I'll start with the positives. My partner and I were in a room with a queen-sized bed. It was clean, as was the bathroom, shared with two other rooms. There was a kitchen on the floor for those who wanted to cook. The location was convenient to subway stations, restaurants, and stores. The street itself is fairly quiet, although you can hear sirens from the main roads nearby, as is normal for a city.
What I found disappointing, unpleasant, or downright unacceptable:
(1) I emailed the owners a few days beforehand and asked about parking. They didn't respond, so I called, and Bibi said simply, "There's plenty of parking on the street." First, that's a bit of an exaggeration - there's parking, but you may have to look a block or two away. Second, parking is *not* allowed at all times! Street-cleaning occurs mid-week, and I got a ticket for not moving my car. Now granted, that's my responsibility as well, but I would expect a long-time innkeeper to mention the fact that the morning after I arrived, I should move my car.
(2) For a B&B, the breakfast was very ordinary. I should say the first breakfast was okay - toast and scrambled eggs with tomato and spinach, and a fruit bowl. But on the second morning, we were served a small bowl of melon and ... a toasted bagel. I've had much better self-serve breakfasts at chain and no-name motels, where there's at least cereal and oatmeal in addition to a selection of carb options like bread, English muffins, bagels etc.
(3) The kicker, though, is that the first night, we discovered that there was no blanket, no comforter for our bed, just a sheet. I went down at 10:45pm to try to get something (we'd been out all day, or else we would have asked earlier), but the owners didn't respond - might have been asleep. My partner likes to sleep more warmly than I do, so she had to use her bathrobe. I felt like the room was actually a bit hot with just the window open and the ceiling fan on, but didn't use the AC because I didn't want to make it too cold for either of us. It turned out to be an uncomfortably warm night for both of us.
In the morning, I asked very politely for a blanket, expecting Bibi to express surprise, perhaps even contrition, for the omission of something as basic to a bed as a blanket/comforter! Instead, she responded as if I was asking for a favor, and an odd one at that. Well, in any case, that evening, we returned to find that we did have a blanket - hurray! We ran the AC and I slept better than the night before.
The next morning, we went down to breakfast, and my partner said "Good morning" to Bibi as she saw her. No response. We sat down, another woman brought us some fruit and asked us if we wanted tea and coffee (neither of us did), then went to the kitchen, where we heard her tell Bibi "no tea, no coffee." A couple of minutes later, Bibi came out with a pot of tea (a pretext, we realized later), and without preamble, addressed us with accusation, "You asked for a blanket, but you ran the air-conditioner last night!" We were ... well, flabbergasted at the rudeness, the condescending tone of scolding, and the unprofessionalism. Frankly, it's none of her business how we're choosing to adjust the temperature in our room, and if you're charging $135/night a room, you can afford a guest running the AC in August in Brooklyn. Still, we explained that we had different comfort levels for temperatures. Bibi didn't acknowledge the normalcy and validity of this situation; she in fact tried shortly afterward to chat to us like she hadn't just been the rudest innkeeper I have ever experienced in my many years of travel.
(4) This B&B is run more like a youth hostel. There are signs everywhere dictating how one is to conduct oneself, e.g. for the bedroom itself, guests are to make their own beds, in the bathroom, ladies are to "remain seated for the entire performance" etc. The room air-conditioner situation fits into this unfriendly regimen - a sign covering the controls states that it has been set to "optimal performance," and settings must not be changed, under pain of having to pay. "Optimal performance" turned out to be 75F, which is okay for me, but might not be cool enough for others. Also, the AC would literally turn on and then off in a minute, and by off, I mean no cooling, no fan, so you go from a steady hum to silence. I was wearing earplugs, but for many people, that kind of AC on/off noise could make it difficult to fall asleep.
I wondered about possible homophobia, since I had specifically booked a room with a queen-size bed (and had received an email confirmation for that), but Bibi first offered me a room with two twin beds when my partner and I arrived. However, I don't have enough evidence, I just know that the service and treatment we received was astonishly unfriendly.
There are enough other accommodation options in the area that I can be very sure of giving Bibi's Garden a wide berth should I ever stay in Brooklyn again. read more
