*I would like to disclaim that this review is being written having not actually stayed at Nick's place and I cannot comment on accommodations, cleanliness, etc. It was also never my intention to write this review* I will say that from the outside of the apartment, it looked like a nice Airbnb in a cool, eclectic neighbourhood.
My partner and I had booked Nick's place for a short stay vacation (2 nights) in NYC. We were pretty excited about this trip and had driven roughly 8 hours to get there. Unfortunately, we were never sent the access code needed to get into the apartment. I emailed the host previously in the day reminding him of the code and the time of arrival but, I received no response. When we arrived at the apartment at approximately 5:12pm, I attempted to contact the host via the Airbnb app, and the telephone upwards of 8/9 times reminding him of the access code. No answer. It was around the 1.5 hour mark of waiting outside the Airbnb while sitting on our luggage that we decided to contact Airbnb customer support. They too attempted to get in contact with the host but, received no response. At this point we had surpassed 2.5 hours of waiting, and Airbnb offered to find us alternative accommodation. At around 8:55pm, we finally checked into a hotel and were able to salvage what was left of our vacation. The host ended up getting in contact with me after we had already arrived at the hotel, apologizing for the mishap, explaining where the mistake had been and the reason for the lack of communication as well as offering us a free night stay. Both physically and emotionally tired, I wasn't up to reaching out to Nick until we finished what was left of our trip.
I appreciate Nick's concern over our airbnb experience and attempt to mend it's rough start. However, as a host knowing that guests we're arriving at a certain day/time, I think he could have been more adequately prepared. If guests need an access code to get into the apartment, I would think one would double check to make sure the guests have received the code. I also believe that if there are circumstances that would make a host unavailable at the time of a guest check-in, that information should be disclosed to the guest or at the very least an alternative contact number provided incase guests do need to get in contact with someone during check-in. Unfortunately in our case, neither happened and I think it was fairly unprofessional on Nick's part.
I'd like to end this review with a note that Airbnb was super helpful in this situation and I would encourage anyone unsure about what to do in a situation like this to contact them.