First of all, i stayed at this Airbnb for 15 days.
Hosts: Tony and Lee Ann are very nice and friendly hosts and people. The check in was uncomplicated, responded very quickly to questions and even gave me their membership cards to go to the moma or whitney museum.
Location: nice and quite area in Manhattan. 10-15min to the subway, which is fine - but in New York you have to walk so much, sometimes you would wish it was just closer to a subway.
Biggest plus: super sweet cat Zelda! <3
BUT NOW THE CONTRA
Be aware that Tony and Lee Ann have a theater company downstairs. Maybe this was just temporarily because of rehearsals before a show; but there are constantly strangers in the house. I was really happy that I could lock the door to my room when i left, as i could not control who was there. Even tho I was told, nobody else would share „my bathroom“, random people from the theater would use it occasionally.
when I booked the Airbnb, I kinda liked the „a little rough on the edges“ narrative of this artistic family. The family itself I totally like! That’s making it even harder to say;
I totally understand that people have different hygiene standard and comfort levels. Been living with roommates and I am an artist myself and I always have been more the „slob“. But this place was a different level for me. The kitchen was a nightmare. There are bugs in the kitchen crawling from behind the toaster or the tiles of the walls. I was planning to safe some money in New York by cooking myself from time to time - but i was so disgusted by the kitchen and the constant smell of something, the i kept all my food in my room. (There were no bugs, or at least I haven’t seen any.) the bathroom has no window and the ventilation must be broken for years, it is full of mold due to constant moisture. It’s always smelly and dark in there. The utilities are also full of mold and all the towels you will get are either smelly or dirty. Again - I traveled a lot of countries also in the global south, but the kitchen and bathroom were among my worst and most disgusting experiences ever. Eventho I saw a cleaning lady cleaning cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen - that’s nothing you can clean easily. The whole house is just run down and would need Restauration.
It’s really hard for me to say it like it is, because everybody in this Chelsea townhouse were very nice and friendly - and they seem not to be bothered by all of this. If that’s their comfort level, that’s fine for them. Maybe for a short term stay like 2-3 days, one could romanticize the „shabbiness“ to an „authentic New York“experienced. But if you have a standard set of hygiene comfort level, you prefer not to have a constantly smelly, moldy, moist apartment without bugs crawling up from your toaster - maybe look for something else.
After all I still spent 1850€ for 15 days. Manhattan is expensive, i get it. But that’s still a lot of money and should at least buy you freshly washed towels. 95€ cleaning fee alone should get me a kitchen without bugs.
I am really sorry to be that upfront. But that’s just my experience. I documented all the stuff i described, in case one would argue that I’m making things up.