Hotel Indigo Brooklyn NoGo

New attraction in Brooklyn

There's an important new attraction in Brooklyn.  My son. Last weekend, going for my second time, I decided to try something new in Brooklyn after staying at the perfectly nice Nu Hotel last time. The Indigo Hotel Brooklyn.  I am a member of the IHG Rewards Club. It’s not hard to get into. It’s like Rotary or something.  All you have to do is to stay in a Holiday Inn too many times as I did when Peter was at Skidmore and it was the best property going in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Armed with my special gold status, though, I called the special number and was connected with someone in a distant land who had to ask me where Brooklyn was. And after a long period of obsequiousness the confirmation revealed that he got my room rate wrong and I had to call again.

But surely they would greet me warmly at the front desk and honor my request for early check-in?  No, we had to wait an hour or more just like the “un-statused.” We asked the hotel registration clerk where we could find a good deli for lunch. He sent us to Brooklyn Fare, a lovely grocery store that has a deli in it.

Shabby, Not Chic

We checked into an astoundingly small room, where we had to navigate around as if there was a one lane bridge. I had to pull aside when my husband wanted to get somewhere in the room, and I had to do the same for him. A half desk was provided. Also a half serving of coffee pods and towels. For two guests.

Half desk

 

The trompe l’oeil team had been working overtime to try to make the Hotel Indigo look bigger, to no avail. They painted a red carpet staircase in the cramped hallway so you’d think it was the stairway to heaven instead of the narrow path to hell.

I'm convinced, are you?

Strike one

Strike two

Strike three

The laundry order card was crinkled; the window blind was ragged. A mattress tag was inexplicably left on our half-desk. The fitness center was half assed. The yoga mat was dirty.

It's a shame when you look forward to getting on the hotel elevator because it's the one space where you can really stretch out.

Breakfast was offered in the adjoining Brooklyn Brewhouse. Over eggs I had an easy view of St. Patrick’s day top hats hanging from strings. Neon lighting at 8 a.m. and the unmistakable odor of the morning after.

Breakfast "bar"

It was incredibly cold in Brooklyn this weekend and the automatic double doors off the lobby were blasting in arctic air every few minutes The receptionists had to wear boots, down vests, gray scarves and stand with a space heater behind them to survive. This might explain the brain freeze that possessed the staff member who I asked to call a cab, but I have never had to wait longer for a taxi in my life.  After 20 minutes I asked her to call the cab company again. Ten minutes later a man with a walkie talkie appeared and we thought he was our driver so we jumped up with glee, only to learn he was our "dispatcher" who said it would be five more minutes until a cab came. 

Incensed, we took to the streets and had the wild mad energy to walk from downtown to the Brooklyn Museum. Two and a half miles with a high of 30 and wind chill into the teens, but it was a bracing needed contrast to the long and curious confinement in the lobby.

Don’t go, no-go to the Indigo Hotel in Brooklyn. Try something Nu instead.

Searching the small screen beside the big canvas