called’ by homeless people walking to the subway and followed a couple times exiting the subway. There is NO WAY I would ever allow my daughter to stay here without another person with her, but if I had small children, I would not stay here. Although the hotel itself was decent, I do not think I would stay there again. We did not feel safe in our room at night because the ‘arm security lock’ was broken. It was cracked and the screws holding the other side in place on the door were loose. The floors, shower, refrigerator/freezer, dresser drawers, rug were dirty. Our feet were black from walking with socks and just plain barefoot. The shower was just grimy and the floors and carpet were sticky. There was a sticky blob of something on the carpet in the sitting room. The couch had a dirty not to well fitting cover on it and it just was too uninviting to sit on. The freezer had 15-20 melted popsicles and yogurt bars inside and we did not notice it until our second night since we checked in at 12:30 pm the night before. We were up early the following day and out all day. When we came back with groceries, we realized we couldn’t put them away. I pried all of the frozen popsicles etc. out of the freezer, cleaned the tray with red sticky goop on it and the fridge so we could use it. Every time we took something out of the freezer, we had to clean the fridge, floor and counter again as it would leave a red sticky liquid behind The last day we were there, the ceiling above the toilet began to leak and then it got so bad the drywall started to splatter on the toilet area. We called the front desk and they said the person above us must have flooded their shower. You could see the ceiling patch was there before that, so this must happen often. The photos are probably from when they opened or did a remodel. Tiles are cracked or look like they have been kicked in, the bed frames are cracked, lamps by the bed do not work, we fixed a hanging lamp by the bed right when we entered the room because the pieces had come apart. I think if they paid attention to cleaning and fixing things up nicely, they could get better reviews since you are still paying a lot of money and people may be willing to overlook the location. The toilet seemed to run constantly; in case you are a person that needs quiet to sleep. The thermostat, hard to figure out, It was either freezing or too hot. The shelf in the shower is angled down so you can’t put anything on it as it wont stay. Also, there is a handheld water thingy in the shower that is also broken. There were noises coming from inside the drywall too. Not sure if it’s rodents. Also, the elevator makes some creaking noises too, didn't feel safe. There is a paper hanging on the door that says...

PLEASE READ OUR EXPERIENCE BEFORE BOOKING, THE WORST ACCOMMODATION EXPERIENCE EVER

(TLDR desk clerk provided us a king room we booked with a broken bathroom door and were very reluctant, rude, and unhelpful in resolving the issue. I have never felt more obligated in my life to leave a review until now.)

I booked this hotel through Chase thinking that it was a great option as many reviews were saying it was good or at the very least okay to stay in.

We first got a really good impression by the hotel allowing us to store our luggage as we were checking out from airbnb and had nowhere to store them (that or roam around nyc with two big carry ons).

However, when we checked in later that day it was the complete opposite experience. The front desk didn’t feel very welcoming to begin with (okay sure whatever). We were then given a king sized room that we had booked through chase and found out that the bathroom door was completely broken and couldn’t close the door one bit. My friend wanted to use the bathroom but was uncomfortable with no privacy (as was I) so we asked the front desk if there were any other available rooms to switch over to. They said that the bathroom doors are currently under repair & getting fixed and that the hotel was fully booked that night. I felt awkward that nothing was being done by the front desk about this issue and I said okay and back to our room. We were NOT informed of the bathroom door condition before checking in.

Seeing as how we weren’t informed of being provided a king size bedroom with a broken bathroom door. I called Chase to see what our options were and to resolve this issue (because the hotel desk clerk did not do anything about it). Chase was very good at being the middleman and contacted the hotel. The hotel lady desk clerk came up to our room and we told of our situation with the broken bathroom. We then got a scoff “what’s wrong” and that baffled us that we had to explain that the door was visibly broken and there was no privacy in the bathroom.

She went back and talked on the phone some more (to the chase travel agency line I assume) and a few minutes after came to our room and provided us with another room (Great! Finally!!).

She said to check the room and we did which was to our satisfaction, however; this room that we were provided with was a full sized bed. We asked the lady desk clerk if it was possible to get compensated for the appropriate size room as I was charged with king size and she gave us a very reluctant look and said “I’ve already done too much for you.”

To our disbelief, we were given the option if either canceling and keeping the full size bed room for the price of king that I had originally booked with. Note that we felt the lady desk clerk was impatient and rude to us for asking minimum working room and compensated for a smaller booked room. We were getting overall bad vibes and no longer wanted to stay at the hotel.

We asked if we did cancel and if there would be any refund and they said no. We tried calling Chase again to resolve the issue but had no luck. We reaaaally did try to like it with as much professionalism as we can. We gave it a chance but the clerk really blew it. Non apologetic whatsoever. She only considered helping with our issue when Chase had called them.

In the end, we left the hotel for the best western plus just across the street (WELL WORTH SPENDING THAT EXTRA AMOUNT THAN THIS HOTEL. IT WAS NIGHT AND DAY IN SERVICE AND LIVING SPACE).

Never again, and it’s taught us a valuable lesson of deep diving into the reviews further through "most recent" rather than as a...

Hollowed Out

My wife stayed at The Brooklyn a few years ago, so we thought it was a good choice. We were wrong because things have changed. We arrived 25 minutes before check-in. When I approached the front desk, I was greeted with, “Check-in is at 3:00.” Very welcoming. It went down hill from there. We were told that we could wait in “the lounge” (actually a corner of the lobby adjacent to an abandoned and grubby bar area) when I asked if our bags could be stored for a few minutes while I parked the car at a garage. The lounge was shabby and dimly lit. The floor was not clean and the leatherette furniture was cracked and flaking onto the unswept floor.

At 3:00 p.m., I approached the front desk again and attempted to check in. I had made reservations by phone about three weeks earlier because it was important that both rooms were on the same floor if not adjacent since we were traveling with my mother who is 93 years-old. When I told the clerk, who is apparently the manager if not the owner, about my reservations, he appeared to be mystified and perturbed. He asked me to wait “five more minutes” while he checked in a solo traveler. Next, another solo traveler approached the desk to get his luggage out of storage. Apparently, he could check in early and store his luggage.

It was the end of the clerks shift at that point, and he left me under the care of the evening clerk who was friendly and competent. It seems that the phone reservation was never taken or recorded, but this clerk sorted it out, so we got rooms on the same floor, but far away from each other.

In the name of efficiency, I am going to just present the rest of this review as a bulleted list in no particular order.

• the elevator was dirty • the hallways were dirty • never saw anyone cleaning the common areas nor any evidence that they had been cleaned • fixtures in the hallway were broken • the rooms were shabby and in need of paint • the handheld shower was broken • the lighted small vanity mirror blew out the breaker in the safety outlet whenever we tried to plug it in • there are no grab bars in the shower • housekeeping only appeared when guests checked out • we had to ask for towels after a couple of days • their approach to repair is that there is nothing that a little spackle or grout cannot fix • although it was a double room for three nights, there was only one coffee pod (thankfully there are places nearby to get coffee: Wholesome Foods) • we moved a chair and found a sweatshirt which a previous guest had left, also a chopstick under the dresser • the website lists continental breakfast, but there was none not that we would have eaten it at this point

I am sure that there is something I missed. We also overheard the manager(?), owner(?), day clerk speaking with someone and saying that he was not going to hire anyone else. We cannot blame housekeeping and maintenance as it seems that they are understaffed, but we can blame the owners. If The Brooklyn is the only place you could stay at in Brooklyn, my advice is to not come...