First the positives: the host is responsive, and addressed issues reasonably quickly. The location was good (keep in mind you need to get down from your taxi and walk half a block into chinatown). The concierge and staff were very nice. The apartment is clean and reasonably well equipped. We would have stayed for a week if it weren’t for some issues with amenities (below).
As far as the negatives go, the space is a bit smaller than it looks on the app, like most listings (but ok for 2 people without much luggage - this may be a positive or negative depending on how cozy you want to be). Our major problem was the toilet did not flush (due to a problem with the water supply mains) on day 1 of our stay . The bathroom sink was also not draining well and was almost overflowing with routine use such as brushing teeth. While waiting for these to be fixed, we asked the host if we could cancel the rest of the booking and move, because you can imagine not knowing when there will be a fully functional toilet (they provided a bucket to flush but this in my opinion was not a long term solution at this point), and having our plans for the day thrown off. The host agreed to refund the remaining nights fully at 100% - so we proceeded to book another place. But, while preparing to check out and cancel via the app as instructed by the host, we found out that airbnb only refunds 50%. It was at this point that the host was like “you can take it up with airbnb” despite saying he would refund 100% at cancellation. He also became mildly confrontational about the need to move, saying the issue had been fixed (the toilet had been fixed by 11 am although the sink was not fully fixed yet, and we had already made alternative arrangements based on the host’s earlier promise of a full refund). It has been 2 days since we checked out. Airbnb support is still working on the issue. No solution in sight for the rest of our money yet.
Do note that this may be a one off experience and there may have been a language barrier (communication via airbnb app with translate). We would probably have been happy to stay longer were it not for what is possibly an unfortunate set of circumstances.