Let’s start with the good:
- Good value.
- The location is great. Super close to the L train and lots of bars and restaurants. Easy access to Manhattan.
- The space is very clean and mostly quiet.
- We never saw the host but communication was ok.
- The space is a nice size.
- The view of Manhattan is nice.
- Thoughtful touches like hand towels and soap.
- Access to a kitchen and lots of cooking tools etc.
- The tv is nice and seems to work well.
- The refrigerator in the room is helpful.
Needs Improvement:
- The welcome message with check in instructions was pretty aggressive and had a ton of strange rules.
- You’re not allowed to wear your shoes at all inside the apartment, not even in the front entrance. Which means you have to take your shoes off in a tiny, very dark hallway (no overhead light at all) after hauling your luggage up two, narrow, steep flights of stairs. Then you’re not allowed to take your own shoes inside the room you’re paying for. You have to leave them on a rack in the common space.
- It was very hot in the room (it’s on the top floor) and the room was incorrectly advertised as having AC. The tiny fan provided didn’t do much, so we had to sleep with the windows open. Normally that would be fine, but the windows had no screens, so we got bit by mosquitoes all night. We contacted the host and we were told the temperature was fine and to basically deal with it.
- The bed is extremely uncomfortable. Like my back is so messed up I need a chiropractor uncomfortable. It’s basically a thin futon mattress and has a plastic cover that crinkles every time you move.
- The furniture in the room is meant for children. Literally. The chairs are the exact ones we all had in kindergarten. It’s totally unusable if you are an adult human and there is no place in the entire apartment to sit down and eat.
- The weird lighting fixture in the room hangs really low and is so big it covers a good chunk of the space. So you have to duck every time you move in the space to avoid it. It’s really a very strange choice.
- There is a closet but no dresser or place to put non hanging items at all.
- Weird provocative photos of both men and women on the kitchen fridge and what appears to be a condom package cover framed next to the microwave. I don’t personally care, but this seems like a strange choice for the shared space of an Airbnb.
Overall the space is a decent value and a great location. There were a lot of thoughtful touches, but the actual comfort of the guest doesn’t seem to be a top priority. I can’t do that bed or the room temperature again, so we wouldn’t stay here a second time.