I am very sad to write this review because I have NEVER written a negative Airbnb review, and we have stayed in so many all over the country. My 11yo son and I were driving from LA to NY, in a 7 day span, stopping in our home town of Chicago for a couple nights in between. After a very long week, we were so excited to get there and relax, and I chose this place strictly based on the reviews and how clean and equipped everyone said it was. We had to be in NY for a week (for filming, my son is an actor) so I wanted a clean, functional space for us outside of the city. I had texted Arkady the night before letting him know that we would be arriving around noon and that if the place was ready before 3pm (our listed check-in time on reservation) to text us because it was raining pretty bad and we had nowhere else to go. He said early would not work due to the previous tenants and that it needed to be cleaned. I expected that, no big deal. At 2:30pm, I received a text saying, “should be ready by 4pm.” I responded letting him know that our reservation said 3pm, but that I would rather have a fully cleaned house, If that is why it was taking longer. I found out that students had been living there for at least the last 6 months, and that there were supposed to be 2 tenants, but that he thought there were 4…AND they had just moved out at around noon that same day! In my head, thats a 1-2 day cleaning project but we decided to wait the extra hour, even though we were exhausted and desperately wanting to have moved in at the time promised. At 4pm we were able to move in and I was APPALLED. I had to spend the next 2 hours cleaning! Many surfaces had not been wiped down; crumbs on the counters, ants all over the kitchen, all tabletops and desktops were very dirty, fridge/freezer had not been touched and there was all kinds of food left in them and very dirty shelves! The microwave had sauce splatters and food all over it - SO GROSS. I asked beforehand if I needed to bring any cookware, and he said no, they had everything. There were barely any pots/pans and the ones that were there were so scraped up and peeling they were not useable. The shower curtain was full of mold and all torn. Once I finally cleaned everything, I texted Arkady and he told me he would bring a new set of pots and a new shower curtain. I was impressed with his response but it didn’t take away from the fact that we had to wait and then still come into a house this dirty, spending my time and using my cleaning products to create a clean space for us. While I was waiting for the items, I took a shower and went downstairs to find a puddle of water on the floor by the downstairs bathroom/dining area and a leaking ceiling. At 7pm, when I just wanted to be relaxing with my son, Arkady came in and out multiple times to try and fix issue, which apparently was not a new issue. He did bring over the cookware set and shower curtain. However, I still had to wash the new set and tear down the moldy shower curtain and put up the new one myself – I felt like all I was doing was working. It was a horrible move-in experience!!! Day 2: I ran the shower to make sure the problem was fixed. I came downstairs to find the ceiling leaking again. This time it had also started leaking in another area and I didn’t notice until I heard my son hit the ground! He slipped on a huge puddle that had formed and fell pretty hard - other than being scared and having a bruised elbow, he was ok but I was furious. Arkady said he would call a plumber but that last time they told him they might have to tear open the ceiling. Not sure why it wasn’t fixed then. It was overall a very stressful experience when we originally booked this place to be outside the city for a nice, relaxing week. We opted out of a plumber and decided not to use the main bathroom/shower, which sucked but it was better than having more people in and out all week working on a place we wanted to relax in.
All this being said….Arkady himself is a very nice man and remedied what he could. The place should have been taken off for a few days to turn it over properly and fix all of its issues! Important to note, this is Arkady’s friends house who lives OUT of the country, so he just helps maintain it. The house itself is very nice IF it can be cleaned properly and maintained better! It does look like the pictures and has great views. Without all of these horrible circumstances, I think we would have really loved staying here. I was told I would get reimbursed for this horrible overall experience but have yet to see any funds in my account. Disappointing.