The Industrialist Hotel Gowanus Brooklyn, Sonder — Hotel in New York

I've stayed in a number of different Sonders by now, and decided to give The Industrialist a try if only because I wanted to check out the "new and improved" Gowanus Canal vicinity. (I used to live in NYC, but back then Gowanus was a no-go zone, and the canal needed Superfund remediation.) I was definitely impressed with the vicinity, but the hotel is another story.||I'll start by noting that I used to be a professional hotel critic, back before the internet killed most travel journalism, and reviewed over 200 hotels total (and as a travel nut I've stayed in at least that many just on normal travels). I also lived in London at one point, and it & NYC are two of the cities most famous (or infamous) for unusually cramped accommodations. Point being: when I say the Industrialist's rooms are small EVEN BY NYC STANDARDS, I mean it. At 85 sq ft, this was the smallest NYC hotel room I've ever stayed in aside from The Jane in the West Village.||Also, if you're not a regular visitor to NYC – and particularly if you've never been, period – I'd strongly suggest looking elsewhere (meaning the area, not the hotel). The Barclays Center is up the street, and Brooklyn Heights' stunning brownstones are a couple of miles away, but the last time I was in the area, this building was a parking lot next door to a gas station. Gowanus probably needs another 4-5 years of marinating time to be a proper destination, though to be fair it at least has a Whole Foods down the street.||Some hoteliers do microrooms well: the citizenM chain comes to mind. Their rooms manage to fit a king-sized bed, a ton of gadgetry, an in-room tablet, a 50" TV, an in-room safe, a work desk, automatic shades, etc. This Sonder has, well, none of the above, aside from king beds in its largest room category (but if that's in your price range, I'd strongly recommend looking elsewhere, e.g. the nearby Ace Hotel Brooklyn). The Industralist's smaller rooms are difficult to describe even from an interior design angle, given that they have none to speak of – not even a single wall hanging.||It also has no functional amenities: while the property has a full-size kitchen and restaurant, lobby bar, street-level coffeehouse and rooftop bar, all remain shuttered nearly three years after the hotel opened, and despite the post-Covid comeback NYC's enjoyed. OTOH there's not a huge amount of nearby housing or much foot traffic, so I can see why that might be premature – but OTOH when a Hilton Garden Inn a block away has more amenities than a boutique hotel, I think it's safe to say there's a problem.||Unlike the citizenM or Ace, Sonder seems to have little clue how to design common areas. This was their most basic that I've seen to date, featuring nothing more than a small lobby with uncomfortable seating. I appreciated it having DIY parcel lockers, for storing luggage either before check-in or after checkout, but less so being told I had to be back by 6pm to pick up my bag. I know they acquired the building from a separate party and have limits to what can be done with a completed structure, but still. My room literally had nothing in it except two twin beds, a nightstand, and a small built-in area for clothing. (Even the bathroom toiletry dispensers were jammed.)||The hotel's one aspect I appreciated was its location: literally around the corner from an R train subway stop that heads directly into Manhattan (or riding a single stop and transferring at the Atlantic Ave./Barclays Center stop, which connects to most of the city's subway lines). That said, the hotel itself is roughly in-between two streets with a large number of restaurants & the like: Smith St. in Carroll Gardens, and 7th Ave. in Park Slope. Both are within reasonable walking distance by NYC standards – 15-20 min. each – but if the weather's bad, that's still a fair amount of walking. (Dinosaur BBQ is directly across the street, and if you like 'cue & aren't from a barbecue mecca, it should be fine. I'm from Austin, however, and it's subpar by Texas standards.)||Finally, I booked the Industrialist because it was quite literally the only reasonably priced option for my dates that wasn't a dump on the BQE near LaGuardia or something. I just noticed that the asking rate for my room category next week is $368/night. Now THAT is absurd. (And this would be a one-star review if I'd paid anything close to...

Even though he had requested early check in, because of flight and traffic delays I didn’t get there until about 45 minutes after the normal check in time. Check in was quick eliminating the need to deal with the folks in the lobby. Heading up to my room, the hallways were crazy small. As I rolled my suitcase down the hall to find my room, someone came out of their room, since there wasn’t even enough room in the hallway for us to pass each other, the other person had to unlock their door and go back into their room so I could pass without us physically pressing into each other. The hallway was stuffy and smelled like mold, and down the hall a short way there was a person with the door wide open and talking loudly on their phone. I prayed I wasn’t next door to that room and I started feeling concerned that the next 5 days were going to be more of a challenge than the cost for the room was worth.

I should have been more careful what I prayed for, though I was NOT next door to the very loud woman on the phone. It WAS my room, and the lady on the phone was sitting on my bed talking on her phone. She had a tiny cordless vacuum, a couple of rags and some spray bottles and a swiffer type mop, so I gathered that she may be housekeeping. I arrived 3 hours later than I requested, and she was sitting on my bed talking on the phone. When she saw me, she jumped straight up ran to the door, said “I’m sorry. So sorry. Give me a minute!!” And slammed the door in my face. So I stood in the hallway for the next 15 minutes while she “cleaned” my room. I don’t know if she had changed the bedding earlier in the day, but I know it wasn’t changed while I waited because the outline of her butt was still on the comforter when she finally let me in.

