Sugar Hill Harlem Inn

Well, they got me too! They cancelled our December 26 reservation on December 24. He claimed flooding issues with us as well. No offer to help, he said he «called around to other places», but every place was booked. Merry Christmas to us!
This person shouldn’t be a business owner. Luckily I had a backup plan. I feel badly for the other suckers like me who gave it a chance and had no backup.
Don’t trust this business owner. At best, the plumbing is terrible and therefore confirmed reservations should not be treated as such. At worst, he’s a liar.

Our reservation was mixed up by the online broker, but Jeremy worked with us. He only had a room for us for one night because of the mix-​up, but he called next door and arranged with his neighbor to put us up for the second night in a spare room they seem to keep for just that purpose. Jeremy processed our credit card, but the neighbor insisted on (125 room + 30 cleaning fee + tax = $ 170) cash for the night.
Pros: Beautiful old staircase and woodwork throughout the building, private bathroom, very clean. Two blocks from City College Shepard Hall. Great restaurant up the street, church down the street.
Cons: Up three flights of stairs to the fourth floor. Loose old windows and building let in cold and noises from outside. It took 10 minutes for hot water to arrive in the shower. The reservation mix-​up gave Jeremy the opportunity to tack on $ 100 in cancellation, re-​booking, and other charges, making the (125+30+tax=$ 170) room end up being $ 270.

You think you have a reservation because you booked with
…Think again !!!
This Owner, Jeremy will cancel your reservation without warning or a reason… through an email
He’ll tell you «Your staying at another address» and send you somewhere else…
appearing as if he has made arrangements for you, but they don’t know your coming
When you contact the other address, they are a completely different Inn.
They may or may not have a room… you need to pay again and get your money back from him later.
YOU’VE BEEN CANCELLED with Sugar Hill Inn… Surprise, Enjoy your stay in New York.
You need only give a call to this place before booking, the number is easy to find… And you won’t need to rely on any reviews.
Jeremy at Sugar Hill Inn will answer the phone himself… his indifference is so obvious
He can Cancel on you at any time, There is nothing you can do about it.
It doesn’t matter who you booked with or that you have a reservation number… so outrageous !!!
You’ll get your money back, but other than that… There’s nothing you can do except write a review to warn others. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED :)

Just made a reservation on the recommendation of friends who stayed there. Then booked our flight from CA. This morning I got an email from Jeremy saying that there was a five night minimum stay for the time I booked. I called and told him that there was nothing saying there was a five night stay. He said it was under «policies and is complicated.» So what it looks like is either bait and switch or very poor planning on management’s part. I did not read other reviews on Unilocal when I made the reservation (BIG mistake) and now see that Jeremy over-​books the place. He told me that he can get someone in for five days during that time period, and I must assume that is what he did. I am not sure how this place stays in business.

This is the worst place I have ever stayed.
I needed a place to stay for business and waited too long to find a hotel. This was the only place I could find nearby with rooms available so I booked two nights at the last minute. The set-​up is more like a boarding house than a hotel. It’s an old building with four floors, no elevator, no ‘front desk’ or anything like that. It appears to be privately owned by a husband and wife. There’s a small foyer on the ground floor and an office; rooms are upstairs. When I arrived, no one was there. The wife ran up the steps a short time later, swiped my credit card on her cell phone and took me to my room on the third floor. Although the building is old, my room had some nice features: beautiful, dark, hardwood floors, a fireplace (not operational, but pretty nonetheless), and a large four-​post bed.
But immediately I also realized that the building was shabby and run down. Half of the light bulbs in my room were either missing or burned out. The smoke detector had been pulled out of the ceiling and wires hung down. And the room was pretty dirty. The floor clearly hadn’t been swept in a long time (big dust bunnies), the bed sheets had a stain, the light switches had dark fingerprint smears, and one of the walls had a dark liquid splattered on it. I looked in the bathroom and the shower was filthy with mildew. The second day, whoever made my bed (no change of sheets), and left a dirty tissue on the fireplace mantle. I already knew that the other nearby hotels were booked and I had no time to look anyway, so I made the best of it. I used a plastic grocery bag to stand on in the shower and wasn’t in the room much anyway.
I asked both the husband and the wife if on the day of checkout, I could leave a bag with them to retrieve at close of business, between 5:30 — 6:30pm. I was assured by both of them that this was not a problem and they were «always» around at that time of day. So I was pretty alarmed when I returned for my bag at 5:30, their office was locked up and no one was there. I tried calling the phone number on their web site but the voicemail box was full so I couldn’t leave a message. There was also an email address for «immediate reply» but no one responded. After about half an hour, I called my husband to tell him the situation and that I didn’t know when I’d be home. He said he’d try calling them as well. I left a note on the office door, asking them to call me asap so that I could get my bag and get home. Then I walked up to a restaurant on the corner and waited.
Eventually, my husband somehow got through on the phone and they said they’d meet me there in 15 minutes. About 25 minutes later (now about 90 minutes overall), I saw the wife slowly walking toward the house. She was talking on her cell phone and taking her time. When she walked through the door she shot me a dirty look, continued on her phone, and slowly looked through her keys to open her office. Once inside, she put her phone on ‘speaker’ mode so that she could keep talking while she got my bag. Never once did she even acknowledge me, let alone apologize for leaving me there with no way to contact them and no way to access my bag. I finally said something. I said I had been waiting there for over an hour with no way to reach them, that they said they would be there, their voicemail box was full, and they didn’t return my email, and I had missed my train to get home. She just looked at me and smirked, with an expression like she truly could not have cared less. Then she it was my fault because I hadn’t called her personal cell phone number. I was dumbfounded. I told her that first of all, they said they would be there. Secondly, she never gave me her personal cell phone number so how could I call it? She shrugged her shoulders, then GRINNED and said, «Not my problem.»
I was furious. I told her they should be ashamed of themselves. She rolled her eyes, spun on her heel and walked back into her office. Admittedly, I let my temper get the better of me and hurled an expletive before grabbing my bag to leave. Although I doubt that either she or her husband read or care about these reviews, if they do, I apologize for the cursing, it was wrong. No matter how utterly classless or unprofessionally the wife behaved, clearly it is never an excuse to respond in kind.
Afterwards, I saw that every review on Unilocal sounded just like mine. I wish I had checked earlier — I would have stayed somewhere else, anywhere else, and bit the bullet on cab fare to avoid staying here.
Awful place. Awful people. Just plain awful.

