Bowery’s Whitehouse Hotel

I am surprised that the name says its a hotel… It’s pretty much like a warehouse converted into a hostel. Beds were $ 100/​night when I stayed, but that was also at the end of summer. There was no roof/​ceiling to my room, which I shared. It was sort of like sleeping in large cubicle. And there were no plugs in the room. I do appreciate the stay though, and its in a good location.

Stayed here for two nights. The third night, I got red bumps all over my back. It’s bed bugs and I am not happy!
I paid $ 94 for two night however I disagree with a hold on my credit card which I am told it will be release after check out. This place should never charged a hold for crappy facilities. Unlike the other property, there are no outlets in the rooms; you have to charge your electronics in the lobby. Only three out of six outlets work and most of the time they are taken up by other customers. The wifi is good which is all I can say. I don’t know if the computers in the lobby works but it’s seems to be collecting dust which tells me no one ever use them. Perhaps they should get rid of it and install a charging station.
The hostel is open 24 hours and you have turn your key in before you leave the hostel. No elevators so be warned you will have to trek up the stairs. I stayed on the second floor and only one shower had hot water; the showerhead is right above in the middle so you could not adjust it which was really inconvenience.

This place is definitely not luxurious, and as long as you know that going in, you will be satisfied with a safe place to sleep a few hours and to leave your belongings while you’re out enjoying one of the best cities in the world. I stayed for four nights in September, and I felt perfectly safe as 30 year old female solo traveler. It’s the cheapest place to stay and infinitely better than having to share a roomful of bunk beds with a lot of strangers in a regular hostel. The ceiling is open, so you can hear others at night, but the other people– mostly 20ish– were surprisingly quiet during my 4 nights. The street noise was much louder. I am an extremely light sleeper, but I managed to get a few restful hours every night. The bathroom and shower situation was like being an 18 year old living in the dorms again. Not ideal, but it sure keeps you from wasting too much time getting ready instead of spending time in the city. And I was still able to curl my hair and throw on some makeup while charging my phone and iPod every day. The room is really, really SMALL. I literally laughed out loud when I unlocked the door. I’ve had closets bigger. But my two huge bags fit, and I could lock the door behind me! If you’re over 6 feet, you’ll definitely have to curl up on the bed, but this wasn’t issue for me. I would suggest bringing shower shoes and earplugs. I also brought my own towel. They provide one, but I’m picky about towels. There are so many restaurants, bars, and things do in this area alone. This is the best location in the city, and instead of wasting money on a fancier hotel nearby, you can stay here for several nights for the price of one night anywhere else. To wake up and be downtown is priceless. And at such a cheap price, you can come back often!

If you stay here, you will have bed bugs bite you. I stayed here for two nights, and my bed sheet is stained with my blood by a combo of noticing and killing the bugs crawling off of me and smearing them as I moved throughout the night.
Doesn’t appear to be safe for women as well. Strange middle aged men are walking back and forth in this place. Oh, and the door looks either don’t work or appear to have the reliability of a lock for an 1880s rural outhouse.

If you are looking for a luxury place this is not your place, but the hotel is clean, is a place just to sleep means is a cheap room and get a room in Manhattan for just a few bucks a night is great, the area is one of the best in NY with walking distance for restaurants, Chinatown and Wall Street.

This place is unsanitary, my friend and I found bedbugs, so we had to leave at 2am. It was also hard to get refunded. I wouldn’t stay here if you paid me, gross. Also the showers and bathrooms are unisex and not private, they said they have air conditioning but they don’t and there are no ceilings, the free wifi isn’t for personal devices but only for two computers that they have available. Need I say more, you will have better luck sleeping in the streets

If you need a hotel with a spacious room, TV, breakfast, private bathrooms, and soundproofing, this isn’t the place for you. But if you’re just looking for a place to sleep in Manhattan for less than $ 50 a night and nothing else, you could probably do much worse.
Let me be totally honest, it’s a cheap room and you get what you pay for. The bed’s thin, you can hear the coming and goings of everyone else on your floor if you don’t have headphones or earplugs in, and the rooms look like glorified closets.
And yet, despite all these faults, for some ridiculous reason I have soft spot for the Whitehouse Hotel. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a broke college student, but the idea that I can possibly do a one or two day trip to NYC and keep it cheap is great. Also, it’s a couple blocks away from Chinatown which was nifty.
Of course, I’ll be completely honest and say that if there was the option to stay here or crash on a friend’s couch, I’d definitely take the couch. But this place is great if your only other option is a bench somewhere (…which isn’t exactly a glowing recommendation, but is the absolute truth).

