The short version
Pick the Financial District if you'll be out and back several times a day, and Brooklyn Heights if you'd rather have quiet streets and are happy to plan around one river crossing. That's the whole decision. Everything below is detail on top of it.
The two are closer than people assume. Clark Street on the 2 and 3 is the first stop in Brooklyn after Wall Street, and High Street on the A and C sits at the Brooklyn end of the bridge, so on paper you're minutes apart. What differs is what happens either side of that ride. From our block on John Street you can be at the 9/11 Memorial in ten minutes on foot, on a ferry at Pier 11 in five, or on a train to Midtown without changing. From Brooklyn Heights, almost everything on a first-timer's list involves crossing the water first.
We're obviously on one side of this, so here's the fair case for the other one: Brooklyn Heights is a nicer place to wander. Brownstone blocks, the Promenade with the whole Lower Manhattan skyline lined up in front of you, and a scale of street that Lower Manhattan lost a century ago. If your trip is mostly walking, coffee, and looking at things, that counts for a lot.
Who should stay where
Stay downtown with us if you're doing a lot in a few days, you're travelling with people who tire at different rates and need to come back mid-afternoon, or you're here for work in Lower Manhattan. Being able to drop bags and go out again without a river in the way is the whole argument.
Stay in Brooklyn Heights if it's a slower trip, you've done the big Manhattan list before, and you want mornings that feel residential. Also if the skyline view is the point of the trip. You cannot see the Manhattan skyline from inside it, which is a genuine trade against staying where we are.
The bridge is the thing people underestimate
Walking the Brooklyn Bridge is on almost everyone's list, and where you sleep decides how you do it. From our side you start at the Manhattan approach near City Hall, walk toward Brooklyn with the skyline behind you, and turn around whenever you like. Most people take 30 to 40 minutes one way at a photo-taking pace. From Brooklyn Heights you walk the other direction with the towers in front of you the whole way, which is the better photo and the more crowded direction, because that's the way the tours go.
Either way, go early. By late morning in summer the walkway is a slow-moving queue of people, and the two ends are where it bunches worst.
What the rooms are like on our side
Our suites are apartments: a fully equipped kitchen in every one, from 340 square foot studios up to a 1,200 square foot three-bedroom that sleeps eight. That's the practical difference from a standard hotel room downtown. There's a laundry room with washers, dryers and detergent, free and always open, a fitness center, a guest lounge with an espresso bar, a rooftop terrace, and a conference room you can book by the hour if you're here to work. A few of our two and three bedroom suites have their own private terrace.
Space matters more than it sounds when the weather turns, which in this city it does. A room you can cook in and spread out in changes how a five-day trip feels, wherever you've chosen to sleep.