Absolutely do not stay at the Whitehouse Bowery Hotel

While I can say that our trip to NYC this past weekend was a lot of fun, I also have to mention that it was much more complicated than any of my previous trips to the city. When looking for affordable lodging, and having stayed at a Jazz Hostel in the past, I stumbled upon the Whitehouse Bowery Hotel. I was intrigued by its location, which is on Bowery in the middle of the East Village while the Jazz Hostels are all mostly on the Upper West Side. Being on Bowery, we would be only a few blocks from SoHo, Astor Place, and Washington Square Park, as well as conveniently located two blocks from the 4/5/6 and only a couple more from the B/D/F... what better location to be in, right?

After waking up at 4am (yes, as in 4 o'clock in the morning, several hours before sunrise,) and driving to the outskirts of Washington DC, taking the metro into the city, walking several blocks, and then riding on the Megabus for 4 1/2 hours we finally arrived in the city excited and exhausted. We took the subway down to Bleeker and Daniel and Jared drug our luggage behind us until we found the hostel. I tried to be optimistic after seeing the facade, with broken windows and surrounded by scaffolding, but shrugged it off as the typical old-repurposed-building-in-NYC thing. The old white tiles inside were cracked as well, and the dingy decor and front desk were less than appealing. All of these things I could deal with... this is a hostel and what do you expect in the middle of New York for $70ish a night? After approaching the front desk we were welcomed by a guy our age who was either a) exhausted and half asleep or b) just hated his job and didn't feel like doing it. It probably took him half an hour to check us in, and I'm not exaggerating. He took his time looking at our reservation, as though he wasn't really sure what he should do next, followed by taking his time handwriting receipts and taking payments one at a time per couple. By the time he had finished up and given us our keys, we had definitely already been in the city for over an hour.

We stomped up three flights of stairs and opened the door to find a long corridor of doors and drywall... apparently "private rooms" means they took the floor of this building, which had about 13-foot ceilings, and constructed a ton of little 10-foot-tall cubicle-sized stalls without ceilings. Anyone with enough willpower to climb over their wall into the next cubicle could have done it, and anyone small enough to slide under some of the doors probably could have managed. Our "private room with a double bed" was only spacious enough for Dan and I to stand in if our suitcase was on the bed or in the little "closet" (extra wall with a shelf) in the corner, and instead of one double bed it was two singles pushed together and bolted to the floor, both different heights as well. Em said her sheets had yellow stains, there were flies everywhere in both rooms, there was no air conditioning, the bathrooms didn't have any soap, and the toilets would barely flush. I understand that this is a hostel and that living conditions are always less than perfect, and I also understand that living spaces and hotels are much smaller in NYC, but this was just on a totally different level of unacceptable. When I had stayed at the Jazz the rooms were dorm-room sized with two twin bunks, lockers for storage, with a clean floor and walls... the rooms even had ceilings! I just assumed that for the same price I was ending up in a similar situation.

After standing in line while three other people were slowly checked in, we finally announced to the guy that we had decided not to stay there and that we wanted a refund. Because we had paid in cash, he explained, he couldn't just refund us our money and he would need permission from his manager, who wouldn't be on duty until Monday. When we said again that we needed our money now he fumbled with his phone and started reading off a phone number. He told us we should call the manager about the situation, and I was in shock at how unprofessional the whole thing was... paying customers had an issue and were expected to use their personal phones to contact a manager? Wasn't that the job of the guy behind the counter? Jared called and called and left a voicemail or two, but he wasn't answering or calling back. Dan's phone was already dead and I barely had a chance to dial a friend's number into Em's phone before mine died too. Thankfully, my friend offered us a place to stay that night and the manager called the guy at the front desk all at about the same time. The manager offered us a full refund and we were free to leave. This entire process took another hour and a half of our time. By the time we arrived at my friend's we had been in the city for nearly three hours.

The website was so incredibly misleading. The place doesn't look anything like the photos they have posted, which makes the place seem clean, bright and colorful... none more so than the dingy lobby.


Other than that, we had a great stay. In the end, even after staying at a hotel the second night, we ended up under budget.

3 Day Trip to NYC for $150 per person

I just have to share my latest budget for an upcoming trip to NYC!

In a few weekends my husband, another couple who are good friends with us, and I will be taking off to NYC for a short but fun-filled weekend. We're all on a budget for this trip, so we're trying to do this all as cheaply as possible - and it is very possible! We've decided to leave town at about 5am and catch an early morning bus out of Washington DC on the Megabus and arrive in NYC at around 2pm (we have a 3 1/2 hour drive to get to DC.) Wanting to stay in a hostel but also somewhere south of Midtown, I found Bowery's Whitehouse Hotel of NY, which is perfectly located in the Lower East Side. Located on Bowery at 2nd Street, we'll be just a few blocks north of SoHo, a few blocks east of Washington Square Park, and close to 2 great subway lines. I'll lay out our budget for you below:

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2 Rooms for 2 nights at the Bowery Whitehouse Hotel (including taxes) = $345.99 total / $86.50 per person
4 DC > NYC Megabus Tickets = $33 total / $8.25 per person
4 NYC > DC Megabus Tickets = $32 total / $8 per person
4 Roundtrip Metro card fares in DC, Huntington Station >/< Union Station = $30.40 total / $7.60 per person*
Parking at Huntington Station in DC = $4.50 total / $1.13 per person
4 7-Day Unlimited Subway Passes = $116 / $29 per person
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Total for 4: $561.89
Total per person: $140.48

*We decided we're going to go ahead and buy the 7-day unlimited subway passes for while we're there, which are $29 each. If you think about it - at $2.50 per ride - 10 rides will cost you $25. Better to have the unlimited and not need it than have to keep refilling a card with the possibility of spending over $29. We expect to do a lot of running around town since this is our friends' first time to New York.

Of course, I didn't factor in the gas money that it will take to get us to DC and back; we're expecting with the great gas mileage on our friends' car we can get there and back for about $50 (probably less,) which is about $25 a couple, or about $12.50 per person.

This also does not include food, but we're going to take it easy and not go out for any elaborate meals. Slices of or a shared pizza work great for an affordable evening meal, as well as visits to pop-in shops like the Creperie or Pommes Frites for small lunches or afternoon snacks. Throw in a couple of stops at diners and delis and we have a cheap weekend of food!