I strongly caution against booking to stay with Crystal, especially if you are a black woman or ally. As an experienced Airbnb guest, who primarily relies upon the company to look for short term housing as I conduct archival research for my PhD, I have been very fortunate to only have had positive experiences thus far, and appreciate that this deeply unpleasant experience is certainly singular. The situation became so untenable that with a week to go of my stay, I contacted the Airbnb customer service team to report that I felt unsafe at the host's home due to her racism and poor communication. The Airbnb team were brilliant and arranged for me to rehoused for the remainder of my reservation. The one saving grace was that I barely had contact with the host during my time there - though the moments I did have contact were deeply problematic- including a microaggression upon arriving asking me to be sure to clean my hair out of the drain as it could block it (I have thick, curly, Afro hair and did not appreciate it being treated as some threat to her plumbing). In addition to this, the host was exceedingly slow to deal with a plumbing issue regarding a blocked shower drain (the problem pre-dated my arrival and grew steadily worse and wasn't not resolved until 12 days into my stay). The issue also affected use of the bathroom sink and its contents which would empty into the bath/shower. The host asked that myself and another guest not use the shower on the day it was to be fixed and informed of us this with a note posted in the bathroom (I myself had not used the shower for two days prior to this as it was extremely unhygienic. I had a good friend visiting for a business trip and used her shower). Unfortunately, use of the sink, of course, could not be avoided and I overheard a conversation the host had on the phone at 2am (which woke me up from my sleep) complaining to someone about the guests using the bath after she’d instructed us not to. No accountability or self-reflection about the fact she failed to prioritise addressing the blocked drain until it became much worse, nor any thought of the fact that the water in the shower clearly came from the sink which she knew emptied onto the bath. This was not the only issue, more worryingly, there was a sewage leak from the apartment above. I was the only one home at the time and contacted the host who asked me to call her. Instead of leaving work to deal with the urgent issue, the host asked me to enter the bathroom, with the sewage leak and record it for the superintendent. I felt under pressure to do so as the issue needed to be attended to urgently. I then dealt with the superintendent and ensured the issue was resolved and updated the host. I think it was enormously irresponsible for the host not to offer to address this issue herself, as I am not a tenant but a guest. I'm a PhD student visiting from the UK and have added Crystal’s listing to a database for students conducting archival research in the US, under the NYC entry, so students know not to book with this host. Again, I would urge you to consider staying with another host during your time in Harlem or Manhattan more broadly. I have since stayed in two other places in Harlem booked via Airbnb and have had a wonderful time!