Pros:
- conveniently located at the corner of 25th street and 10th avenue. easy access to subway. there is a convenient store downstairs.
- spacious for a family of three. King size bed. a work space in the bedroom.
- fast internet connection. all three of us can stream at the same time without any issue.
Cons:
- frustrating check-in process. we followed the instruction and arrived at a mailbox a block away only to find that the key was not where it was supposed to be. I immediately contacted the host and waited 20 minutes with my six-year old kid in below-freezing temperature, but received no response. We then moved to a nearby fast-food restaurant and continued waiting for another 20 minutes. Still with no response from the host, we went back to the mailbox and the key was there at this time. I finally received a response from the host six hours after we checked in, explaining that he was traveling internationally.
- the temperature inside the apartment was very cold. the heating relies on three electric heaters, which don't work very effectively. There was only a thin comforter in the closet that I added on top of the thin blanket. But I still woke up feeling cold in the middle of the night.
- as some other reviews mentioned, the upstairs neighbors are very heavy-footed. What's worse is that they seem come and go at completely random time: sometimes 10pm, sometimes 4am. Speaking of noise, we expected some level of normal city noises since the apartment is right on 10th avenue which is a busy street. But the bedroom windows facing the street blocks almost no noise at all. You can clearly hear the conversations from the guys at the downstairs shops.
Overall, this is not an unacceptable place to stay in Manhattan, but I will not book it again for my next trip.