I’ve stayed at the Bowery Whitehouse Hotel 3 times now and love the location and cost. It’s the cheapest place you will ever find to sleep (short of the street or someones apartment) in lower Manhattan — about $ 35-​$ 40/​night. Keep in mind despite the word «Hotel» in the name, this is not a hotel. It’s an old warehouse building filled with little cubicle rooms just big enough to fit a twin bed in. The doors in each room lock and you have visual privacy, but can hear all the noise on the floor you’re on and on the street below (the walls of the room only go about halfway to the ceiling). It can be noisy even late at night, but earplugs or headphones can easily drown out any noise in the hostel. The beds are moderately comfortable but face it, you didn’t come to NYC to sleep.
The neighborhood around the hostel is awesome. It’s a great mix of immigrants, hipsters/​yuppies, old-​timers, and families. It’s a real neighborhood that has not been saturated with overpriced tourist traps and hotels. It features awesome nightlife, restaurants, and other attractions all within walking distance. The hostel is also right off the B, D, F, M trains at Broadway/​LaFayette or the 6 at Bleecker Street, so getting around town is a breeze.
The only hangup I have is the shower facilities could be improved. They are always kinda nasty (flooded floors with dirty water, shower heads spray everywhere including outside the shower on to your clean dry clothes, water is either steaming hot or ice cold, and there’s no where to put your towels and clean clothes (i.e. the showers could use some shelves or hooks, so you don’t have to put your clean clothes on said dirty flooded floor). But if you don’t care about bathing for a few days, its no problem.
Other then that, for the fun and budget minded traveler, Bowery’s Whitehouse Hotel is a clean, safe, and inexpensive place to stay. The great thing about having so few amenities at the hostel is it actually encourages you to go out and do stuff. If you are looking for pricey hotel services and all comforts of home, this is not the place for you, otherwise keep an open mind and give it a try!

I stayed here when I was taking a trip to NYC when I was in college.
It’s not the best accomodations by any means but I guess you get what you paid for. The rooms are tiny — it’s almost like a closet with a bed in it. I don’t know if I would even call it a bed because it was so thin.
This places gets the job done — it’s just a place to sleep because there is so much to do in New York City!
(although I don’t know if I would stay here again…)

READ THE DESCRIPTIONS ON THEIR WEBSITE BEFORE YOU STAY HERE!!! If you go in expecting the Ritz, you will be sorely disappointed, like the guy on our floor who was very whiny and kept saying «This is a nightmare.» and complaining loudly. If you are not a needy, high-​maintenance person and only want a bed to sleep in, you will be content here. If you want to come the NYC to sit in your hotel room and watch TV, then you might not have such a great time. Get earplugs from the front desk if the noise bothers you. I loved this place, it’s a great location for almost no money. Only took off a star because the mattress wasn’t great, I slept fine, though. Will definitely stay here again.

I’ve stayed here twice now, most recently a couple of days ago. I can’t argue that if you’re looking for the cheapest possible place to stay in NYC, it’s hard to do better. There are some similarly priced hotels in the Chinatown area, but from what I’ve heard those are even worse in terms of cleanliness and vermin (at least no one has complained of bedbugs at Bowery Whitehouse!). Nor did I see a single cockroach, sort of surprising for an old building in NY.
So one star for the price, the second for not being completely disgusting!
That said, it’s really hard to sleep with almost constant noise going on throughout the night. Doors slamming, voices, even people unpacking their bags. That bothered me a lot more than the tiny room size, which doesn’t really matter if you’re just there to sleep.
Another complaint I have is with the «internet café» side of the business. I don’t know how the wireless works, because I left my laptop home and used their desktops, which cost $ 1 for 10 minutes. The problem is, it took almost 5 minutes to open a single e-​mail! The person behind the counter explained that the computers are very old, so they are basically useless for even checking your email.
They also have a strange policy of leaving your key at the desk every time you leave the building. This is only a minor inconvenience, meant to prevent lost keys I assume, but can be annoying if you frequently go in and out.
I don’t think I’ll be staying there again, despite the low rates. I wish someone would design a hotel with a similar concept, only with rooms that have some degree of soundproofing.

I stayed in this hotel on my one day trip to New York a few months ago. I booked it super last minute so I wasn’t expecting the Taj Mahal or anything. It was a little hard to find the entrance due to construction, but the location is awesome and you can walk to most places. The staff at the front desk were helpful and we could keep our bags in a locked room in the front while we were exploring the city, waiting for check in.
I was staying with my boyfriend and also two friends that stayed in a separate room. After walking into the building and getting my keys to our private room, I was pleasantly surprised with the room. It’s basically a hallway of doors and inside each room the ceiling is open, but there is still a lot of privacy. Each door locks, which was very important for me (Anytime you leave the hostel, you have to leave the key at the front desk — also something i liked). I felt completely safe and comfortable during the whole experience. The rooms are a decent size with a cabinet/​dresser and a good size bed and it was pretty comfortable.
The bathroom is shared at the end of the hallway and it includes some showers and about four bathroom stalls. Also, the only outlets are located there, in the bathroom.
I met a lot of cool foreigners while I was there and loved it! Even though I was a little skeptical at first, I’d definitely recommend the Whitehouse due to the privacy, location and rate.

