I've waited a bit to write this review because it's hard for me to leave a bad review and I've only ever left positive, 5-star reviews based on my past AirBnB experiences but I feel it's only fair and the right thing to do is to be honest as I would've wanted to know prior to booking. I'll start with the good stuff. Rachel was great with communication and this location can't be beat. Right in the middle of Little Italy and walking distance to everything. The unit is bright with cute décor and thoughtful, handmade art. There are four units in the building, two are AirBnB units and two are rented. The unit is located on top of a restaurant and bar and we didn't mind the noise or traffic at all or being right on India Street. It was our favorite part of the trip being able to just walk outside and choose a meal spot with good people watching and easy walkability. Rachel and her Mom were very accommodating and were able to store our luggage in the hallway until our check-in time so that we could go have lunch. That was very nice and appreciated. Thank you.
The not so good part is that the building and unit are very outdated and not in the cleanest or best condition. We stayed for four nights and encountered roaches every night when we got back in between 9 and 11 pm. We saw large roaches (live and dead ones) in the entryway at the door, the stairwell and at the landing before entering the unit. We did not see any roaches inside the unit while we were there but seeing them just outside the unit door made us very uneasy and unable to rest and relax at night wondering if any were going to come out. We saw them crawling in and out of the wood floor slats at the top of the stairs at the landing edge of the carpet and it really freaked us out. We did not cook or use the kitchen and kept cleaning everything fearing that food would bring them out in the unit. I'm guessing the roaches are due to the age of the building and being directly above, and adjacent, to so many restaurants with easily accessible food and garbage. I'm not sure if this is a general issue in the area or just this building/block. The unit itself was bright with lots of natural light but really needs a good, deep cleaning (floors, baseboards, fix window frames, bathroom floor, sink needs recaulking as it detaches from the wall with a light lean and tub has rust, etc.). Based on all other reviews, maybe it’s just us and these things don’t bother other guests but we're used to staying in very clean and updated AirBnB's and the photos seemed like this would align with our expectations. This was definitely my least favorite ABnB stay to date.