My wife and I were moving to NYC and needed a place to stay for the first few days; we had our cat with us, so we needed an entire apartment that would take pets. V's place stood out to us as a nice and spacious apartment from the ads, and it also offered wi-fi and a working space, which I needed as I would be working remotely during this time.
We stayed at V's place for a week and were overall satisfied with what we saw:
- Location: the apartment is in Harlem, which is not such a touristy region of Manhattan; that said, the place is a 5-10min walk from the 1, 2 and 3 trains, which makes it super easy to access lower Manhattan and connect to trains to the other burrows. It's also close to anything you may need - there are many restaurant options (from McDonald's and DD to nicer spots), a supermarket 2 blocks away, pharmacies nearby and so on.
- Space and cleanliness: the apartment itself is nice and spacious, with tons of natural light. The bed is comfortable, and V offers bed linen and towels for his guests. The kitchen is great (though the pans are old and not the best), and it allowed us to cook some meals and save up. Everything was clean and organized when we got there. It's also a quiet apartment, which was a big deal for me, since I have trouble sleeping with noise outside.
- Communication: V was quick to respond and eager to make our stay as enjoyable as possible.
There were three aspects of the stay we didn't enjoy as much:
- Smell: the building corridors had a strong cigarette smell, and so did the apartment when we first arrived. With time the smell in the apartment improved and we weren't bothered by it, so I wouldn't say that was an issue.
- Working space: the apartment has a small desk and a chair in the bedroom, which I would assume is what V meant by work station; however, the chair was crooked and made it impossible to work from it. The apartment didn't have any other chairs, so I had to work from the couch. If your goal is working from the apartment, I would suggest having a chat with V to see what he can do about the chair.
All in all, this was a great place and we had a wonderful time! Only minor things to adjust, but that didn't make our stay less enjoyable.