Most of the other Unilocalers said it all: Great location, right smack dab in the heart of Manhattan so many fun places to go are waiting outside, however if you are claustrophobic, don’t stay here. Your room will consist of a cubby hole with a small bed and absolutely no room to move or breathe, and barely a space for your bags! No outlets in rooms! I strongly suggest (which is what I did) coming with a fully charged laptop and be sure to bring your cellphone’s computer charge cords, and just plug them into your computer at night so you can charge them while you are sleeping… if you can get any sleep, of course. I suggest earplugs, as the walls are so thin and because there are no ceilings you can hear everything going on, your neighbors’ conversations, snoring, doors banging at all hours of the night, etc. The rooms are safe, I left my electronics in my room several times and everything was fine The wifi is free, (thank God they dropped that $ 7 a day fee) and worked well in rooms as well as in the common areas. So at least that was a plus. As said before you can’t beat the location, and while my stay wasn’t horrible, I do think I’ll just save up a little bit more next time so I can afford to stay in a place where there is actually room to move and breathe.

I came here with the lowest expectation possible because I read up on the previous reviews of this barebones hostel.
But seeing it in person still bummed me out.
It was $ 43 if paid by cash or $ 45 with card. They also place a temporary $ 45 charge on your card as a deposit in case of damages.
Checkin 3pm, Checkout 10am.
While checking in, they reiterate their hostel policies and make you read and sign a few forms.
They also strictly enforce a «leave your key at the front when you exit» policy.
Seeing the room (or stall) came as a bit of a shock to me (even after seeing it in photos beforehand), it literally made me laugh out loud.
You open a closet door to find a 3ft x 6ft rectangular space with a bed that literally takes up a little more than half that space, 3 hooks on the wall, a pillow, and a towel.
As you probably have already read, there are no complete walls/​ceilings in these stalls — you hear EVERYTHING happening on your floor as guests shuffle in late and shuffle out in the morning.
Free wifi (0.28 Mbps down, 0.25 Mbps up via Roadrunner — as per
), and more bandwidth available for a $ 7 fee.
The biggest problem for me was that THE FIRST FLOOR LOBBY IS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE BUILDING WITH POWER OUTLETS — there are none in your rooms. So if you plan on charging laptops or cellular phones, expect to spend some time babysitting your devices downstairs.
I dropped off my clothes and left the room as fast as possible so that I can stay out and come back to sleep as late as possible.
I guess it is to be expected for paying 40 bucks/​night to sleep in Manhattan, but be warned, that no matter how great your night around town is… when you make your way back into this hole, its a real bummer.
I would not recommend this hostel for women.

I stayed here on a last minute trip to NYC and was enticed to stay for the price per night, very cheap. After reading a couple of reviews I admit I was a little skeptical, but pulled the trigger nonetheless. Note that by paying cash up front you will save some money, but they will need a CC to put one nights deposit on, even if you pay in cash up front. This will be refunded upon check out. It should also be noted that if you choose to pay up front, the stay is non-​refundable, but they’ll allow you to check out the room before you decided.
The place seemed to have a lot of young, college kids, both American and Foreigners staying here, probably because of the price. The layout is a floor full of divided rooms, with open tops (this meaning there is no roof over each individual room on the floor). The bed is sufficient, far from a normal hotel room. At night you can hear a mix of people snoring, or just making general noise (i.e. opening doors, shutting doors, flushing toilets, showering) so if you are a light sleeper, beware! Toilets and shower are probably a 7 out of 10, but passable.
Really my only gripe is no power outlets in the rooms, so you either have to stand near the sinks to charge your devices or hang out in the lobby at the few tables there to power up. Also there is no WiFi, at least not free, I believe the charge is $ 7 a day to use the internet, which is a pain and something I would not pay for.
Other than that, the staff is very friendly, the location is great, and as skeptical as the Whitehouse may seem, it is safe. I had my laptop and expensive headphones left in my room at long periods of time (4 – 5 hours) while I was out exploring the city and did not have a problem.
I would definitely recommend the Whitehouse Hotel to any SINGLE, young, college kid to stay here to save money and have a place to stay when you are low on cash.
Also, just to mention the front is currently incapacitated with NY scaffolding, but still easily accessible, but you might have a little trouble finding it. It is situated next to a Subway.
4 Stars.

