I suspect I can't fault the host for these points, but instead my experience was just a reflection of the overall sad state of housing in the U.S. I've not had the following problems in large European cities while paying half or less of this price.
- The in-room air conditioning unit/fan was very loud, and not effective, compared to a wall/ceiling mounted heat pump.
- The stairs and floors in the building are not level; as a result e.g. the desk did not sit level, and the (perpetually fogged) windows, e.g. in the bathroom, did not fully seal.
- I had to install a certain app and pay $10 to do $4 of laundry; this came to a few tenths of percent of the rental fee.
- Due to, I guess, other guests in the buildings not following the trash instructions, I received messages through AirBNB in ALL CAPS.
As forewarned by other reviews, the rooms are spartan, thin-walled, and dimmer than they appear in the listing photos, but at least no surprises there. On the plus side, the location is very convenient to much of Boston, and the cleaning staff had done a great job.