The room was unbearably small, which I was mostly prepared for, but NOTHING like the website or any of the pictures I’d seen. The two amenities I was really looking forward to were the tv to relax and catch up on local news (NYer here, and gratefully moving back home), and the storage drawer underneath the bed that they showcased a few times on their website. Nope. The bed was a mattress (though a decent one) on a sketchy base of 2X4s nailed together that kept the bed maybe 16 inches off the floor. Underneath the bed was blocked off, so no storage there. The bed hugged 3 walls tightly, so the only way to close the window shade was to crawl across the bed. Not wanting to make the bedding even creepier by crawling across it in clothes I’d just traveled 13 hours in, I figured I’d change first. But there were construction workers outside of my window. Figuring out where to put my suitcase was tough. I found a fold up case stand squeezed against the the foot of the bed. I set it up next to the bed, but it fell over as soon as I put anything on it. Not enough floor space to open my case on the floor next to the bed. I brought it to the “alcove” by the door. At that point I had a choice: if I was going to have my suitcase with me I had to find a place to keep it so I could get to my things. Even keeping the suitcase closed I would either be able to use the door to my room OR use the door to the bathroom. So I had to move my suitcase between two microspaces that allowed me access to the bathroom OR to go out. Every single time.

Massive fire hazard. Especially with the periodic scent of crack from one of the rooms To access my things, I barricaded myself into the room with my case to get it open, grabbed some fresh clothes and toiletries, then closed up the case again and propped it against the door to the room just so that I could access the bathroom door, I did that a lot over the next 5 days, though it was propped against the bathroom door when I was leaving the room.

The TV was tiny and looked like it was going to fall off the wall soon. Didn’t matter, with the bed almost on the floor and the TV mounted near the ceiling, I could barely see it anyway. I just streamed stuff on my laptop when I took breaks from...

Please be aware of the Horrible conditions at Sonder The Industrialist, 651 Union street). Guest as well as Sonder Employees Like myself (a former Senior Front Desk Hospitality Agent) are Disrespected, Lied to and constantly put in Hazardous, Dangerous conditions on a regular basis. Staff such as Management did nothing to help when bringing these issues to their attention. In fact their negative response or simply no response made it clear that we should not speak up and if we did it could cost you your job, in the end it cost me mine. Everything I am discussing can be verified. Since I started working for Sonder in June 2022, I quickly started to notice issues and contradictions on how we were told the Company operates vs how it really did. Transparency is not something Sonder believes in. There have been many issues that I see still carrying on to this day. The HVAC issue has been going on since we opened in June. MT attending to this HVAC issue has mentioned time and time again that Sonder will have to call in a Specialist in that field but they continued to put a bandaid on it. When Guest checked in I was instructed to act like I do not know anything about non functioning HVAC systems or any other issues in the Guests booked rooms. When the Guest would find out about an issue like: the HVAC is not working, NO shower curtain, NO hot water, Shower overflowing, Water leaking from ceiling, water leaking from window, no Heat, No AC just to name few. We were instructed to a Apologize and own the issue. We were instructed to buy time by saying things like: I will let an MT know right a way, someone will stop by first day tomorrow morning, I can give u a fan in the meantime, here are extra towels for the bathroom floor, here is a blanket and so on. We were pressured to avoid offering them a refund because we needed a chance to fix the problem, but we already new this issue existed well before they arrived so I felt really bad being forced to be dishonest just to keep my job. I learned of Covid Positive Guest staying in rooms, that were cleaned as a regular cleaning when a Covid Positive Guest was staying in there for over 2 months. Before Sonder hired a HK Supervisor, I personally spoke to the House Keepers to make sure they knew to protect themselves when cleaning these rooms, they were never even told about positive covid cases in rooms they were cleaning, it was just a regular routine cleaning for them. I myself was not told. We all found out when responding to Guest via various Sonder Applications. One Guest was asking to extend his stay because he showed the proof he was Covid Positive and his wishes were granted but that info was not shared with Front Desk staff (Including myself). A staff member tested positive for Covid and was out for a few weeks. I worked elbow to elbow with this staff member for hours, How could the Management at this Sonder location not care about our Health and Safety, and not informed us (the employees) so we can get tested and then take proper measures to prevent spreading of covid. I Even found a small pack of covid tests hidden slightly above the microwave in the staff room. We all could've easily taken this test to ease our minds. Who hid that box there and why was no staff member at Sonder the Industrialist informed about the active covid cases in within the building besides The OM and Supervisor. I have a small child, you risked getting Me my Child, My whole family sick, Why? Sonder should have related that Serious, Important message. You did not even have the Respect to offer a test from the hidden box in the staff room, you rather us not test to avoid being understaffed, that's the impression I got.

In response to Sonder's nonhuman "cookie cutter" response below, I did respond to HR, Management and It...