I stayed at the Hanbee for the second time this weekend. We had been very satisfied with our stay the first time, 18 months ago. Not this time. We had room 614, that faces Bowery Street. There's a major hole at the intersection and the city installed four or five large metal plates to cover it. Since the windows of that room are horrible - it's like there's no windows at all, soundwise -, you hear a loud "bang!" each time a truck or heavy vehicle passes over it. During the night, it's guaranteed it's going to wake you up. Now, we should have requested a change after the first night, but since we tend to really take possession of a room during a stay - our stuff was all over the place -, we just bought ear plugs. Did not work either, but my wife was feeling a bit sick, did not feel like moving and we thought maybe things would be more quiet during the weekend. They were not. New York, on the corner of Bowery and Grand really never sleeps, it seems. Up to the point that my wife could not sleep "at all" Sunday night, because of the street noise... When she got up after a night without sleep, she felt very sick and weak, so we decided to cut the trip short and go back home. When I checked out, I explained to the man at reception that we had to leave because the room was too noisy and my wife did not feel right. I thought he might ask a few questions or make a comment, like "I'm very sorry to hear that" or "The room is noisy??? What do you mean? That unacceptable, we will etc. etc."... He only said, "Everything has been prepaid with Booking.com. Do you want the receipt?" Judging by the man's insensitive reaction, I can only guess that they know the situation, that they wish that the poor people they put into rooms facing Bowery will be as stupid or lazy as we were (or that they will be deaf) and that if the client complains and leaves early, who cares, maybe he's prepaid the room and we'll rent it a second time. So the point of this story is: Maybe you should go to some other hotel that will actually care about the quality of your sleep and listen to you when you talk, but if you do go to the Hanbee, make sure you get a room facing the back of the hotel or Grand Street.
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