Given New York's insane rental prices, I was looking for something I could afford that wasn't too far from Manhattan, and Alan's space was a decent compromise between price and location. Travel time to the city was between 40 minutes (if I did not need to change subway lines) and an hour (if I had to), which includes the 12 minute walk from that apartment to the nearest subway line.
The space itself was small and unglamorous, but fine for my needs (I was out exploring every day and just needed somewhere to cook and sleep at night), and the bed was comfortable. If I were to spend a lot of time in the apartment, though, I think it would've been a bit claustrophobic. When I was there, we were four people sharing the apartment for a while, which might have been an issue if we all wanted to e.g. cook at the same time, but thankfully all our schedules were disjoint, so I hardly even saw my flatmates.
Alan's communication was great - he responded quickly most of the time, and when I asked for the hair dryer & iron mentioned in the listing, I found it waiting in my room the next day.
Checking in was a breeze - I like being able to do self check-ins.
As a previous review mentioned, the apartment can do with a deep clean - the room was extremely dusty when I arrived (to the point where I struggled to sleep with my dust allergy), but was properly cleaned when I sent Alan a message about it (the housekeeper is lovely and I got to practive speaking Spanish with her). The kitchen, however, needs attention. I had to clean the coffee machine to be able to use it, and the exterior was still rather sticky after my efforts. The space next to the oven was a bit grimy. There were no smells, pests and the stovetop itself was clean, so I felt comfortable cooking in the space, but it could've been cleaner.
One other suggestion: when I arrived, the walk from the nearest subway station to the apartment with all my luggage was a bit rough (I had about 80 pounds of luggage) - I'd suggest either taking a Lyft/Uber from Myrtle station, or taking the A line to Utica and then taking a bus to the apartment (I did the reverse when I left) - it shortens the walking distance to 4 minutes.