The Howell — Local services in New York

I stayed for 9 nights in February in a Premium Studio. As a serviced apartment - really aimed a longer stays (not a hotel for a weekend stay) - it’s great. You get discounts on rates for longer stays so the pricing compares very well to a hotel in the area. Housekeeping is weekly or bi-weekly so you don’t have to worry about leaving items out the rest of the time. The area is nice, not much going on but good food options and the Jubilee Food Market nearby is great for day to day food shopping.

Pros - rooms are huge - much bigger than a comparably priced hotel room. Although the amenities are more limited, you couldn’t rent a similar size room for anything near this price in NY. Rooms are spotlessly clean - the furniture is basic IKEA type, all hard surfaces but as a result the rooms are super clean and housekeeping were very thorough. Facilities like the gym and laundry were a godsend for me - they are both small and get busy at peak times but out of peak times they are usually empty. Staff are friendly, pleasant and helpful - helped me with getting cars out to the airport and kept an eye on my room when I had to stay away overnight. Kitchen is well equipped - there is a microwave/convection oven so you can broil and cook as well as heat. Also a small dishwasher which was great and housekeeping left a couple of cleaning items to use so I didn’t have to buy these. Nice small lounge and terrace upstairs with coffee during the day if you want a break from your room.

Cons - not many - I had some electrical problems in my room, it wasn’t possible to put all the lights on without one of them blowing a bulb but this was sorted within 24 hours. I did have a room facing the internal courtyard in the building and as a result it was dark during the day and I had to keep the lights on most of the time. However, it was really quiet as a result. No neighbour noise and no street noise so it’s a bit of a trade off. I would have liked a small table and chairs to eat at - there was plenty of room for it and eating at the kitchen counter or coffee table wasn’t ideal.

I would definitely stay here again for a trip of more than...

Lived here for 1 year. Here is my full experience:

The super & front desk staff are the absolute best. Nick, Johnny, Nicholas, Emanuel, Carlton are all incredible and have always been great to me throughout my stay here. Any maintenance issues were immediately resolved, and Nick is the best super you could have. Honestly the best thing about living in the building.

On the other hand, building management is an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. Moving in / out is extremely stressful as they only allow 2 elevator reservations per day and only allow weekday move outs, meaning high traffic days like the first of the month are IMPOSSIBLE to move at. They will make you move BEFORE your lease ends if they don’t have reservations. They also are very unresponsive by email so even if you book in advance, you WONT get your slot.

Management is also super unresponsive and unreliable all the time. I asked to add a partner to my lease and got denied and told I cannot unless I move to a bigger / more expensive apartment, which is unheard of.. More importantly, my rent effectively went up 17% percent in my second year, and management was not willing to budge an inch to help me stay here.

They lie over & over again saying they want to keep you as their tenant and respect your tenancy, but all they care about is making more money even if it means pushing their residents away. They would literally rather leave the apartment vacant than negotiate a more reasonable increase or a month to month. DO NOT LIVE HERE if you want a place...

I regret signing a lease at this building. As a female, I feel unsafe and harassed coming in and out of the building because of the concierge. Almost every time I come into the building, I am chased down to see if I live here even if I use my key card. If I have a guest come in the building with me the concierge will yell at them and demand to know if they live in the building even if they are with me. I feel so unsafe to the point that I was going to call 911 because I was afraid he was going to escalate and start yelling at me or do something else. I don’t feel like this issue will be resolved with building management because it has been an ongoing issue. I have anxiety leaving and coming in the building and have started to document my encounters since I don’t feel safe.

The building should be welcoming and this has not been the case for me. I have friends who live in other FIDI buildings and they aren’t experiencing this and are treated with respect. I don’t live in public housing or a jail so as a quiet resident, I should not have to pay thousands of dollars for someone to make me feel like I need to call 911 to enter the building I live in and pay rent. If you want piece of mind and to feel safe and respected look elsewhere. This building is just not...