Freehand New York

Excellent hotel. Beautiful architecture, café on-site, clean, friendly and well- laid out. Cons are the rooms are small but for a traveler or two who will be mostly out exploring, it's perfect. It's in an excellent location where you can step outside and walk to the tourist locations. No laundry machines on-site and no free breakfast, so it's a simple lodging. But it hits the important details; clean, safe and perfect location.

Firstly on arrival, the welcome was gruff to say the least… I would say the reception staff are so “cool” it’s verging on frosty! |The $40pn facility fee is non negotiable, not explained and felt like a heavy handed rip off. Having since got home and read other reviews it appears that we would have been entitled to complementary bottled water every day but this was never mentioned. One receptionist told one of our party that it was a tax, another receptionist told us that it was for use of the gym and the Wi-Fi. Either way you’re going to have to pay it so factor that in if you have booked via a third-party like we did.|Once we had made our way through the unwelcoming reception experience, we got to our rooms we were all on different floors so all had different experiences. Those on the 17

Stayed here to tour Baruch College with my son for a morning tour. Very clean with a very fun vibe with hand drawn art on the walls. Stayed in a room for 3 with a queen bed and twin bunk above. Very unique. Staff was friendly and check in and out was simple. Had breakfast in the café associated with the hotel accessible from the lobby when open. Less than a 5 min walk to Baruch College. Great area. Would stay again.

I've been traveling back and forth to the East Village fairly frequently and the Freehand is in the rotation of places I stay depending on who's got the best room rate. I've stayed at the Freehand multiple times and the experience has been very consistent. First, the downsides: it's an old hotel which means the rooms are small and can feel a little claustrophobic. The bathrooms are particularly cramped but this is a problem to some degree or another at every old hotel I've been to so I can't fault the Freehand too much for this. Second, it's in a busy part of town and depending on where your room is there can be a fair amount of noise from outside. It doesn't bother me but it's something to be aware of. I'd dock it half a star for these things but you apparently can't do that. On the pos

Great experience. Would recommend. The decor is original and funky. When we checked in, there were a few things in the room that needed attention from maintenance. The front desk took care of it right away and offered us complementary breakfast for the inconvenience, which was really nice. The staff at the cafe were super friendly and the food was good. And look, it’s NYC so the rooms are small (pretty typical) and there is a lot of traffic noise outside but we never once heard another guest while we were in our room. The beds, pillows, and linens were comfortable and room service came everyday. The elevators were fully operational the whole time we were there (you read a lot of other hotel reviews where guests wait forever for elevators because one or more elevators are down). The sub