This place has a lot of potential, with a nice setup and decor for events. However, having organized many events in NYC for several years now, the management and the associates at WorkHouse are by far the most degrading and bizarre I've encountered thus far.
I booked the space for a small celebratory event via Peerspace (and my contact was Olivia). Leading up to the event, I booked a time that was requested by Olivia and more convenient for her "staff". Yet upon arrival to the space extremely late due to traffic and suddenly merely 20 minutes to setup everything for guests, I found only Olivia there to represent the space, with headphones in, feet propped up, lounging on a sofa... As the bartenders and I frantically setup, we'd have to search for Olivia for any answers to our questions -- in which she'd normally just point for where we might be able to find an outlet, or kitchen supplies, etc.. Fortunately, we were able to get setup only slightly after guests started to arrive, and I amounted it all to the laughable hectic life of events in NYC.
But later in the evening, when time to exit, myself and the bartenders hustled to get everything cleaned up and packed away. With an excess of leftover booze and food, and the fact that I was slowed down by a recent knee injury, we were about 15 minutes late leaving the venue. All the while, Olivia had been standing around yelling at my crew, stamping her foot, holding her purse ready to leave. It was incredibly embarrassing for my guests and crew, especially as she let the door slam on us as we carried our final load out the door and she huffed and puffed (no exaggeration) off in a fury. Again, this was *less than a half-hour* delay in leaving.
Although this was pretty odd selfish behavior in the world of events -- where normally issues are resolved with professional communication and fair revision of payment amounts -- I let it go without complaint (but with a mental note to never book with Olivia!!). However, a month later I was sent a bill for an overtime rate that didn't even make sense, as well as damages for property without any proof or photos thereof, as well as an extra cleaning fee and transaction fee (!!!). This is without any contact from Olivia or WorkHouse regarding such claims. Luckily, I was able to dispute through Peerspace and the charges dropped to a reasonable overtime amount (which I'd always been happy to pay) and simple fix to a table that was "damaged" by candle wax.. Still to this day, I have never been contacted by anyone at WorkHouse regarding the situation, and my attempts to simply explain my experience to whoever is the "supervisor" was met with refusal.
So, for the sake of my fellow event planners (of professional and personal endeavors), I wanted to at least share this experience here. read more