Wow, the Bowery is a great hotel! The staff was extremely friendly, polite and attentive. Requests were attended to within a few minutes. The rooms are pretty good size, and many of them have fabulous views. If you can, ask for the king-size room 1211 - it's on a corner with a great view, and the bathroom has a soaking tub by a large window which is to die for. In fact, one of the staff themselves said "this bathroom has the best view in the hotel".

The location of the hotel too could not be better - there are literally hundreds of restaurants and clubs in the vicinity.

We will definitely be back.

I stayed at this hotel for 3 nights in May, 2007. It is still a "new" hotel, where the (young) staff is trying to work out the kinks. Everyone was very helpful and polite, however, and requests were attended to quickly. The bar is a funky place, sort of Moroccan in style, with a small outside patio as well. The room, a standard "queen", was on the small side, but had lovely views (try to get a high floor). I asked for a room with a soaking tub, and it was fabulous. A huge marble tub with a panoramic view of lower Manhattan - definitely not a standard hotel tub. The room had nice touches - an iPod port, a flat screen TV, nice bed linens. The only negatives were the lack of storage/dresser (the hotel should at least add luggage racks for the suitcases) and that the tub was so high up (with no step stool) that it was a bit difficult to climb in and out of it. Anyone with any sort of difficulty in stepping up and down almost 2 feet would find it too hard to get in or out of the tub.

The location is great if you like the lower East Side, Soho, the Village etc. It's a wonderful eclectic and funky area - definitely not as refined as mid-town, but easily accessible to mid-town by subway or cab. There are great little stores and restaurants within a few blocks in either direction and the hotel is definitely an upscale oasis in this area.

The restaurant at the hotel hadn't yet opened, but there are so many restaurants nearby (and a huge Whole Foods store 3 blocks away) that it isn't really a detriment.

I'd highly recommend this hotel. It was so nice to be in a unique place, away from a chain hotel feeling.

Could not have enjoyed it more. The room was beautiful, with the aforementioned huge windows and marble bath. Everything was inviting and comfortable, with the sunny room done in cream and serene green (I was expecting hip and stark, as at other boutique hotels). Great black-out curtains. The lobby is phenomenal, as is the bar and most enjoyably, the terrace where we ate breakfast alone. So quiet and peaceful. And the view from the terrace: I never knew that the Bowery hid an 1800s stone-walled cemetary and a grass and tree-filled expanse.

The staff was also warm and pleasant.

I am sure once the restaurant and nightclub open guests will no longer feel that they have the place to themselves--glad we got to experience it. I am also curious to see what the rates jump to. We paid $350/night for a queen room.

We have stayed at the Gansevoort (thumping club music, overrun neighborhood and cold decor) as well as the new version of the Gramercy Park Hotel, which was dark, bordello chic and maybe a warmer version of Ian Shrager but still a bit off-putting. The Bowery hotel has the best atmosphere, hands-down.

This hotel has a distinctive style being more similar to an olde worlde English country house, complete with log fire. The rooms were a decent size and the styling continues here with brass lamps and bathroom fittings and faded rugs. I probably wouldn't have chosen it had i seen the design beforehand but actually found it quite refreshing from the minimal uber chic city hotels which are common these days.

The service is a bit mixed with some staff being excellent e.g. Brett (porter) and one or two of the receptionists who were very helpful. For others, i gave them the benefit of the doubt and supposed they were new to the hotel industry - not terrible but just not quite there yet. They could do with having a concierge or ensuring more staff are at reception, particularly as the key is attached to a huge tassle which you have to hand in to reception and ask for every time - bit inconvenient.

The restaurant is not yet open but they do provide room service (although it had just started that week). Avoid! We ordered breakfast in the room and it was poor. The croissants were large but not particularly nice and they forgot to send jam/butter with them. I called to ask for some jam - they sent one measly individual jam pot and some butter. And only $46... If you do stay here I strongly recommend you go around the corner (houston street i think) and have breakfast at Cafe Colonial, a Brazilian cafe which serves delicious french toast and a range of other breakfasty things for half the price of the hotel.

The room was very quiet and had floor to ceiling windows with great views out over the other relatively low rise buildings (try to get a room higher up and at the back). Two problems with the room though: wardrobe space is quite poor and the a/c struggles during the day. There was plenty of space to have some other drawers or even another small wardrobe but the only storage in the room was half taken up with the minibar. And the only drawers were very small being more like the writing desk than for storing clothes. As for the a/c and fan, well during the morning the sun streams in through the large windows and really heats the room up. If you are out most of the day then it is not really an issue but on the last morning we really noticed how hot it could get even with a/c on full - i'm not sure i'd like it in the full heat of summer.

The location is very handy for the shops and restaurants of Soho and Greenwich village. It is a bit more rundown looking than some of the areas uptown and there was the occassional down and out or person hanging around on the street but we didn't have any trouble.

All in all, this was a good hotel, especially for the price. If they manage to sort out the teething problems then i'm sure it will do well and we would consider staying there again.