I also must of been off my rocker when I took a chance on this place. I told myself that all the bad reviews were fairly old and I’m sure it would be fine. Wrong! Two days before our reservation, we got a call that there was a «leak» and we wouldn’t be able to stay there. Based off of all the online reviews, I didn’t believe him for a second. It was Valentine’s Day and All Star weekend and I knew we’d be up a creek without a paddle. Its a real shame considering the place looks gorgeous and I’m sure it would be a real pleasure to stay there.
So, don’t do it! Don’t give this guy any benefit of the doubt. He’s a total flake and a terrible business man.

I must have been high on crack when I decided to book two rooms for my parents and my brother’s family at Sugar Hill Harlem Inn. When I went to several online booking sites, there were far more reviews talking about the rude owner and issues with people having confirmed rooms that were not available when they arrived than even descriptions of the Inn. Still, for some crazy reason, I wanted to give the owner the benefit of the doubt.
Dumb. Stupid.
Both my brother (in California) and I (in NYC) independently and without knowing the other had done so, called the B&B to inquire about the location of the available rooms. The inn is a 4 story row house with no elevator. Our parents, in their 80s, are basically fine specimens, but dealing with lots of stairs is physically challenging.
When I spoke with the owner on Saturday and explained my primary concern, he told me that he had 4 rooms available for the date we needed – the lowest rooms were two flights up. My brother called on Sunday and asked about the location of the available rooms. He got the same answer and shared this with me that evening. After checking in with the parents, I determined this was okay for them.
Monday
showed the same four rooms still available, so I booked two rooms for my people. In the special request section, I specified the need for at least one room to be on the lowest floor available.
sent an instant confirmation. The owner emailed me immediately and said he only had rooms available on the 4^th floor. Huh…
I immediately called
, explained the situation and that I didn’t want to, nor should I be required to pay the $ 130 cancellation fee because the owner misrepresented what he had available. They contacted the owner who told the rep he never spoke to anyone about any such thing.
Really? If he had said he didn’t recall saying where the rooms were located that would have been more believable. Ish… But to have two different people call you a day apart with the same VERY specific inquiry? That’s just B.S. my brother.
After some back and forth with
, they agreed to cover the cancellation fee (I had to get a supervisor on the phone). The owner at Sugar Hill probably knew they would, so he gets paid no matter what.
Needless to say, while I will use
again because they did the right thing, I will shout from the highest point in Harlem that no one deal with Sugar Hill Harlem Inn. This is one shady operation – with a capital «S.»

Our reservation was canceled after owner apparently booked the room for another guest. We recieved no notice from rude owner that we had no reservations. Reservation was made on-​line and I received a confimation number. However, it seems that an on-​line confimation means NOTHING these days! Rude owner gave some excuse that he sent an email that room taken. We received no such email.
We had to scramble for find another place to stay. Fortunately the place we booked was nicer AND cheaper.

I made a reservation last summer to stay for two nights at Sugar Hill Harlem Inn with my two kids. I made the reservation two weeks in advance, and I received confirmation from the owner Jeremy and I thought everything was in order, we arrived in the afternoon and the room was totally dirty and not made, the previous guest had left it trashed with alcohol and beer bottles all over the place. I called the main number and no one picked up, called their cells numbers as well. left them several messages and even went to the main house and no one answered the door. They are total flakes. We decided to get some food in the area and kill some time thinking they would call back, NO ONE CALLED BACK, I even sent them an e mail and no reply as well. My kids and I went back to the house and the door was locked to the room. We could not believe they came to clean the place and then locked us out, and they did not even return are calls. So its almost 10pm and Im in my car with my kids figuring out an alternative plan at the last minute, It totally ruined are trip to Harlem, we had to scramble and find a new hotel and for the night and it cost me like 700.00 a night since we did not have a reservation. This guy named Jeramy and his wife or partner Bernadette never returned my call till the next afternoon. I was totally pissed, I called my credit card company and told them what happened and they put a hold on the charge. It took him several days to answer my emails and he made some lame excuse that things happen in life and that you should let them go, while Im stuck out in the street with two kids trying to find a place to sleep. I don’t recommend this place to anyone and don’t believe a word Jeremy or Bernadette say, totally not truthful and unreliable. Stay away from this place, totally unreliable and and they will leave you high and dry. Remember while you sit out in the side walk with your kids «things happen in life «and «get over it » according to Jeremy. Learn from my experience and avoid the nightmares of Sugar Hill Harlem Inn.