I planned to travel to NYC with my mom and was delighted to find Cannon's place, at a great location and offering everything we could need. The neighborhood is great, all the main subway lines are close by, there's a really handy convenience store just a block away and Cannon gave us a lot of useful tips for dining out and ordering food.
We didn't have to interact much with Cannon, but I felt confident I could reach out to him at any time in case of need.
This was my first time in an AirBnB so the first day felt a little weird to just step into someone's home, a home they clearly do live in. By the second day the place felt already familiar and we loved every square inch of it after having walked up and down the city.
The apartment has a king-size (I guess, not really used to American bedding sizes) bed where my mom slept. There was also an inflatable mattress, very easy to pump up but way too big for just one person, and it too up a lot of room. I ended up sleeping in the couch, which I guess is comfortable enough but I'm afraid I cannot be a good judge since I like my mattress to be rock-solid (I tried the large bed which I found extremely soft for my taste buy my mom loved it, so there's that).
The place is indeed noisy being on a second (first for us, Europeans) floor, but I guess it's regular NYC-upstairs-a-bar noisy, and I was glad to bear the noise in exchange for just having to climb two flights of stairs to get to the apartment. I am a sound sleeper anyway and also I always travel with earplugs just in case. My mom complained a little at first but when I turned on the white-sound machines she was delighted. She has bought one for herself upon arrival back home.
I guess if there's one thing we missed it was a microwave. Cannon has a Nespresso machine (and coffee pods that were available for us to use!) but my mom has tea for breakfast. We weren't quite sure how we were supposed to heat up the water. Of course there were cooking tools available at the apartment, but we could only find iron-cast frying pans, and my mom didn't want her tea to taste like sausages or bacon. We ended up buying a saucepan at the hardware store downstairs and we brought it back home, so now we have a real New York saucepan that is our most cherished acquisition, since we didn't really go fashion-shopping crazy.
Our experience was really good and I really liked the place. Since it's a second floor the fire escape is like a balcony, and I spent a lot of time there just watching the lively street while I waited for my mom to wake up (those white-noise machines do wonders).
I feel I need to point out that, though I haven't personally met Cannon, I believe he has a dog. He states in his profile that he loves dogs and his apartment is full of French Bulldog memorabilia. I have dogs and I'm a dog lover myself, but sometimes I could get a whiff of dog smell that made me homesick and that for some people might be a problem.
My mom's only complaint is that she thinks the stairs and common zones in the building should be fixed and renovated. I don't think it's within Cannon's scope, nor did I expect the building to be in top-notch condition, just the apartment I had rented, and that did fill my expectations, but since it's the only thing she had to say and we were in this together I thought I should mention it.
All in all, I would recommend Cannon's place and if I travel to NYC in the near future I will surely look up AirBnB to see if it's available. The place is probably better for a single person or a couple sleeping together, but my mom and I had a great time.
An insider tip: If you ever need anything at all, there are a few CVS nearby, there's the Greenwich Village Farm store I mentioned before, and a couple blocks away you can find Citarella, a cool gourmet market with lots of delicious prepared food.
If you want to be in the greatest location in Manhattan and enjoy your stay in NYC, by all means do rent Cannon's apartment.