My experience here was pretty bad. I attempted to check in around 9:30pm but I was asked to come back in about 30 – 40 minutes due to a large group checking in ahead of me. So I left and got something to eat. I gave them more than enough time and when I returned I was told it was going to be at least another hour. Once again I left and returned quite a while later and was finally checked at about 1am!!!
Once I was FINALLY checked in I was given my key and told to go upstairs, with no other direction. I wandered around the dark halls until I finally found my room. I was disgusted by the dingy sheets. I could hardly fit my bag in the room since there was literally only enough room for the bed… it was touching 3 of the 4 walls with about 2 feet of space at the end of the bed. The ceiling was also open, so you could hear every noise at all hours of the night. I was not able to get any sleep. There are also no outlets in the room, so good luck charging anything unless you want to sit in the hallway or bathroom waiting for it to charge. The bathrooms were also not well kept up and appeared very dirty and well as the showers. Good thing I was only there for one night because I would not have felt clean showering there. I left very early so that I did not have to spend any more time there. The cheap price does not make it worth the stay, there are plenty of other options in the city! I will not return here under any circumstances.

Hey, it is what it is. It doesn’t really claim to be much more. If you are alone and you need a place to sleep that is indoors and is CHEAP, then this will do. Not for the faint of heart. It is kinda like camping with strangers, and with internet in the lobby. The lounge feels like you are back in freshman dorms, except for the homeless guy on the bench who begged for enough money that week to stay here for a couple nights. I believe you pay about $ 30 per night.
The «rooms» are basically like the changing rooms at Macys with a mattress thrown on the side bench. No ceiling, no elecrtrical outlet, i don’t even remember if there’s a light switch, but there is a small closet and just enough room to stand and change your clothes.
I stayed here just after graduating college when I had no job or money but wanted to stay in NYC for a while to look for a job and explore the city. I would fall asleep at night crammed in to my closet either listening to my MP3 player or reading a book till I passed out. I met some interesting characters in the halls and in the shared bathroom. One thing this place is excellent for is LOCATION. You are in the heart of the city. Or at least the intestine. Either way, there is a lot of NYC activity all around you. You aren’t staying in this place to sit in your «room», you’re staying here because you are broke as a joke but still want to hang out and stay in NYC on your own.
Disclaimer: Not recommended for young single girls*
*Unless you are a naïve happy-​go-​lucky hippie, an edgy dont-​mess-​with-​me rocker, a I-​dont-​care-​or-​know-​where-​I-​am druggie, or just out to prove the world (me) wrong.

ok place. once and done, probably, because it’s sort of a last «resort». told my friends I’m staying at the white house hostel and they were in shock because they had heard stories about how rough it is. but it really wasn’t that bad place to take a nap. Stayed there from 1am to 730 am when in a pinch and it did what it could for $ 35ish. Sometimes you just don’t want to spend $ 160 to nap in a lavish yet smallish chinatown hotel room, nor rough it in the hostile streets of nyc. Whitehouse in Bowery was my happy medium, just unpleasant enough to not want to go here repeatedly since it can be avoided.
very efficient. lights out means lights out. there are no lights! nor electric outlets in the rooms. there are no walls, just cardboard separations between narrow closetspaces topped with a lattice fence. sleep with your clothes on. listen to an ipod to fall asleep and drown out ambient noise from the closet next door to you. in all, is still better insurance than sleeping at Penn station, and slightly less uncomfortable than oversleeping on the bench down at the airport, or sitting on the floor of port authority waiting for first AM boarding call of a bus back to the suburbs. unlike other hostel I’ve stayed at, shower plumbing was efficient (though it was very bare bones almost like showering at the beach, and not daily clean)
1.7 stars on Unilocal is more accurate than the 2.0 I generously give because I’ve already survived my one night’s stay at the whitehouse.

Dirt dirt dirt cheap. (Emphasis on ‘dirt’)
Which is exactly what I expected as I did plenty of research. Check out their website videos before reserving, that way you won’t be surprised at what you get. The money I would’ve spent at a posh hotel was spent exploring the city instead.
Formerly a transient men’s hotel in what was once the dingiest part of NYC. They didn’t call them Bowery bums for nothing.
If you hate the Disneyfication of NYC, and want to experience the hard life, go here. Otherwise, don’t bother.

The second i stepped foot into this «hotel» i realized how cheated and mislead I had been. I stayed here while a student in college. I’m all about saving money and I had stayed at other hostels in new york city while living on the east coast however, No hostel had ever been as horrible as this one. I stayed here with my girlfriend. We payed for a 2 person «private» room (which at other hostels has consisted of a private room with a full bed). Instead we got 2 twin beds cramped into a tiny cubicle. No ceilings. No privacy. I could hear a lady a few cubicles down talking on the phone all night. It was so awkward and uncomfortable. The bathroom felt like it was literally placed at the end of the hall (ie not enclosed at all) and there was no toilet paper.
We tried spending as much time as we could in the city, only to avoid spending any time here.
Unless youre looking for a laugh/adventure…I would definitely recommend any other hostel but this one.