With all the great reviews, I was excited and hopeful about staying at Marc’s place for the summer. Unfortunately, I encountered many preventable, careless issues from day 1. First: when I arrived, the apartment was very dirty. Keep in mind we’re in a pandemic. Floors, rugs, counters, surfaces, bathroom had dirt, dust, dog hair, human hair, etc. I swept floors and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom on my first night. I let Marc know about the lack of cleanliness and asked to be reimbursed for 1-2 nights. He said no but agreed to send a cleaning lady the following week. She was not thorough, and on her way out she commented to me about how dirty the apartment was. A couple weeks later, Marc came to the apartment and cleaned while I was on a trip. I returned to a very clean place. He eventually took accountability for the place being dirty, but initially got defensive and offered excuses. [Also, when I had checked in Marc let me know that he left a bottle of prosecco as a gift for me in the fridge, which I didn’t get a chance to drink right away. When I finally went to drink it, it was gone - he must have taken it back when he returned to clean the apartment.] Second: There was a roach infestation. I was seeing on average 5 roaches a day. As a New Yorker I know how this goes, but a full extermination should have been done before I arrived since Marc was already well aware of the issue. He sent an exterminator and made sure to let me know exactly how much it was costing him. Third: for the first couple weeks of my stay, I was breaking out in full body hives. When I finally thought to check the bedroom AC filter, I found it covered in mold, dirt, and dust. It clearly hadn’t been replaced in a very long time. I threw the filter away and the hives eventually tapered off. I let Marc know and he said he would take care of getting a new filter. I slept in the summer humid heat with no AC as I waited for Marc to follow up about the filter. He didn’t. Ten days later I researched and ordered a new one myself and sent Marc the receipt. He reimbursed me but offered no apology or acknowledgment for dropping the ball. Fourth, Marc carelessly left a heavy marble tabletop leaning against a wall behind the door to the TV room, which fell over and cracked when I opened the door to the room. He was very apologetic, telling me not worry about it and repeatedly stating how relieved he was that I didn’t get hurt. Closer to check out, he let me know he was submitting a damaged property request for it. I sent photos of everything that went wrong to Air BNB support staff. They were appalled but weren’t of much help and told me to speak directly to the host about my issues. Meanwhile, the host told me Air BNB was supposed to be reaching out to me to resolve everything. I went back and forth for weeks with both Marc and Air BNB support about my desire to end my 2.5-month reservation early so I could find another place to stay. Marc offered to refund me for 50% of any cancelled nights, but I let him know that I would not be able to find another Air BNB in the middle of summer in NYC at that rate. After more back and forth, he agreed to fully refund me for any cancelled nights, so I was finally able to end my reservation a few weeks early. Marc made it a point to tell me that he didn’t profit from my reservation and that it put him “in the hole”. He also emphasized how many hours he spent on the phone with Air BNB about all issues I encountered in my stay (none of which were my fault, all of which could have been prevented with planning, thoughtfulness, and attention on this part before check-in). The reservation was very costly for me as well. I sunk thousands into an almost comically bad and stressful stay, which I had booked months in advance. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get a 5-star worthy experience like most other guests. It’s a great apartment and I wanted to be able to enjoy it in a relaxing, hassle-free way so I could focus on the reasons I was in NY to begin with. I hope my experience was unique and will be the last of its kind.