Staying at Sarah's place was completely different than what we expected. Upon entering, we realized that the door to the room that we were staying in had no lock and IT DOES NOT EVEN CLOSE and the apartment (according to her) has no real lock. After asking her about this, she replied "I'm a bit weird, I don't have locks on my doors." This was a bit alarming considering we were only staying for one night, we were in the middle of NYC, and none of this information was detailed in the listing. Sarah then went on to say that we shouldn't worry, and that the UES is a completely safe neighborhood. She also gave us a heads up that the people before us lost the key to her apartment, and she never got a new one so now she always leaves her door unlocked. Once again, she just said but it's ok since it was the UES. Since we were in a bit of a rush, we decided to leave and think more about leaving later.
When we were heading back to the aBNB, we decided to text Sarah, and give her a heads up, telling her that: "although we appreciate the space, we're concerned that both the rooms and the apartments don't have locks (once again, the room door doesn't even close). Since this is a bit concerning security wise, and wasn't stated in the listing, could you give us a discount on the aBNB?" We figured that we'd let her know before we sleep at the aBNB, figure out a discount, and then hopefully leave and find somewhere new. She agreed that we can chat, but then later on said that she was tired and that we can chat in the morning. Since we had no choice to agree, we did and went on about our business.
When we talked in the morning, Sarah let us know that she was only willing to give us a $25 dollar discount, and because we misplaced her spare key in her apartment the night before (she agreed and acknowledged that it had to be in the apartment since we got in with it), she would settle on not charging us for they key and us not getting a discount. She also mentioned that this was fair because she was worried about her safety. This didn't add up since expressed our concern about our safety multiple times, and she shut it down by saying it’s the upper east side. This further didn't add up, because she has a lock on the bathroom and her door, but not where her guests are sleeping. Although Sarah was pleasant, I was completely disappointed in the lack of concern she showed for her guest's safety, and I will not be returning. She mentioned that she was new to aBNB and doesn't do it often, we helped show her potential security concerns, and that she probably won't do aBNB again. I hope she sticks to her word.
Smaller concerns: both the apartment and bathroom were dirty, and the only things provided to us were a towel and coffee. We bought soap, washcloths, and the like.