Washington Heights is a small, mostly latin village up the top of manhattan.
Al's place is comfortable, large, clean, warm, with a great kitchen.
There seems to be a fair amount of renovation going on in the building - the lobby was freshly painted as we arrived and the one day I was home during the day it was very noisy.
There is noise from the street and hallway, but the worst noise you'll find is from the upstairs neighbours as they clonk around their place.

The Kitchen:
Excellent facilities, sharp knives, super basin and tap. Fantastic dishwasher.

The Main Bedroom: King bed, slightly lumpy, but gave us a good sleep. Black curtains allow a good sleep in if needed.

The Spare room: Probably the noisiest room, as it has windows to the rear street, and the white curtains don't block the street lights let alone the morning light.

The Bathroom - superb - fantastic rainhead shower and adequately large bath.

The Host:
Couldn't ask for better - attentive, always contactable and quick to act if there is any problems - we had the plug in the bathroom sink get stuck and he was prompt to organise the super to fix it at a time that suited us. He cleaned out a large amount of space in the refrigerator and the closet. All in all he tried to make the place as if he didn't live there and that is what I believe the airbnb rental's should all be. 5 Stars.

Access to the City:
The A train is minutes walk away with easy access to the park via 59th/columbus circle, and times square via 42nd/port authority bus station.
If you don't know the A is an express train - 59th is about 15-20 minutes away and 42nd is 20 minutes.
You will be hard pressed to find an official taxi in the area and we didn't try the unofficial kind that line up not far from the apartment - easy to find they'll ask if you want a taxi!

Services / Food:
Excellent laundry service down the street. Cheap price, good service.
Variety of take-out's (I'm from Australia and went to one place asking if they did take-away, which is what we call it, and there was a real break down in communication) and also restaurants - varying quality. One of the best we had was chinese called Jimmy Oro. The Thai was good but $$$ for what it was. Italian was good.
Jin's superette is a great little store for the necessities and has some good produce.
Whole foods you'll find at the 59th street stop of the A train, which is where we did most shopping.

Local sights:
This is a real Gem - 10 blocks away is Fort Tryon Park. In Manhattan I didn't expect to find anything tranquil, what a surprise - this park is stunning and well worth the walk (which itself gives great views of the hudson).

I highly recommend Al's place.