This apartment is pretty much as depicted by the listing photos along with the description and schedule of amenities, so everything expected was there and it mostly worked as expected. The place was clean and mostly in good repair. All in all, it was a comfortable and convenient place to stay but there were a few shortcomings and the descriptive adjectives, luxury and renovated, are something of a stretch. The latter of which may have been true once but is now past it. Luxury is a relative term and may well have a low threshold with NYC rentals but it fell short of ghe measure in our assessment. Yes, having a king bed was a luxury and there is the luxury of space and light; the apartment is also very well located but that’s where any luxury in its conventional sense runs out.
So, let’s deal with the good: communications with Olga were responded to promptly and clearly and she graciously permitted an early check-in which was appreciated. This is the best location (of many) that we’ve stayed in NYC: a relatively quiet and very pleasant residential neighbourhood within easy reach of several subway stations and a bus route. There are countless dining options covering a wide range of price points and cuisines within a few blocks – which options multiply exponentially after just a few more blocks. The kitchen is big, bright and sufficiently well equipped to cook up a gourmet spread. The king bed was comfortable and there were enough pillows for each of us to find a favourite. The bed and bathroom linens were clean & plentiful. The eclectic furnishings were comfortable and fulfilled our needs. The bathroom is spacious, well lit, and the water supply was hot – when it arrived – and strong. The Wifi worked well and fast on all our devices. The air-conditioning also worked well.

The not so good: starting with the bathroom, the curtains are odd and ill-fitting afterthoughts and the hot water takes an eternity to arrive unless it’s been in recent use. The full-body soaker shower would have been a treat when the “renovated” adjective was more recent but is now suffering the ravages of age and impossible to use other than sparingly because the poorly fitting shower door is improperly sealed and cannot be fully closed so any enthusiastic showering saturates the bathroom floor. From the damage around the exterior base of the shower stall, this has evidently been a long-standing problem. The air-conditioning machinery lives in a hallway closet adjoining the bedroom and is quite noisy – especially on start-up when it would wake the dead so bring ear-plugs if you plan to use it. All of the bedroom and one of the living room windows are encrusted with accumulated condensate trapped in the double-glazed panes which has rendered a couple of them almost opaque – and unsightly – with the others just grimy. The floors of the building transmit sound like a drumhead, so you could become more familiar with your upstairs neighbour than you might prefer.
The disappointing: the dryer was inoperative and Olga immediately offered to have it replaced but that would have necessitated a substantial reconstruction of the laundry closet so we decided to do without it.
Need to know: there are two flights of vertiginous stairs to this apartment.