We have worked with Bravo many times over the past 6+ years and have always felt that their customer service was a bit lacking. Their original main space (on W 27th), however, is one of the stronger options in Manhattan and the convenience tends to outweigh the lack of professionalism of the studio staff.
On this particular occasion, however, Tim at Bravo decided he was going to pull the old "bait n' switch" telling us the studio that we had on hold (W. 28th) was available to scout. Once we arrived, not only was there a production in the studio which prevented us from being about to look at it, he informed us that he had given the studio away even though we had the studio on first hold. Booking etiquette requires that if another party wants to book the studio they have to "challenge". Tim never informed us of a challenge he just gave the studio away and tried to get us to book his W 27th studio (which we internally had already determined didn't work for our shooting purposes.)
Obviously this impacts a production negatively. We had brought our team and DP to the studio for the scout so this cost the production money. It's a deceptive practice and should be heavily discouraged.
Again the W 27th space is solid and convenient but the studio and booking staff at Bravo are traditionally unprofessional and even, in this case, under-handed.
The NYC.gov site has a lot of alternatives to BRAVO:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/production_resources/studios_stages.shtml read more