This was my first Airbnb experience and I am sorry to say probably the last.
I rented Scooter's apartment for a full month, paid well over 5000$ and got in return tons of grief. It started a few days before my flight, Scooter got in trouble with his co op management for subletting his place and in a private text message asked me to cancel the Airbnb reservation and strike a private deal with him. When I refused he became increasingly unpleasant. At this point I tried to find via Airbnb another place to suit my needs but couldn't . This was not just a vacation I had important meetings set up
When I arrived, I was stunned.
The nice fully equipped kitchen Scooter advertized: the oven does not work at all & a small toaster oven was put in as replacement. The sink tap had to be opened in a certain angle only and if you miss the angle by an inch a powerful shpritz of water shot from the wall near the fridge right into your face.
The old air conditions, both in living room and bed room, have no remote control. I had to climb on sofas to reach them to turn on or off and in the bed room I even had to pull the plug out & the electric outlet had no cover.
The pillows Scooter left for me were so smelly there was no way I could put my head on them so tired as I was after a very long flight, I went to Macys and bought a new pillow. One thin summer blanket was all I could use. A second somewhat warmer white blanket had large nasty dirt spots of something brown on it and for me was unusable. The living room had no light at all other than a very faint lamp in one corner. In the evenings I was sitting in total darkness. I made this reservation about 2 months in advance and Scooter didn't bother to fix anything in the apartment not even replace a light bulb that was burnt out in the kitchen. He came to pick up his tuxedo and I showed him the problems. He promised to bring me on the following Sunday a clean warmer blanket and some lamps to light the living room so I can write (I had a dead line & could not write or even read in the dark). He never showed up. Since every contact with Scooter was nerve racking for me I decided to swallow all this and not contact him again in order to salvage what I could from this very expensive trip & for me a traumatic encounter with Scooter.
When the fierce storm hit NYC it turned really cold & I had no warm blanket and no idea how to heat the place up. I became sick of course I got a nasty cold & cough that lingered on even back at home.